The Raincoats

All Music Guide:

One of the more unusual bands to rise from the British punk explosion of the 1970s, the Raincoats were post-punk before punk's first act had fully played out; they had little interest in the speed or velocity of the Clash or the Sex Pistols, instead embracing a more open and dynamic approach which incorporated purposefully chaotic arrangements that made the members' lack of instrumental experience a virtue rather than a drawback. They also occasionally employed acoustic instruments (particularly violin) as well as percussion that showed influences of reggae and world music, and sang lyrics that dealt with feminism and personal politics in a direct yet non-dogmatic manner. The Raincoats were formed in 1977 by Gina Birch and Ane de Silva, then students at the Hornsey School of Art in London (Birch was working in video and conceptual art, and de Silva was interested in three-dimensional painting). Fascinated by the "anyone can do it" spirit of punk, Birch and de Silva decided to form a group, despite having little musical experience, and played their first show in November 1977. Initially, Birch played bass and sang, de Silva played guitar and sang, Ross Crighton played guitar and Nick Turner played drums, but within a year, the band had reverted to an all-female lineup with Palmolive (formerly of the Slits) replacing Turner on drums and Crighton out in favor of violinist Vicki Aspinall. In the spring of 1979, the Raincoats released their first single, "Fairytale in the Supermarket" through the seminal British indie label Rough Trade, and their self-titled debut album appeared later the same year. Not long after the album came out, Palmolive left the band, and Ingrid Weiss became their new percussionist; this lineup recorded the 1981 album Odyshape, which included guest appearances from Robert Wyatt and Charles Hayward of This Heat. In 1982, during a tour of the United States, the Raincoats performed several shows at New York City's celebrated performance art space The Kitchen; the shows were recorded, and the New York-based cassette-only label ROIR Records released an album drawn from this material, The Kitchen Tapes, in 1983. By their own admission, Birch and de Silva had frequent differences in creative and personal opinions (de Silva once quipped to reporter Maddy Costa, "We broke up after every record," to which Birch replied, "We broke up after every gig"), and the Raincoats's uncompromising confrontational sound prevented them from enjoying much more than a cult following. After the release of the album Moving in 1984, the group broke up. In 1992, de Silva was working in an antique shop in London when she one day received an unexpected visitor -- Kurt Cobain, who was visiting London and hoping to replace his badly worn copy of the first Raincoats album. After stopping by the Rough Trade retail shop, he was told de Silva worked nearby, and he wrote about their meeting and his love of her music in the liner notes to the Nirvana rarities compilation Incesticide. This helped spark a new interest in the Raincoats, and with the help of Cobain and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth (a fellow Raincoats fan), the Raincoats' three studio albums were reissued by DGC Records. Cobain also persuaded the Raincoats to reunite so they could open some shows for Nirvana, but Cobain's suicide prevented those concerts from taking place. However, in 1994, Birch and de Silva assembled a new version of the Raincoats and recorded an EP, Extended Play, which appeared on Smells Like Records (a label founded by Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley), and they followed with a full-length album, 1996's Looking in the Shadows, which was released by DGC in America and Rough Trade in Europe. Since then, Birch and de Silva have occasionally performed and recorded as the Raincoats when their schedules permit; they also formed their own label, We Three Records, to reissue material from their back catalog, and have collaborated on multimedia art projects.

Wikipedia:

The Raincoats are a British post-punk band. Ana da Silva (vocals, guitar) and Gina Birch (vocals, bass) formed the group in 1977 while they were students at Hornsey College of Art, London, England.

Career

The line-up included Ross Crighton on guitar and Nick Turner on drums for the band’s first gig on 9 November 1977. Kate Korus, from The Slits and later The Mo-dettes, joined briefly but was replaced by Jeremie Frank. Nick Turner left to form The Barracudas and Richard Dudanski (exThe 101'ers and later Public Image Ltd.) sat in on drums and film maker Patrick Keiller replaced Jeremie Frank on guitar.

Late in 1978, The Raincoats became an all female post-punk band, when joined by Palmolive of The Slits (drums), Vicky Aspinall (violin) and manager Shirley O'Loughlin. The band went on their first UK tour with Swiss female band Kleenex, in May 1979 after Rough Trade Records released their first single, "Fairytale in the Supermarket"/ "In Love"/ "Adventures Close to Home".

Palmolive left the band after their seminal first album The Raincoats and Ingrid Weiss joined in 1980, when the band began recording their second album Odyshape, and toured Europe and the east coast of the United States. Guest musicians on Odyshape included Robert Wyatt, This Heat's Charles Hayward and Richard Dudanski.

In New York, in December 1982, The Raincoats recorded a live album at the arts space The Kitchen. The Kitchen Tapes (live) was released on ROIR in 1983.

The band recorded Moving in 1984 and began work on solo projects shortly after the release of this album. Gina Birch and Vicky Aspinall formed Dorothy and Ana da Silva worked with choreographer Gaby Agis on a series of dance projects and formed Roseland with Charles Hayward.

In 1992 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana went into the Rough Trade Shop in Talbot Road, London in search of a new copy of The Raincoats and Jude Crighton sent him round the corner to see Ana da Silva at her cousin's antique shop. Cobain wrote passionately about this meeting in the liner notes of Nirvana’s Incesticide album. In late 1993 Rough Trade and DGC Records released the three albums with liner notes by Cobain and Kim Gordon.

Shirley O'Loughlin persuaded Ana da Silva and Gina Birch to play a show at the Garage in London in March 1994 with Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth on drums and Anne Wood on violin to celebrate the album releases. They recorded a session for BBC Radio 1's John Peel, which was released on Paul Smith's Blast First and Steve Shelley’s record label Smells Like Records. Cobain invited them to play on the tour Nirvana planned for the UK in April, but he died a week before the tour began. da Silva and Birch had written some new material and released a new album Looking in the Shadows on DGC Records and Rough Trade Records in 1996, produced by Britpop producer Ed Buller (who had previously worked with Suede and Pulp). Musicians included Anne Wood (violin, bass), Heather Dunn (drums) and Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks and solo artist).

Since 1996, The Raincoats have played some special events such as Robert Wyatt's Meltdown in 2001, at Chicks on Speed's 99 Cents album release in Berlin in December 2003. da Silva and Birch recently recorded a cover version of "Monk Chant" for a compilation album of The Monks songs called Silver Monk Time, and performed the song live with the Monks in the Volksbuehne, Berlin in October 2006. They played at Ladyfest Leeds in April 2007 and the Nuits Sonores Festival in Lyon on 18 May 2007 on the Girl Monster stage with Chicks on Speed. On 28 March 2009 The Raincoats-Fairytales-A Work in Progress, directed by Gina Birch and produced by The Raincoats was screened at the BFI in London and the band performed at Donaufestival on the Girl Monster stage with Girl Monster Orchestra on 25 April. The band performed at the Matt Groening edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in May 2010 in Minehead, England.

On November 21, 2010 The Raincoats performed a concert as part of the PopRally series at MoMA in New York City. The band have been chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform their debut album live at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he will curate in March 2012 in Minehead, England.

In December 2011, it was announced that The Raincoats would appear at the 35 Denton music festival in Texas in March 2012.