Enjoy this bonus episode of the Colin’s Punk Rock World podcast, celebrating International Women’s Day 2021.
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2020, the team from Colin’s Punk Rock World (one of our favourite punk rock blogs) put together a special podcast including Sarah Shout Louder and Katie MF as guests.
We had a poignant conversation about safety at gigs, role-models (or lack thereof), positives and negatives of the female experience in the DIY music scene, and how things have changed for the better in recent years.
We’ve uploaded it to the Shout Louder podcast feed as a special audio treat for you. You can also listen to it over at Colin’s Punk Rock World, on Spotify, or watch the video on YouTube.
I promise normal Shout Louder podcast service will resume soon!
I’ve been finding positives in the COVID-19 lockdown, being more impulsive. If you’re on furlough, try to appreciate being able shape the day however you feel.
Paradoxically, not being able to do anything has given me time to do whatever I want.
The absence of work and social commitments has left a yawning chasm of free time in my day. Zero plans to adhere to mean I can be impulsive in a way that my anxiety-addled brain rarely allows.
I believe that the pace of modern life is out of sync with most people’s natural rhythms. Anecdotally, I know some people work best before 11am, whereas people like me are most concentrated and creative in the late afternoons and early evenings. Some people need nine hours of sleep a night, others survive on five. Many people who’ve been on furlough for months will have been able to get up and go to bed at whatever time they want.
In my furlough freedom, I’d wake up at nine-ish every morning. I make a black coffee and retreat to my bed with a book in the company of my cat. Once I’ve absorbed a chapter or so, I ask myself what I feel like doing with my day.
I’ve been finding positives in the COVID-19 lockdown, including connecting with people I’d lost touch with, checking in with my family more often, and enjoying the new online social events on offer.
Ask anyone in my family or friends: I’m a terrible replier. Whether it’s a text, a missed phone call, an email or a flaming dog turd squashed through my letter box, getting a response from me is virtually impossible.
Contacting me is like shouting into the void, unless you’re one of the (approximately) three special people that I maintain regular daily contact with, who probably hear from me too often. I have no doubt that anyone who’s contacted Shout Louder asking for a review will be familiar with this phenomenon, if the number of bold, unread emails in my inbox is anything to go by (NB: I don’t write reviews, please don’t expect one).
In the UK’s quasi-lockdown, we’re unable to interact with our friends in person, which has left me rather hamstrung by my self-imposed failure to reply to all communications. I’ve been forced not only to start replying to people, but also to actively reach out and contact my mates.
I consider myself an avid reader, but the reality is that I’ve not read consistently since I was in high school. As an only child, both reading and writing fiction was my primary pastime. As I’ve grown up, reading’s been shoehorned into train rides, bus commutes and bedtimes when I’ve been trying to stifle the restless din of an insomniac brain. I go to the library twice a week, trawl charity shops for second hand classics and naively promise to read gifted books that are often guiltily remanded to a shelf.
Lockdown’s given my reading a new lease of life. Unable to seek dog-eared novels from my usual sources, I’ve been devouring the stand-by books that have dusted-up my shelves, unread for years. Those Christmas gifts and obligatory charity shop purchases from years past have finally come to good use. Books I’ve been ‘meaning’ to read have finally been cracked open.
Get involved with our fundraising challenge for March 2021 – raising money for the Music Venue Trust and getting ourselves gig ready.
Every day in March, our team of 17 gig-lovers will be walking, cycling or running to raise money for the Music Venue Trust.
The Gig-Ready Charity Challenge is a reason to get off the sofa, improve our mental health and give ourselves something to focus on while we count the days until the end of lockdown. Our aim is to support independent venues while we can’t visit them in person, and get ourselves fit and ready for a dance when gigs return to us later in the year.
We’re raising money for the Music Venue Trust‘s Save our Venues fund, which supports the independent venues that haven’t received funding over the pandemic, and are at risk of closure. In ‘normal’ times we’d be supporting these venues with our beer money, but right now we’re supporting them with our sweat instead.
Lucias Malcolm (Call Me Malcolm) is running a venue tour of all his favourite music spots (147km)
Chris Lowry (Warrington Ska Punk) is running 150km (that’s his house to The Salty Dog in Northwich 7 times)
Joe Papworth (Slopebite) is running 150km (a return trip from his house to The Crauford Arms in Milton Keynes)
Cyclists
Matt Wilson (Dead Extras) is cycling from Leeds to the Camden Underworld! That’s 318km across the month.
Danny Cummings (Fair Do’s / MPF) is cycling from Manchester to London’s New Cross Inn!
Kirstie (Social Distance Warriors) is going to cycling 1000km
Walkers
Our team of walkers have pledged to walk 10,000 steps a day*
Sarah Williams (Shout Louder)
Andy Davies (TNSrecords / Knife Club / MPF)
Charlotte Corry (Just Say Nay)
Claire Schauberger
Emma O’Connell (Nice As Pie Race)
Holly Pops (Hell Hath No Fury / Burning Flag)
Jo Parnham (Garlic Bread Club)
Mark Bartlett (Our Lives In Cinema)
Robyn Pierce (Colin’s Punk Rock World)
Bee Bentall
Ben Usaf
Thom (Social Distance Warriors) is going to take it a step further and hit 14,920 steps every day (that the number of miles between Manchester and Edinburgh)
*Some walkers are walking 10k steps every single day, others are walking an average over 10k steps per day across the week.
“Crazy Arm have spread their wings so that ‘Dark Hands, Thunderbolts’ touches on Americana, country and western, hard rock, folk and even Ennio Morricone-style Spaghetti Western soundtracks. In short, this is a remarkable piece of work.”
I guess when Wayne Kramer, Iggy Pop, Johnny Thunders, Johnny Ramone and later John Lydon and Captain Sensible were first, unwittingly, laying down the blueprint for what would later become known as punk rock … they had no idea how the genre would flourish and mutate as the years progressed. Punk, since it’s humble beginnings as a hyper-charged form of rock and roll, has sent out many tendrils, grasping at other forms of music and pulling them to its bosom to become a beautiful, multi-faceted musical force. Not many bands embrace this as much as Crazy Arm.
Crazy Arm are, arguably, Plymouth’s most successful punk band, possibly one of the most successful bands full stop. Having seen them in their far more raw early stages, it is breath-taking, 16 years on, to see how they have matured into a band of immense depth and skill. The fire and passion that drove them in their earlier years remains 100% intact but musically they have spread their wings so that Dark Hands, Thunderbolts touches on Americana, country and western, hard rock, folk and even Ennio Morricone-style Spaghetti Western soundtracks. In short, this is a remarkable piece of work.
Be the first to see Matilda’s Scoundrels new music video for ‘Jousting Crowd’, the first single from their new EP ‘The Devil’s Dues’.
Matilda’s Scoundrels are returning the scene with a rousing new single Jousting Crowd. This is the first track from their upcoming EP The Devil’s Dues, due out on TNS Records on February 26th.
Shout Louder were lucky enough to get the first glimpse of the new material, and we wanted to share it with you before its release. With the fitting chorus of ‘bring back the jousting crowd again’, it’s the soundtrack we need for when the lockdown’s lifted.
Remember gigs? The video cobbles together live material with all the memorable bits that happen between the gigs themselves. Reminisce about sleeping in vans, using ice lollies to fix hangovers, Pooh sticks and drinking at people’s houses after gigs.
Shout Louder’s new book about gigs, festivals and tours has raised a grand for Music Venue Trust’s #SaveOurVenues campaign so far.
I’m pleased to announced that our new book PAPERCUTS #2 has raised over £1,000 for the Music Venue Trust on the pre-order alone!
We wanted to give back to grassroots music venues: they were in enough trouble before the pandemic hit, but the recent chaos is threatening many venues with closure. Music Venue Trust are a superb charity that support 670 iconic UK venues through fundraising, resources and guidance. They work to gain recognition of the essential role that these venues fulfil, not only for artist development, but also for the cultural and music industries, the economy and local communities.
Every single penny of profit from PAPERCUTS #2 will be donated towards MVT’s #SaveOurVenues fund. This supports the 30 UK venues that are faced with imminent, permanent closure. We’ve over the moon to have raised over £1,000 so far, but we’re aiming even higher!
PAPERCUTS is a 196-page paperback book celebrating gigs, festivals and tours. Over 50 writers and photographers have contributed to the book, primarily from the UK’s DIY punk scene.
Colin is one of the most positive, humble and hard-working people in the UK punk community. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of underground music and a true passion for all things DIY.
Sarah spoke to him at the beginning of December 2020, so we inevitably discussed the impact of the pandemic on live music, while also reminiscing about our favourite gigs. We also had an in-depth conversation about our different experiences of sobriety at gigs, as well as our take on the DIY community from the perspective of two bloggers and broadcasters.
Colin also recommended and played select tracks from Boss’ Daughter, Free Dogs and Fine & Great.
Listen below, or on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or any of your favourite podcatching platforms.
In the words of Burnt Tapes, “This year’s been a weird one.”
Despite that, it’s not been a bad one. Shout Louder’s been quieter than usual, but I did publish two books (PAPERCUTS #1 & #2 – get yours here!). I started a punk rock radio podcast that was surprisingly popular (65k listens on Episode 4 is surely a fluke?!) and co-hosted Do It Together Fest… which I hope would have made a few folk’s ‘Top 10 Gigs of 2020’ list even if it weren’t one of the only gigs in 2020.
The musical landscape is not the only thing that’s changed dramatically in 2020, but it’s the one I’ve noticed the most. I’ve read that the unpredictability of the year’s events has driven people to a lot of nostalgic listening – replaying comforting past releases rather than diving into new albums. I’ve definitely fallen into that trap: it turns out I still know all the words to Anthology by Alien Ant Farm and every Limp Bizkit and Slipknot album.
I’ve also found myself exploring a lot of genres outside of ‘punk rock’, because for me punk is ultimately about live music. Without gigs, without all-dayers and without people buzzing with excitement around me, I’ve had less interest in discovering new bands. According to my Spotify Wrapped, I’ve spent 2020 listening to ‘jazz rap’, ‘neo-soul’ and grime instead. For anyone interested, my personal 2020 Bangers playlist can be found here.
I’m not doing a traditional Top 10 Releases but I didn’t want to let the occasion pass without identifying a few top albums, EPs and singles that I’ve enjoyed this year.
