Ok, everyone! The Ritas are now on iTunes!
That's all I have to say today, really. Fascinating. I'm really excited about it, of course!
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
A Year With The Ritas
Our first gig was on Sunday 30th October. We'd been preparing for a long time - although The Ritas started about a year ago, we plotted until December when we first played together, and it was only by the end of March that we'd actually recorded anything. This was our cover of "Jeane" which my boyfriend worked on with us. Having never recorded stuff before (well, I used to sing in a band with my boyfriend but he dealt with all that) there was quite a steep learning curve, but from doing that Olivia (The Ritas' singer) and I were able to go ahead and record stuff ourselves. My boyfriend gets co-producer credit on the EP though because he advised me on a lot of things ("WHY IS THIS NOT RECORDING??" "Because it's not plugged in, maybe?"). José Maldonado, the "Mexican Morrissey", played our version of "Jeane" on his radio show and it was an amazing moment for us.
I should point out that we had realistic expectations for The Ritas. Ok, as much as I might daydream about headlining Glastonbury (not that I'm much of a fan of chemical toilets or hippies), we wanted to play a gig in Birmingham and a gig in London, get some songs on iTunes and put out a CD ourselves. But things have changed slightly....
It was in May that my boyfriend decided to focus on his own projects. Whereas with "Jeane" he'd arranged it, played bass and programmed the drums, with recordings of our own tracks it was now down to me to play bass, do the drums, arrangements etc. I'd never played bass before, so basically I've only been playing it since May! Olivia and I worked hard over the next few months finishing off our tracks and we sent them to Lawrence, my boyfriend's pal in Glasgow, who mixed them for us. This gave us a lot of flexibility - I like collaborating but me and my boyfriend were having huge rows about basslines and drum loops and lead guitar lines and key changes, whereas couples are supposed to argue about buying shelves in Homebase and whose turn it is to put out the bins.
By June, Olivia and I had finished three songs - "Too Much Talking To Machines", which was an experimental number, and "Glitter & Doom" and "How Wrong I Was". That's not bad going, really, three songs in a month when I'd never used a drum machine or played bass before in my life, and was suddenly recording songs with them! To be honest, though, if you can play lead guitar, you can play bass, so it wasn't hard.
In July, I was approached by Gary from Dufflecoat Records who said he wanted to put out an EP. He said he could do a split one with another band, but as we were churning out songs at great speed, we decided to go for a Ritas-only EP. We mentioned that we wanted to put the EP out as a digital download, and Gary asked that we wait for the EP to have been out for a month so it could sell a decent number of copies first. Fair enough!
August came around - we'd arranged our October gig in Birmingham, our November gig in London, and announced that Dufflecoat were releasing our EP. We were working frantically to finish the EP and rehearse for the gigs. In fact, that's all we did over September - rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!
And then October. I was busy with my shop as well, working on the Swagger Joint clothes label, promoting it etc, as well as preparing for the gig, but I still managed to give up smoking (which I'd taken up again over the summer - not surprising really with all that was going on!). So much rehearsing, liaising with Lawrence who was mixing our backing tracks (there being only two Ritas, the drums and bass are on the backing tracks), and also making some more backing tracks for new songs that weren't on the EP and so hadn't yet been recorded. Somehow we managed to get all this done - Olivia knew all the words, I knew all my chord changes and widdly-wah bits, we had a set-list, I had a pedal board and a cool amp, and that was it, really.
The gig was fun. I enjoyed it. And the audience did too, apparently. We had The Choir Invisible over from Dublin as our support (which sounds rather grand for a first gig, but the guitarist is Olivia's friend!) and Bethan from Atta Girl (the women's music night which was one of the inspirations behind The Ritas) DJing. Arthur Tapp gets a thank you here because we'd had problems arranging the gig at another venue, and he sorted us out with the Actress & Bishop in a matter of minutes. Free hire AND a sound engineer!
We soundchecked but didn't have very long to do it because some bloke was downstairs playing Monkees' cover versions on a mandolin (I'm not joking...). The Choir Invisible were really good and Ruraidh was an amazing guitarist - really interesting watching him play.
So then the turn of The Ritas. We came onstage to "Too Much Talking To Machines" and launched into "Glitter & Doom". It was going well, apart from some feedback. Then into "Silent Protest", followed by "She's With The Band" - a song I wrote about obesity surgery! (there's not many of those around, are there!). This is when technical problems developed which dogged me for the whole set. My guitar turned itself off. It appears to have been some issue with my pedals - in changing settings between songs I'd managed to turn the gain down on the overdrive pedal. As gain is also volume (pretty much), everything went disturbingly quiet, the sound engineer trying to bring the volume back up where he could. This went on with the next song. Thence a guitar-change - I was so relieved to change it because I thought maybe everything would be ok (one of the Choir Invisible had leapt in and fixed the silent guitar problem). But no, the other guitar was out of tune! I did realise it, but I didn't change back to the first guitar because I was worried that'd still be conducting its own silent protest.
I've since watched a video of the show - the out of tune guitar isn't too obvious in "Lost At Sea" but with "Jeane" it was abysmal, and I feel really gutted about that because it was our famous song - it was on the radio in America, it was the song that got people interested in us because The Smiths fans loved our cover and even people who didn't like The Smiths said they liked our version. Strangely though, the out of tune guitar has the effect of making the backing track sound of tune!
The last song! Oh was I ever relieved to get to the last song. It's odd but even during rehearsals, our songs had ceased to feel like our own creations, it was like doing cover versions. At rehearsals, we'd focus on what we were doing, thinking all the time. But on stage, all that goes - you're on stage and you get into a zone and you just do it without thinking at all. This has happened to me before with my acting in plays and film (yes, I've been in two films, folks. Bet you never knew that!). Our set felt like it lasted 10 minutes at most but in fact went on for half an our!
I LOVE playing "How Wrong I Was". It's a really good song to end on too, really angry and energetic and something to jump about to. It was all going so well. I'd changed back to the first guitar which was actually in tune, the volumes were all fine, there was no feedback. What could possibly go wrong?
Ah... the guitar strap fell off. I didn't miss a strum, I just got down on my knees and played on the floor. And then Olivia knelt down beside me and carried on. My boyfriend then got on stage and reattached the strap so I could get back to my feet. And then once the song finished, I switched on all my pedals and made as much unholy noise as I possibly could. And then we left the stage.
For a first gig, it's not surprising I had those kinds of problems. I didn't realise my semi-acoustic would go out of tune so fast (it was tuned when I was setting up earlier, but 3 hours of it being bombarded by loud music had knocked it out of tune). The feedback could have been abated if we'd had a longer soundcheck, maybe. The moment my guitar went silent, I should've tried to work out what it was - I hadn't thought it could be the pedal as I check my amp and my guitar to make sure they were still on. And on Saturday I'm getting some Dunlop strap locks to prevent a guitar-playing-on-knees scenario (although it did make me look like I was doing a Jimi Hendrix impression). The soundman shook my hand after the gig - he said I dealt with my technical issues professionally! I hope though in future I won't have so many technical issues to start with!
The other thing too of course is that when you've lived with songs for ages, written them, recorded them, listening to them over and over again to make sure the recorded versions are ok, heard umpteen different mixes, rehearsed them hundreds of times - you know what the song should sound like. However, the audience doesn't. So I doubt many of them realised just how much I fucked it up. But Olivia was great. She's a fantastic singer and a talented performer with heaps of stage presence who carried on like a total trooper while I struggled with the fruits of my ineptitude. But people loved the gig, and someone threw a bra onstage! ;)
The EP was released the very next day, Monday 31st October. We were recovering from the gig the day before, and plotting on going to a Manics signing at HMV and giving them our EP (we gave them the EP and Nicky Wire said he'd heard of us. Probably because we gave him a Ritas badge in Llandudno...). I didn't get round to Facebooking and Tweeting the EP release until the evening. By Tuesday, Gary said that the EP had nearly sold out. That's 100 copies gone in two days. No one could believe how fast it sold - I still can't! Just... wow, thanks so much to everyone who bought it! It really means a lot, just being able to connect and communicate with so many people through our art. It's fab.
We're now working out what to do about digital downloads - I'll let you all know soon because it's quite a cool thing. ;)
Big thank you to everyone who's helped us - my boyfriend (aka Eightball) and Lawrence especially, though Olivia would no doubt like to thank Ruraidh for encouragement, and we'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who's bought the EP, come to the gig, or even just commented somewhere that they like what we're doing. I'm going to stop now though cos I'm gushing.
But there you go - A year with The Ritas. A year of hard work, surprises, excitement and gold spray paint.
(Photos variously by Eightball Photography, Andy, Nick Hynan.)
PS: we're playing live again on Tuesday 15th November at the Vauxhall Tavern in London. It's free to get in & I'll make sure my guitar is in tune, doesn't turn itself off and won't fall on the floor!
I should point out that we had realistic expectations for The Ritas. Ok, as much as I might daydream about headlining Glastonbury (not that I'm much of a fan of chemical toilets or hippies), we wanted to play a gig in Birmingham and a gig in London, get some songs on iTunes and put out a CD ourselves. But things have changed slightly....
It was in May that my boyfriend decided to focus on his own projects. Whereas with "Jeane" he'd arranged it, played bass and programmed the drums, with recordings of our own tracks it was now down to me to play bass, do the drums, arrangements etc. I'd never played bass before, so basically I've only been playing it since May! Olivia and I worked hard over the next few months finishing off our tracks and we sent them to Lawrence, my boyfriend's pal in Glasgow, who mixed them for us. This gave us a lot of flexibility - I like collaborating but me and my boyfriend were having huge rows about basslines and drum loops and lead guitar lines and key changes, whereas couples are supposed to argue about buying shelves in Homebase and whose turn it is to put out the bins.
By June, Olivia and I had finished three songs - "Too Much Talking To Machines", which was an experimental number, and "Glitter & Doom" and "How Wrong I Was". That's not bad going, really, three songs in a month when I'd never used a drum machine or played bass before in my life, and was suddenly recording songs with them! To be honest, though, if you can play lead guitar, you can play bass, so it wasn't hard.
In July, I was approached by Gary from Dufflecoat Records who said he wanted to put out an EP. He said he could do a split one with another band, but as we were churning out songs at great speed, we decided to go for a Ritas-only EP. We mentioned that we wanted to put the EP out as a digital download, and Gary asked that we wait for the EP to have been out for a month so it could sell a decent number of copies first. Fair enough!
August came around - we'd arranged our October gig in Birmingham, our November gig in London, and announced that Dufflecoat were releasing our EP. We were working frantically to finish the EP and rehearse for the gigs. In fact, that's all we did over September - rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!
And then October. I was busy with my shop as well, working on the Swagger Joint clothes label, promoting it etc, as well as preparing for the gig, but I still managed to give up smoking (which I'd taken up again over the summer - not surprising really with all that was going on!). So much rehearsing, liaising with Lawrence who was mixing our backing tracks (there being only two Ritas, the drums and bass are on the backing tracks), and also making some more backing tracks for new songs that weren't on the EP and so hadn't yet been recorded. Somehow we managed to get all this done - Olivia knew all the words, I knew all my chord changes and widdly-wah bits, we had a set-list, I had a pedal board and a cool amp, and that was it, really.
The gig was fun. I enjoyed it. And the audience did too, apparently. We had The Choir Invisible over from Dublin as our support (which sounds rather grand for a first gig, but the guitarist is Olivia's friend!) and Bethan from Atta Girl (the women's music night which was one of the inspirations behind The Ritas) DJing. Arthur Tapp gets a thank you here because we'd had problems arranging the gig at another venue, and he sorted us out with the Actress & Bishop in a matter of minutes. Free hire AND a sound engineer!
We soundchecked but didn't have very long to do it because some bloke was downstairs playing Monkees' cover versions on a mandolin (I'm not joking...). The Choir Invisible were really good and Ruraidh was an amazing guitarist - really interesting watching him play.
So then the turn of The Ritas. We came onstage to "Too Much Talking To Machines" and launched into "Glitter & Doom". It was going well, apart from some feedback. Then into "Silent Protest", followed by "She's With The Band" - a song I wrote about obesity surgery! (there's not many of those around, are there!). This is when technical problems developed which dogged me for the whole set. My guitar turned itself off. It appears to have been some issue with my pedals - in changing settings between songs I'd managed to turn the gain down on the overdrive pedal. As gain is also volume (pretty much), everything went disturbingly quiet, the sound engineer trying to bring the volume back up where he could. This went on with the next song. Thence a guitar-change - I was so relieved to change it because I thought maybe everything would be ok (one of the Choir Invisible had leapt in and fixed the silent guitar problem). But no, the other guitar was out of tune! I did realise it, but I didn't change back to the first guitar because I was worried that'd still be conducting its own silent protest.
I've since watched a video of the show - the out of tune guitar isn't too obvious in "Lost At Sea" but with "Jeane" it was abysmal, and I feel really gutted about that because it was our famous song - it was on the radio in America, it was the song that got people interested in us because The Smiths fans loved our cover and even people who didn't like The Smiths said they liked our version. Strangely though, the out of tune guitar has the effect of making the backing track sound of tune!
The last song! Oh was I ever relieved to get to the last song. It's odd but even during rehearsals, our songs had ceased to feel like our own creations, it was like doing cover versions. At rehearsals, we'd focus on what we were doing, thinking all the time. But on stage, all that goes - you're on stage and you get into a zone and you just do it without thinking at all. This has happened to me before with my acting in plays and film (yes, I've been in two films, folks. Bet you never knew that!). Our set felt like it lasted 10 minutes at most but in fact went on for half an our!
I LOVE playing "How Wrong I Was". It's a really good song to end on too, really angry and energetic and something to jump about to. It was all going so well. I'd changed back to the first guitar which was actually in tune, the volumes were all fine, there was no feedback. What could possibly go wrong?
Ah... the guitar strap fell off. I didn't miss a strum, I just got down on my knees and played on the floor. And then Olivia knelt down beside me and carried on. My boyfriend then got on stage and reattached the strap so I could get back to my feet. And then once the song finished, I switched on all my pedals and made as much unholy noise as I possibly could. And then we left the stage.
For a first gig, it's not surprising I had those kinds of problems. I didn't realise my semi-acoustic would go out of tune so fast (it was tuned when I was setting up earlier, but 3 hours of it being bombarded by loud music had knocked it out of tune). The feedback could have been abated if we'd had a longer soundcheck, maybe. The moment my guitar went silent, I should've tried to work out what it was - I hadn't thought it could be the pedal as I check my amp and my guitar to make sure they were still on. And on Saturday I'm getting some Dunlop strap locks to prevent a guitar-playing-on-knees scenario (although it did make me look like I was doing a Jimi Hendrix impression). The soundman shook my hand after the gig - he said I dealt with my technical issues professionally! I hope though in future I won't have so many technical issues to start with!
The other thing too of course is that when you've lived with songs for ages, written them, recorded them, listening to them over and over again to make sure the recorded versions are ok, heard umpteen different mixes, rehearsed them hundreds of times - you know what the song should sound like. However, the audience doesn't. So I doubt many of them realised just how much I fucked it up. But Olivia was great. She's a fantastic singer and a talented performer with heaps of stage presence who carried on like a total trooper while I struggled with the fruits of my ineptitude. But people loved the gig, and someone threw a bra onstage! ;)
The EP was released the very next day, Monday 31st October. We were recovering from the gig the day before, and plotting on going to a Manics signing at HMV and giving them our EP (we gave them the EP and Nicky Wire said he'd heard of us. Probably because we gave him a Ritas badge in Llandudno...). I didn't get round to Facebooking and Tweeting the EP release until the evening. By Tuesday, Gary said that the EP had nearly sold out. That's 100 copies gone in two days. No one could believe how fast it sold - I still can't! Just... wow, thanks so much to everyone who bought it! It really means a lot, just being able to connect and communicate with so many people through our art. It's fab.
We're now working out what to do about digital downloads - I'll let you all know soon because it's quite a cool thing. ;)
Big thank you to everyone who's helped us - my boyfriend (aka Eightball) and Lawrence especially, though Olivia would no doubt like to thank Ruraidh for encouragement, and we'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who's bought the EP, come to the gig, or even just commented somewhere that they like what we're doing. I'm going to stop now though cos I'm gushing.
But there you go - A year with The Ritas. A year of hard work, surprises, excitement and gold spray paint.
(Photos variously by Eightball Photography, Andy, Nick Hynan.)
PS: we're playing live again on Tuesday 15th November at the Vauxhall Tavern in London. It's free to get in & I'll make sure my guitar is in tune, doesn't turn itself off and won't fall on the floor!
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
How Wrong I Was
Hurrah! As you may know, my band, The Ritas, have an EP out at the end of October on Dufflecoat Records. We've got a gig in Birmingham (Actress & Bishop) on Sunday 30th October and a gig in London at the Vauxhall Tavern on Tuesday 15th November. We'll do more gigs and if there's a place near you which you think The Ritas should play at, let me know!
In the meanwhile, here's the video for "How Wrong I Was", one of the tracks off our "Silent Protest" EP.
In the meanwhile, here's the video for "How Wrong I Was", one of the tracks off our "Silent Protest" EP.
Friday, 16 September 2011
I'm so sorry, but...
You may have heard about the Topman T-shirts that were withdrawn from sale after it was pointed out that they were offensive and vilely misogynist. They're so awful, in fact, that it's bizarre anyone thought they were fit to sell. Here's the T-shirts in question, in case you've been lucky enough not to see them:
The first T-shirt dehumanises women to the point of being animals. And the second seems to advocate violence - the excuses are textbook domestic abuser.
I saw these being tweeted and tweeted myself to say they are horrifying and should be withdrawn. Topman eventually did, and released a statement on their Facebook. I "liked" the page long enough to say:
But the last part, "[t]here's nothing "funny" or "light-hearted" about casual misogyny or domestic abuse", has been quoted in The Metro and the online version of an article about the T-shirts in The Guardian. More of my comment ended up on Yahoo News' report. It just seems rather sad that all I did was state the obvious, and yet stating something as obvious as that is deemed highly quotable.
I said what I did, aimed at the other commenters on the Facebook, who really couldn't see why anyone could possibly have a problem with these T-shirts, and came out with the tired bullshit that certain men (and indeed, certain women) come out with when faced with "feminists" - get a sense of humour. Sorry, but I must've missed the joke.
The comments left online at Yahoo and now on a revolting piece of patronsing, misogynist crap at The Daily Telegraph (which even misses the point about Slut Walk, just for extra points...) demonstrate a couple of things:
1. why Topman thought that they could sell these T-shirts
2. why it was so important we stood up (men protested about these T-shirts as well as women) and said these items were wholly objectionable.
Over and over again, the commenters think these T-shirts are funny, when they're not. But these are the very people who would buy them, hence Topman thinking it was worthwhile selling them - there's a market for T-shirts which extol violence and misogyny. I won't go through the comments and paste them here because I will end up frothing at the mouth with rage, but the amount of fail they contain is... well... entirely predictable. This is, after all, the internet, where morons can type whatever they like. The comments are, in general though, quite disturbing.
It's as if Bernard Manning hadn't died at all and has created umpteen internet aliases, where he can say things like "Why are women complaining about these T-shirts when they should be cooking my dinner?" Feminists are called "boot-faced", "anti-feminine", "the hairy nipple brigade." One delightful prick on The Telegaph's piece said "I would love to find out who the women are who have complained. Then I could go and beat them." This comment has been online now for 33 minutes and no moderator has removed it. This man is in effect threatening violence on all of us who thought these T-shirts were objectionable, and guess what? No one seems to mind. Ho ho ho, how funny, violence towards women, HILARIOUS. Pass me a needle and thread, I fear my sides have split....
And this is why it's important we stood up. Men and women, standing up and saying, through the power of the interwebs, that we don't find these T-shirts funny - in fact, we find them highly objectionable and they should not be on sale. We need to say this because we live in a society where some people don't see anything wrong with dehumanising women. Letting T-shirts like this go on sale and not saying anything would mean we were merely giving in, giving up, saying "well, that's how things are." We need to initiate a culture shift, and this is how. Ellie O'Hagan at The Guardian summed it up well, "misogyny is now so commonplace, it's mundane."
If we step aside from the feminist angle for a moment, there's something else about the red T-shirt up there which is rather disturbing. Because of the options it gives, the one with the tick is "I was drunk." When we walk to work through puddles of booze-induced vomit in the morning, the ho-ho-ho, I'm not responsible for my actions, I was drunk angle really isn't that funny at all.
Another thing to mention though, is that the red T-shirt doesn't just affect women. Women aren't the only victims of domestic abuse (as I said up there). There is a very real problem with men who are victims of it, and they have great difficulty in coming forward about it. Making jokes about domestic abuse on a man's T-shirt will only make it more difficult for these men to find help.
The commenters and commentators who've failed to see why some T-shirts have got people so riled up need to appreciate that it's not just the T-shirts in and of themselves that we object to - they're symptomatic of the culture they have come out of, a culture which dehumanises and which needs to change.
I saw these being tweeted and tweeted myself to say they are horrifying and should be withdrawn. Topman eventually did, and released a statement on their Facebook. I "liked" the page long enough to say:
Thank you for seeing the light. The T-shirts were highly objectionable and quite frankly, a relic from a past I thought we'd escaped from. The red one which basically sounds like reasons for spousal abuse is horrendously offensive to anyone (male, female, adult or child) who has been a victim of abuse, or just basically anyone (which should basically be every living human) who thinks people shouldn't live in fear of abuse. There's nothing "funny" or "light-hearted" about casual misogyny or domestic abuse.As of today, this comment has 14 likes.
But the last part, "[t]here's nothing "funny" or "light-hearted" about casual misogyny or domestic abuse", has been quoted in The Metro and the online version of an article about the T-shirts in The Guardian. More of my comment ended up on Yahoo News' report. It just seems rather sad that all I did was state the obvious, and yet stating something as obvious as that is deemed highly quotable.
I said what I did, aimed at the other commenters on the Facebook, who really couldn't see why anyone could possibly have a problem with these T-shirts, and came out with the tired bullshit that certain men (and indeed, certain women) come out with when faced with "feminists" - get a sense of humour. Sorry, but I must've missed the joke.
The comments left online at Yahoo and now on a revolting piece of patronsing, misogynist crap at The Daily Telegraph (which even misses the point about Slut Walk, just for extra points...) demonstrate a couple of things:
1. why Topman thought that they could sell these T-shirts
2. why it was so important we stood up (men protested about these T-shirts as well as women) and said these items were wholly objectionable.
Over and over again, the commenters think these T-shirts are funny, when they're not. But these are the very people who would buy them, hence Topman thinking it was worthwhile selling them - there's a market for T-shirts which extol violence and misogyny. I won't go through the comments and paste them here because I will end up frothing at the mouth with rage, but the amount of fail they contain is... well... entirely predictable. This is, after all, the internet, where morons can type whatever they like. The comments are, in general though, quite disturbing.
It's as if Bernard Manning hadn't died at all and has created umpteen internet aliases, where he can say things like "Why are women complaining about these T-shirts when they should be cooking my dinner?" Feminists are called "boot-faced", "anti-feminine", "the hairy nipple brigade." One delightful prick on The Telegaph's piece said "I would love to find out who the women are who have complained. Then I could go and beat them." This comment has been online now for 33 minutes and no moderator has removed it. This man is in effect threatening violence on all of us who thought these T-shirts were objectionable, and guess what? No one seems to mind. Ho ho ho, how funny, violence towards women, HILARIOUS. Pass me a needle and thread, I fear my sides have split....
And this is why it's important we stood up. Men and women, standing up and saying, through the power of the interwebs, that we don't find these T-shirts funny - in fact, we find them highly objectionable and they should not be on sale. We need to say this because we live in a society where some people don't see anything wrong with dehumanising women. Letting T-shirts like this go on sale and not saying anything would mean we were merely giving in, giving up, saying "well, that's how things are." We need to initiate a culture shift, and this is how. Ellie O'Hagan at The Guardian summed it up well, "misogyny is now so commonplace, it's mundane."
If we step aside from the feminist angle for a moment, there's something else about the red T-shirt up there which is rather disturbing. Because of the options it gives, the one with the tick is "I was drunk." When we walk to work through puddles of booze-induced vomit in the morning, the ho-ho-ho, I'm not responsible for my actions, I was drunk angle really isn't that funny at all.
Another thing to mention though, is that the red T-shirt doesn't just affect women. Women aren't the only victims of domestic abuse (as I said up there). There is a very real problem with men who are victims of it, and they have great difficulty in coming forward about it. Making jokes about domestic abuse on a man's T-shirt will only make it more difficult for these men to find help.
The commenters and commentators who've failed to see why some T-shirts have got people so riled up need to appreciate that it's not just the T-shirts in and of themselves that we object to - they're symptomatic of the culture they have come out of, a culture which dehumanises and which needs to change.
Monday, 22 August 2011
In defence of repro
I'm moved to write this blog having joined a facebook group to sell the Stop Staring and Bettie Page dresses I'm too small for now, where someone said "" Let's ignore for now the spelling mistake and the inability to type the very complicated word "you". Let's ignore the snobby attitude some people have to anything that's not an original piece, like you're just some annoying no-nothing turd who can't be bothered to look for nice stuff.
Now, I've been dressing vintage-style on and off for 16 years. And you know what? I have no problem AT ALL with repro. I love it. I mean, I must do if I run a shop selling the stuff, right? So why do I love it?
Price
Back when I started wearing 'vintage' (which is so long ago, it wasn't called vintage...), I used to pick things up from a second hand shop (we called them second hand shops, not "vintage clothing emporiums" or the like) for insanely cheap prices. I had loads of fabulous 1960s dresses which I'd get for, usually, under a tenner. £8 for dress, I think I paid £20 for an amazing mohair skirt suit. When I see dresses now going for £200, it makes my skin crawl! That said, a good reproduction piece isn't cheap either but they're generally well under £200, plus the more expensive repros tend to be made-to-measure.
Condition
When I was in Paris last year, I was rather shocked at the poor quality and huge cost of a lot of items there. They really looked very tired - which isn't surprising, these are old dresses! A lot of vintage is quite fragile and it's horrible when you sit down in a vintage dress and hear the lining rip. Repro is brand new! I respect vintage pieces as historical objects, so if something is very fragile I would far rather it lived in my wardrobe so I could coo over it occasionally rather than wear it out and ruin it forever.
Finding vintage
I suppose one thing about vintage is how great it feels when you find something particularly amazing. You feel like Indiana Jones. LOOK AT THIS AMAZING DISCOVERY I HAVE JUST MADE! But... it's not always that easy. There's vintage shops and vintage fairs popping up everywhere, but the ones near me are a sea of 1980s and early 90s. It's just not my style. I look online and the prices are sometimes crazy, or the colour isn't quite what I want, or there's the fragility issue or just - let's face it - the fact that it's not in my size.
Now, I know there are people into vintage because they just like 2nd hand stuff and want to save the world. I'm afraid I'm not so altruistic. I love vintage style. I love the shapes of the dresses, I love the colours, I love the length of the skirts (below the knee!), I love the little details of collars or buttons, pockets and belts. And if you find a good reproduction piece, it will have all these things, plus it will be available in various sizes and quite possibly made from fabric that will stretch a bit.
Quite frankly, the person who made the comment about Torrid is a gigantic ignoramous. Do Torrid make reproduction vintage? Do they have skirts the right lengths, details and cut and shape and all the rest of it spot on? NO THEY DO NOT.
So basically, if someone says "y u bother with repro? it's well sucky & it's not vintage" then it's the words of a total idiot.
Now, I've been dressing vintage-style on and off for 16 years. And you know what? I have no problem AT ALL with repro. I love it. I mean, I must do if I run a shop selling the stuff, right? So why do I love it?
Price
Back when I started wearing 'vintage' (which is so long ago, it wasn't called vintage...), I used to pick things up from a second hand shop (we called them second hand shops, not "vintage clothing emporiums" or the like) for insanely cheap prices. I had loads of fabulous 1960s dresses which I'd get for, usually, under a tenner. £8 for dress, I think I paid £20 for an amazing mohair skirt suit. When I see dresses now going for £200, it makes my skin crawl! That said, a good reproduction piece isn't cheap either but they're generally well under £200, plus the more expensive repros tend to be made-to-measure.
Condition
When I was in Paris last year, I was rather shocked at the poor quality and huge cost of a lot of items there. They really looked very tired - which isn't surprising, these are old dresses! A lot of vintage is quite fragile and it's horrible when you sit down in a vintage dress and hear the lining rip. Repro is brand new! I respect vintage pieces as historical objects, so if something is very fragile I would far rather it lived in my wardrobe so I could coo over it occasionally rather than wear it out and ruin it forever.
Finding vintage
I suppose one thing about vintage is how great it feels when you find something particularly amazing. You feel like Indiana Jones. LOOK AT THIS AMAZING DISCOVERY I HAVE JUST MADE! But... it's not always that easy. There's vintage shops and vintage fairs popping up everywhere, but the ones near me are a sea of 1980s and early 90s. It's just not my style. I look online and the prices are sometimes crazy, or the colour isn't quite what I want, or there's the fragility issue or just - let's face it - the fact that it's not in my size.
Now, I know there are people into vintage because they just like 2nd hand stuff and want to save the world. I'm afraid I'm not so altruistic. I love vintage style. I love the shapes of the dresses, I love the colours, I love the length of the skirts (below the knee!), I love the little details of collars or buttons, pockets and belts. And if you find a good reproduction piece, it will have all these things, plus it will be available in various sizes and quite possibly made from fabric that will stretch a bit.
Quite frankly, the person who made the comment about Torrid is a gigantic ignoramous. Do Torrid make reproduction vintage? Do they have skirts the right lengths, details and cut and shape and all the rest of it spot on? NO THEY DO NOT.
So basically, if someone says "y u bother with repro? it's well sucky & it's not vintage" then it's the words of a total idiot.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
A summer wedding
On Saturday, we went to a wedding in Edgbaston (right near where I work - I even went to the venue once for a Christmas party. I took a short cut in the dark and ended up trapped inside a hedge!). My boyfriend and I know the bride and groom, Katie and Dom. There were loads of people from his work there as well as loads of babies. I held his line managers baby and she cried. And then an 8 week old baby slept beside me during the afternoon tea, quite happy in her vibrating chair (wow, seriously, where can I get an adult-sized vibrating chair?).
I got a Fleur dress from Hey Day! because it would serve the dual purpose of something nice to wear to the wedding, and something I could wear on holiday (I've got a Fan skirt and Cheers dress from my shop to wear too!). I had to do some emergency work on it with adhesive velcro to stop it flapping open at the back. Oh - and that black cardigan I'm wearing is from M&S. Guess what size it is. Go on. I bet Retro Chick will be amused by this - IT'S A SIZE 12!!! There's NO WAY I can POSSIBLY BE A SIZE 12!!!! (ok, I've lost more weight recently since a further band tightening and I seem to be 13 and a half stone, and having lost more weight off my face). I wore a vintage hat - it's from Paris and I would think is 30s or 40s. It's basically my favourite hat (although I retain a fondness for my Red Army cap and my British navy hat!). And those are Rocket Originals shoes.
And another pic, where I don't look so dismayed... the earrings are glass, which I got in Paris last year, and the necklace is just some random necklace I got years ago in a charity shop!
My boyfriend wore his kilt, which he got in Glasgow this summer. Rather nifty. This is him stood with the bride, pulling a daft face (did I really need to point out that's the bride?). It's nice to see the little girl stood next to him pulling the same face! GURN FOR THE CAMERA EVERYONE!
We had afternoon tea, which was very nice, although I hope I didn't upset the other diners with the way I ate the sandwiches (I struggle eating bread and it feels as though it swells up inside the top bit of my stomach - it's extremely uncomfortable) so I nibbled out the filling. As the bride can't eat gluten, there were gluten-free options, so I decided to have a gluten-free cupcake. It was delicious and didn't make me feel like I was swelling like Violet Beauregard - hurrah! This is the spread - isn't it lovely? There was a barbecue in the evening too but we didn't stay for that.
The grounds of Hornton Grange were lovely to wander about in - there's a little pond with a rockery and a patch of wildflowers in the middle of the lawn. That was my favourite bit of the garden (and also the fact that I could see, over the fence, the runner beans growing in the back garden of some university bigwig's house!). The hedge I got trapped in is my least favourite part, and I'm kind of amazed that I didn't fall into the pond when I was thrashing about in the grounds in the dark!!
I got a Fleur dress from Hey Day! because it would serve the dual purpose of something nice to wear to the wedding, and something I could wear on holiday (I've got a Fan skirt and Cheers dress from my shop to wear too!). I had to do some emergency work on it with adhesive velcro to stop it flapping open at the back. Oh - and that black cardigan I'm wearing is from M&S. Guess what size it is. Go on. I bet Retro Chick will be amused by this - IT'S A SIZE 12!!! There's NO WAY I can POSSIBLY BE A SIZE 12!!!! (ok, I've lost more weight recently since a further band tightening and I seem to be 13 and a half stone, and having lost more weight off my face). I wore a vintage hat - it's from Paris and I would think is 30s or 40s. It's basically my favourite hat (although I retain a fondness for my Red Army cap and my British navy hat!). And those are Rocket Originals shoes.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
There's more to life than plastic bags, you know, but not much more...
So while local communities battle the riots by organising mass clean-up operations, a fight breaks out on a Facebook page over plastic bags.
It seemed like a good idea, getting involved with where I live. I've lived in the area for over 10 years and never had much to do with the people around me other than by going into the local shops and sometimes helping out at the church. But it seemed nice - people getting together, organising, improving, that's all good stuff. Someone arranged an annual picnic at one of the parks (we've got two here), which is nice. I mean, the bands are usually shitty and it's full of self-important parents of irritating young children, but hey. Then local people arranged to have the other park removed from Birmingham City Council's powers so the local council could develop it (because BCC basically neglected it).
I decided to join the Facebook page that someone had set up, and it was off to a good start. My band was offered a gig playing in the bandstand in the park, I asked for information on a local restaurant and people were quick to help, all good.
Last week I raised the issue about the dangerous junction crossing, and people got behind it and very quickly our local councillor responded saying that work was about to be carried out. I told him I was glad I voted for him. He said thank you. Brilliant!
But then someone decided to start a "let's make our community plastic bag-free!" thing. Now, I'm not an idiot. I know that plastic bags damage the environment and kill wild animals etc, but that's when they're used irresponsibly. It's quite possible to use plastic bags sparingly, only when you need one cos you've forgotten your shopping bag or you've bought more than you expected to. And then, use them carefully, reusing them, using them for different purposes (bin bags, etc), recycling them (taking them to the recycle bin in the Co-Op, giving them to charity shops to use for their customers). It just requires people being given these options, told about them, educated about them.
This view didn't go down well. Apparently these are not good arguments for plastic bags. Apparently I'm advocating the death of turtles. Apparently, according to the local councillor (the same guy who I said I was glad I voted for), because I said I actually didn't care about this argument at the moment, having been trapped in the middle of a riot in Brixton (with the implication that - THERE'S MORE GOING ON AT THE MOMENT THAN BLOODY PLASTIC BAGS!), I'm in fact at fault here. I'm basically to blame for the riots, because my thoughts that plastic bags can be used responsibily is tantamount to throwing a dustbin through the window of Foot Locker. I have as little love for my local community as looters and rioters.
Do you know what? Wow. Just wow. And in fact... you know what... they can shove their bloody plastic bag banning middle class twaddle up their tragically narrow-minded bourgeois backsides. I'm really glad that my band couldn't play the bandstand gig because from what I've seen of it, it was basically a family fun day with face painting and pushchairs. The Ritas have lyrics with words like "fuck" and "tits" in them. Can't imagine that going down well in family-friendly, plastic bag free Smugville, which is clearly where I now live.
(and if you now think I'm a total arsehole for writing this, I don't really care).
It seemed like a good idea, getting involved with where I live. I've lived in the area for over 10 years and never had much to do with the people around me other than by going into the local shops and sometimes helping out at the church. But it seemed nice - people getting together, organising, improving, that's all good stuff. Someone arranged an annual picnic at one of the parks (we've got two here), which is nice. I mean, the bands are usually shitty and it's full of self-important parents of irritating young children, but hey. Then local people arranged to have the other park removed from Birmingham City Council's powers so the local council could develop it (because BCC basically neglected it).
I decided to join the Facebook page that someone had set up, and it was off to a good start. My band was offered a gig playing in the bandstand in the park, I asked for information on a local restaurant and people were quick to help, all good.
Last week I raised the issue about the dangerous junction crossing, and people got behind it and very quickly our local councillor responded saying that work was about to be carried out. I told him I was glad I voted for him. He said thank you. Brilliant!
But then someone decided to start a "let's make our community plastic bag-free!" thing. Now, I'm not an idiot. I know that plastic bags damage the environment and kill wild animals etc, but that's when they're used irresponsibly. It's quite possible to use plastic bags sparingly, only when you need one cos you've forgotten your shopping bag or you've bought more than you expected to. And then, use them carefully, reusing them, using them for different purposes (bin bags, etc), recycling them (taking them to the recycle bin in the Co-Op, giving them to charity shops to use for their customers). It just requires people being given these options, told about them, educated about them.
This view didn't go down well. Apparently these are not good arguments for plastic bags. Apparently I'm advocating the death of turtles. Apparently, according to the local councillor (the same guy who I said I was glad I voted for), because I said I actually didn't care about this argument at the moment, having been trapped in the middle of a riot in Brixton (with the implication that - THERE'S MORE GOING ON AT THE MOMENT THAN BLOODY PLASTIC BAGS!), I'm in fact at fault here. I'm basically to blame for the riots, because my thoughts that plastic bags can be used responsibily is tantamount to throwing a dustbin through the window of Foot Locker. I have as little love for my local community as looters and rioters.
Do you know what? Wow. Just wow. And in fact... you know what... they can shove their bloody plastic bag banning middle class twaddle up their tragically narrow-minded bourgeois backsides. I'm really glad that my band couldn't play the bandstand gig because from what I've seen of it, it was basically a family fun day with face painting and pushchairs. The Ritas have lyrics with words like "fuck" and "tits" in them. Can't imagine that going down well in family-friendly, plastic bag free Smugville, which is clearly where I now live.
(and if you now think I'm a total arsehole for writing this, I don't really care).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
