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Girls Will Be Girls

Miranda Sawyer meets some of the key female figures of the punk era to look at how they radically changed the cultural landscape and inspired a generation of young women.

At the height of the punk explosion almost 40 years ago, a handful of women completely redefined what a woman in music could do. Through sheer talent and lack of fear, they pushed themselves on to a male-dominated music scene and became part of a movement that radically changed the cultural landscape.

Along with Siouxsie Sioux, Poly Styrene and Chrissie Hynde, the Slits were among punk's most important figures and their guitarist Viv Albertine’s memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys, chronicles life as part of this revolutionary vanguard.

Miranda Sawyer meets up with Viv Albertine and some of the other key female figures of the era, including Chrissie Hynde, The Raincoats, and punk anti-heroine Jordan, to look at how they inspired a generation of young women with the notion that anyone could do anything if they wanted to. And she explores whether the punk spirit still survives today.

30 minutes

Music Played

  • The Slits

    Shoplifting

  • The Slits

    I Heard it Through the Grapevine

  • The Avengers

    We Are the One

  • Bags

    Survive

  • The Slits

    Vindictive

  • Siouxsie and the Banshees

    Make up to Break up

  • Sex Pistols

    God Save The Queen

  • The Slits

    Typical Girls

  • X‐Ray Spex

    Identity

  • Pretenders

    The Wait

  • The Damned

    New Rose

  • X‐Ray Spex

    Oh Bondage Up Yours

  • The Slits

    Spend Spend Spend

  • The Clash

    White Riot

  • The Slits

    Newtown

  • Little Mix

    Salute

  • Penetration

    Duty Free Technology

  • The Slits

    FM

  • Chrissie Hynde

    You or No One

  • The Raincoats

    Fairytale in the Supermarket

  • Viv Albertine

    Confessions of a Milf

  • The Slits

    Typical Girls

  • The Damned

    New Rose

  • X‐Ray Spex

    Oh Bondage Up Yours

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Miranda Sawyer
Participant Viv Albertine
Participant Chrissie Hynde
Participant The Raincoats
Participant Jordan
Director Martina Hall
Series Editor Janet Lee

Broadcasts

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