The Woman in the Band

Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth
14 x 11 inches, oil and spray paint on canvas, 2019

Mark E Smith and Brix Smith of the Fall
14 x 11 inches, oil and spray paint on canvas, 2019

Gaye Advert is billed as the first female punk rock star. She played bass in the Adverts. I think she may have inspired women to pick up a rock band instrument as (I assume) Suzi Quatro inspired her to start playing bass. Many guy bands following the Adverts had a women in their line-up. Often she is or becomes married to another band member. Brix Smith Start, guitarist in the Fall was married to Mark E Smith, Tina Weymouth who plays bass for the Talking Heads to drummer Chris Frantz. Kim Gordon, bass player in Sonic Youth to Thurston Moore. In Sonic Youth all members were equal and when the marriage between Gordon and Moore ended the band split up. The Fall, however, always was Mark E's band and when Brix and him split the guitar player was simply replaced. The band finally broke up in 2017 when Mark E Smith became too sick to perform. He died in 2018. 

The punk-rock movement certainly empowered women to pick up instruments traditionally played mostly by men, and to form their own bands. The process towards gender equality in rock music started in 1976.

Mark E Smith, 1957-2018

Mark E Smith
Oil on board, 7.25 x 7 inches, 2018

Mark E. Smith

Mark E. Smith
12" x 36"
oil on found canvas, 2015

The Fall

Mark E. Smith (The Fall)
16" x 12"
oil on canvas paper, 2014

A quick little oil sketch on canvas paper depicting Mark E. Smith of the Fall done on top of a hopelessly awkward flowers-in-a-vase painting that I had laying around since the day I instructed a group of students how to paint flowers. How I was talked into that assignment I don't know, but I feel for those students who witnessed my louse attempt at a flower painting demo. I'm in the process of using up all demo paintings done in the past year-and-a-half. It just happened to be The Fall that got assigned to go on top of these flowers. If I'm gonna leave it at that I don't know. I do know that when it comes time to display the 100 paintings in a gallery setting I have a lot of work to do because half of the paintings are rather unfinished, abandoned at a point when I felt like writing about it on this platform. The song Hey Luciani! happened to be the highest in the list of the paintings I had not done yet. The song, recorded in 1986, is about Albino Luciani, who became Pope John Paul I for 33 days in 1976. (An excellent opportunity for me to publish an image of an old painting called Kings and Queens that depict a bunch of people of power—kings, queens, popes, cardinals, generals, and presidents. The painting was done in 1995. I don't know if Pope John Paul I is included in the painting.)

Kings and Queens
48" x 48"
oil on board, 1995

The Fall is really the music of my generation. The band did not feature too many times in the Top 100 but has accumulated points throughout the years nevertheless, and cemented a spot within the list of the 100 musicians with most points over the 32 years of list making. The very same photograph of Mark E. Smith (by Giles Price of the Telegraph) I had used before in a pop quiz compiled in honor of the 50th birthday of my friend Andy Spence, a huge fan of the band. The quiz consisted of 15 drawn portraits of people that I knew he would recognize. He had to win the quiz because the first prize was a record of Kurt Weill intended to be his birthday present. He did win, but not as convincingly as I had expected. Other portraits in the quiz included the footballer George Best, coach Avram Grant, film director Werner Herzog, and comedian Tommy Cooper. Here's that one too.

Mark E. Smith
5.5" x 4.25",
pen on paper, 2011