It’s true that if you don’t see it you don’t think you can be it and growing up I rarely saw women fronting bands or playing instruments. And I certainly never saw any girl bands like the ones playing in Scottish girl bands from the past 60 years who will get their chance to shine in a powerful music documentary, Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands , that will have its world premier at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Music was very much a male scene and I didn’t even think to question it.
My first gig was The Sensational Alex Harvey Band in Edinburgh, which blew my way too young to be there (but I had liberal parents and my big brother took me) mind, and not just because the volume was ear-splitting, but because of Zal Cleminson’s gender bending outfits and front man Harvey’s range of musical references, from Jacques Brel to Alice Cooper. And so the gender bias continued through the punk new wave era with women few and far between in the bands I saw live, from Ian Dury and the Blockheads to The Stranglers to Elvis Costello , apart from the exceptional Chrissie Hynde with The Pretenders when they played the student union in Dundee. Advertisement Advertisement Sign up to our Opinion newsletter Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.
For me, women.