Viv Albertine “Clothes, music, boys”: Story of a punk woman
Viv Albertine in her biography “Clothes, Music, Boys” tells us her story as a woman in punk
I’ve found the meaning of life, hidden in the grooves of a flat black plastic disc. I promise myself I will get to that new world, but I don’t know how to make it happen. What, or who, could possibly help me get closer to that parallel universe?
Albertine Viv, “Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys” Thomas Dunne Books, 2014
I was immediately struck by Viv Albertine’s story when I attended the presentation of the book ‘Clothes, Music, Boys’ at the Hellnation shop in Bologna. Paola De Angelis, the translator, clutches in her hands a large bound book from which countless colourful post-it notes sprout. With great transport she describes it, or rather, she describes the sensations she felt when she first read it and inevitably captivates those who, like me, attend the presentation. It is an autobiography, written by Slits guitarist and singer-songwriter Viv Albertine herself, who tells us in an honest and frank way about her life from childhood to the present (the book was written in 2013 and only recently translated for Blackie Edizioni).
Why should I read it? I ask myself. Many books have been written about punk and its key characters, but what really sparks my curiosity in this case is the fact that Viv is a woman. In fact, this book is not the classic musical tale about concerts, the Roxy, pogo sticks, tinny guitars, drugs and sex, but rather a story of a woman, often alone, who finds herself facing her time with a guitar in her hand and an overwhelming desire to express her emotions through punk music. Still, you won’t be disappointed, everything I listed above is present and there’s more: the Clash and the Sex Pistols, Vivienne Westwood and “The Shop” (that’s what “Sex” was called by the regulars) the record labels and tours, back-combed hair, life in squats and much more of London at the turn of the 70s and 80s.
I’ve got so used to my life being challenging and fraught with danger that I don’t question it any more. Whether I’m knocking on the door of a hardcore sex shop, walking through suburban streets being verbally abused and spat on, or being threatened on the tube, I don’t give in. I don’t dress normally to have an easy life.
Albertine Viv, “Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys” Thomas Dunne Books, 2014
Side A:
In the first part of the book, Viv talks about her childhood and adolescence, her encounter with music and her desire to play music. After discovering Patti Smith, who will forever remain her female reference in music, she discovers that yes, girls can play music and can break that crystal image that society wanted for them. So she soon starts going to concerts and after seeing the Sex Pistols she decides that, even though she can’t play yet, she will buy a guitar and join the Slits.
Viv opens up, recounts his friendship with Sid Vicious and Joe Strummer, the pilgrimages to Sex, the love affair with Mick Jones, the relationship with the other members of the band, namely Ari Up, Tessa and Palmolive. She drags us into many anecdotes, sometimes sad or very embarrassing, in which the historical and cultural context of the period emerges. She tells us how the Slits’ iconic albums “Cut” and “The Return Of Giant Slits” came out, the recordings and live concerts.
And finally, the dissolution of the band.
Side B:
The Slits disbanded.
Viv is alone and even music is no longer part of her life. In this part of the book, it feels bad, very bad. Viv goes through a long phase of her life in which she conforms to the rest of the women of the 80s and shamelessly recounts how she had dulled her revolutionary, emancipated, and pioneering past. Marriage, abortion, cancer, fivet, psychological violence, motherhood, loneliness, a bland bourgeois life.
And finally, after sixteen years, Viv re-emerges from her lethargy and decides to start from scratch: she buys a guitar and starts playing.
Concluding, this book is truly unique; it is full of emotions, stories and characters. Viv, through her story, conveys to us (perhaps unintentionally) the importance of always remaining true to oneself.
Something snaps in me. What are you doing. Viv? Stop messing around. What do you want out of life? I realise I don’t want to be with either of them, so I walk out, hail a cab and go home. It’s time to show people, and myself, what I’m made of. Time to try, and maybe to fail again, but better that than never try at all.
Albertine Viv, “Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys” Thomas Dunne Books, 2014
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