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woman, I had a period where I became 'one of the boys'. Like many other
female musicians, before we met each other, I did a pretty good job of it,
raving with the best of them, & it was great cos at least I was respected
as a 'fellow' musician. I still needed that male approval.
Apart from with singer Julie Tippetts one of my dearest musical
soul mates, & in the revelatory voice workshops I started running in
1969, most of my intimate musical experiences had been with men. Then
came my exposure to the women's liberation movement in the mid
seventies & everything changed again! After mainly being the only
woman in all male ensembles, I was now immersed in an all female
world. I fell in love with women. I started to understand that what had
happened to me wasn't just personal, it was political. I came out as a
lesbian & I wanted to sing with other female musicians. The Feminist
Improvising Group was born & although we're in danger of being written
out of history, we had a huge impact on the improvised music scene. We
were loved & hated. We were provocative & perversely diverse in class,
sexuality, race, disability & musical background & technique. It was my
first experience of singing with women instrumentalists & it was
wonderful.
We didn't set out to call ourselves FIG but when I got us our first
gig at a 'Music for Socialism' event, as the Women's Improvising Group,
the leaflets came out with the 'F' word & we took that name on board &
really ran with it! I don't think the organisers realised what they'd
unleashed. We rose to the occasion in ways which both delighted &
threatened.