FemRock: Event featuring The Tuts and more.

The Tuts: Tour photo session

FEMROCK

FemRock Brighton organise regular events with around the city of Brighton and their aim is to display and let people discover “women in music”. I have to say that I was made really welcome by the organisers and their team. Everyone and anyone is made to feel right at home and part of the event. Scroll down for pics and video and also about Charmpit and Caves

THE TUTS

This was the third time I had seen The Tuts, previously they had been guests/support for The Rezillos who I was photographing. When I saw them in London Nadia wanted some pics doing, but sadly we didn’t have time to do that. Tonight though everything was organised to perfection! We all got together to discuss the event, and Nadia knew exactly what she wanted to do and when. We met up outside the Green Door Store, the venue for tonights gig, and did a big promo shoot for the “People Power” tour, and one of the shots is included here for you to see. The Tuts, Nadia, Harriet and Bev can be seen clutching the self made placards for the gig. The Tuts do everything themselves.

THE TUTS: Tour photo session

The Tuts are an indie punk trio from West London. Live they seriously pack a punch and are noted for their impassioned songs about sexism, feminism and everyday life-isms. In 2014 Billy Bragg invited The Tuts to play his LeftField stage at Glastonbury. The effervescent appeal of Nadia’s irreverent stage persona and, as Billy himself called it, the ‘fabulous cacophony’ these three musicians conjure up every time they play makes for an unforgettable live experience.

The Tuts’ music owes something to the Libertine’s brash, devil-may-care aesthetic but they are not fashionable, and hopefully never will be. This is not beautifully crafted gloss for the latest hipster market – the tunes are too good for that. Their timeless three and four chord rants sung out in authentic working class accents carry the X-Ray Spex and 70s New Wave mantle onwards.

The Band

The TUTS: Nadia

The TUTS: Nadia

Nadia leads the way with vocal duties and those guitar chords mentioned earlier. She is always lively, on point and delivers a searing vocal performance.

The TUTS: Harriet

The TUTS: Harriet

Harriet – provides a top notch bass support, working hard with Bev to deliver the support to the songs. She also takes on some of the vocal duties and with Nadia to provide the audience with an exciting live TUTS performance.

The TUTS: Beverley

The TUTS: Bev

Beverley – Bev plays those drums like there is no tomorrow and throws in some pretty fine vocal work into The Tuts mix. Make no mistake Bev can supply the Thunder from that kit of hers.

The Set

The Tuts took to the stage after a quick change in their make shift dressing room. This is rock n roll! And the set opened with up with a Medley and then straight into one of my favourite TUTS tracks ( I have a few!) “Let Go Of The Past”. This song is just great on the album “Update Your Brain”, but live it just has that edgier feel and with Nadia hitting those chords and riffs, Harriet chugging in with the complex bass lines, and Bev kicking in with hi-hat and bass drums produced a stunning sound. A brilliant start to the set.

The TUTS: Nadia

The TUTS: Nadia mixing it with the crowd.

The Tuts love a power chord! This bundled with their effervescent enthusiasm and loads of jumping around the stage gave us quite a show. At various points Nadia was off into the crowd, as was Harriet. Harriet at one point just vanished – no idea where she went or indeed how she got back. Bev laughing at the back as guitar cables snaked out into the crowd as the two engaged with the audience. Two or three songs in The TUTS were having a blast, and err so were we!

The drums thumped, Nadia and Harriet raised their arms told us to join in “TUT TUT TUT” was next. Brilliant live and a superbly delivered rap at 100mph from Nadia, the bass and drums come back in as Nadia fires those chords up while strutting her stuff. Brilliant. Another favourite included is the anthem “Dump Your Boyfriend” which had the crowd matching the TUTS in volume as they sang along! This was a great set from The TUTS. The set continued and included 1982 and that lead us into a cover of The Spice Girls “wannabe”. Not usually a fan of covers, but the TUTS have reworked this song and, well, made it theirs. They have given it more girl power than the original, the sound is fuller and hell, its just great and it is well worth seeing the TUTS perform that song. The placard waving crowd were having a blast, it was hot and damp in The Green Door Store and the placards started to wilt. But not the TUTS!

A Video:

Sit back and enjoy a mixer video from The Tuts set –

ENCORE!

Remember how I said everything had been meticulously planned? Oh dear – here is where the wheels fell off the wagon!. An acoustic set was to be the finale with the band getting into the crowd and singing along and Nadia wanted a load of pics done. Sadly the curfew and the overun of the previous sets and a minor tech issue gave the encore a thumbs down due to the curfew on the venue. It wasn’t happening came the word from the sound desk. The TUTS were clearly upset by this. Nadia unplugged her electric and grabbed her acoustic “Everyone outside!” she shouted, as Harriet grabbed her guitar the pair of them marched out. Like following the Pied Piper the crowd filed out behind them into the car park! Nadia is a very driven and determined individual and this worked like a charm. Three songs al fresco! The crowd loved it, the poor security guys didn’t have a clue what was going on. But The TUTS using their sharpened intuition finished their set. Well done and actually an unusual end to a gig and one that nobody will ever forget. Genius stroke there and hats off to The TUTS!

Support/Guests

Two bands opened up the Femrock night. First up was Charmpit a trio made up of Anne Marie playing bass, Rhianydd doing her stuff with a guitar and Alex on drums. An enjoyable set from this USA band. Quirky, punky and charming. They provided a good start to the night and warmed the crowd up nicely. Well played you guys!

Second band of the night was Caves, another trio but this time from Bristol. Wow – these guys are loud and lively. They describe themselves as punk, but actually scrape away that layer and there is some downright good metal and heavy rock mixed in. They were a great outfit and really pleasant to talk to. I stepped out after their set with a beer just to let my hearing recover. Would love to see these guys again if they come back down this way.

All in all – a stunning night. Congrats to Femrock for putting it all together and well played to all of the artists involved.

The TUTS are on Facebook

Caves are on Facebook

Charmpit are on Facebook

Please note all images / video are copyright, please do not copy. If any of the featured artists/promoters/venues want copies of the images – or more if available – please just get in touch.

All original pictures – copyright to IANB/MEDIA WORKS/ SCENE SUSSEX – Ian “The Lens” Bourn 2017.

Save