The Raincoats

The Raincoats are a British rock band formed in 1977. They were founded by Ana da Silva (vocals, guitar) and Gina Birch (vocals, bass) while the two were students at Hornsey College of Art in London. Other prominent members have included Vicky Aspinall (violin, vocals, keyboards), Palmolive (drums), and Richard Dudanski (drums).

Signed to the label Rough Trade, the band released three albums in their early incarnation: The Raincoats (1979), Odyshape (1981), and Moving (1984). They reformed in 1993 and released the album Looking in the Shadows in 1996.

History

1977–1993

Da Silva and Birch were inspired to make a band in 1977 after they saw the Slits perform live earlier that year. Birch stated in an interview with She Shreds magazine, "It was as if suddenly I was given permission. It never occurred to me that I could be in a band. Girls didn't do that. But when I saw the Slits doing it, I thought, 'This is me. This is mine.'" For the band's first concert on 9 November 1977 at The Tabernacle, the line-up included Birch, da Silva, Ross Crighton (guitar), and Nick Turner (drums). Guitarist Kate Korus (from the Slits and later the Mo-dettes) joined briefly but was replaced by Jeremie Frank. Nick Turner left to form the Barracudas, and Richard Dudanski (ex–the 101ers and later Public Image Ltd.) sat in on drums, while filmmaker Patrick Keiller replaced Frank on guitar.

Late in 1978, the Raincoats became an all-female band as they were joined by the Slits' ex-drummer Palmolive and the classically trained violinist Vicky Aspinall. This line-up made their live debut at Acklam Hall in London on 4 January 1979. Geoff Travis, the founder of Rough Trade Records, recruited Mayo Thompson of the Red Krayola to produce the band at this time; they suggested that Aspinall approach her violin in the style of the Velvet Underground. Managed by Shirley O'Loughlin, the band went on their first UK tour with the Swiss female band Kleenex in May 1979 after Rough Trade released their first single, "Fairytale in the Supermarket." Johnny Rotten was an early admirer of the band, and later stated: "The Raincoats offered a completely different way of doing things, as did X-Ray Spex, and all the books about punk have failed to realise that these women were involved for no other reason than that they were good and original". The Raincoats' distinctly uncommercial sound did not appeal to everyone; after witnessing an early performance by the band, Danny Baker remarked that "they are so bad that every time a waiter drops a tray we'd all get up and dance."

On 21 November 1979, Rough Trade released the band's self-titled debut album. Palmolive had left the band in September, shortly before The Raincoats came out, and teenager Ingrid Weiss joined the band on drums. The Raincoats' second album, Odyshape, was released in 1981 and featured Weiss as well as drumming contributions from Dudanski, Robert Wyatt (Soft Machine), and Charles Hayward (This Heat). The Raincoats employed a diverse selection of cheap second-hand instruments such as the balophone, kalimba and gamelan on Odyshape, and the album incorporated British folk, dub basslines, polyrhythmic percussion and elements of free jazz among other world music influences. Its eclectic mix of musical genres has been described as one of the "great lost moments of women-in-rock".

"The basic theme in rock'n'roll is what goes on between men and women...Rock'n'roll is based on black music. And it's based in the exclusion of women and the ghettoization of blacks. Which is why we want to put a bit of distance between what we do and the rock'n'roll tradition."— The Raincoats interviewed by Greil Marcus

In December 1982, the Raincoats recorded a live album at the arts space The Kitchen in New York. The Kitchen Tapes was released on cassette by ROIR in 1983.

The Raincoats recorded Moving in 1984. Tired of constant touring and "pulling in different musical directions," the band members began work on solo projects shortly after the album's release. Birch and Aspinall formed Dorothy, while da Silva worked with choreographer Gaby Agis on a series of dance projects and formed Roseland with Hayward.

In 1992, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana went into the Rough Trade Shop in Talbot Road, London, in search of a new copy of The Raincoats, and Jude Crighton sent him around the corner to see da Silva at her cousin's antique shop. Cobain wrote passionately about this meeting in the liner notes of Nirvana's Incesticide album. In late 1993, Rough Trade and DGC Records reissued the Raincoats' three studio albums, with liner notes by Cobain and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon.