Trout House Replica & So the Red Rose / Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre/ 11 Nov 23 - 17 Feb 24.

About
Derek Tyman & Andy Webster
Participants
Funders & Partners
Contact

Gina Birch & Helen McCookerybook

Gina Birch & Helen McCookerybook take over the Trout House.

Post-punk music legends, Gina Birch and Helen McCookerybook premiered an utterly unique performance ‘Beefheart the Musical’ which “is not a musical”…but seeks to “deconstruct the life story of Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) in a series of original short pieces, inspired by fragments of his musical conversations. Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, our interpretations are always challenging to listen to.”

‘Beefheart the Muscial’ was accompanied by an all day screening of Birch & McCookerybooks co-directed film ‘Stories from the She Punks’ (2018) and the ‘Beefheart the Musical’ performance was followed by a Q&A session titled ‘I Play My Bass Loud - Art, Music, Class and Gender’ with Manchester based writer and academic David Wilkinson and artist Paula Chambers.

A mixed-tape cassette produced by McCookerybook, ‘A Long Moment’ (54.22mins, 2021) was also included in the Vanda Chan Archive in the gallery.
Helen McCookerybook is a musician, writer and film maker. She formed punk band Joby and the Hooligans in 1977, recording sessions for John Peel. During the late 1970s/early 80s she played bass and was lead singer with Brighton-based band The Chefs. Her book (as Helen Reddington), ‘The Lost Women of Rock Music: Female Musicians of the Punk Era’, features interviews with, amongst others, The Slits, Gina Birch, The Mo-dettes, Enid Williams (Girlschool), Dolly Mixture, Gaye Black (Adverts), Vi Subversa (Poison Girls), Rhoda Dakar, and Caroline Coon. Her second book is ‘She’s at the Controls: Sound Engineering , Production and Gender Ventriloquism in the 21st Century’(2021). Her latest album is ‘Drawing on My Dreams’ (2022). 

Gina Birch was a founding member of the iconic post-punk band The Raincoats, which set a crucial precedent for feminist work within a DIY punk context and released four acclaimed albums. After taking an MA in film at the RCA, Birch went on to make videos and Super 8 films, often for other bands, and play with the seminal underground band Red Crayola. Birch has performed with artists Hayley Newman and Kaffe Matthews, as The Gluts, playing at several art museums and festivals. She is now a painter exhibiting nationally and internationally. Her debut solo album, ‘ I Play My Bass Loud’, was issued in February 2023.

Prev    Next