This article originally appeared in T&S Issue 37, Summer 1998.
SheBoom, a women’s percussion band from Glasgow, have been making themselves heard loud and clear in Scotland and beyond for the past five years. SheBoomer Magdalene Ang-Lygate talks to two other group members about the pleasures of drumming.
Unless you have an incredibly restricted social life, or indulge in leisure activities limited to mail order catalogue collecting, you would probably have noticed a growth in the number of percussion or samba bands around. A few of these bands are women-only and somehow it has become commonplace for the public to accept the idea that such bands are ‘normal’ when numerically, there are still more male drummers than female. Trouble & Strife readers will be interested to know that there is in fact a specific (feminist?) moment which can be traced as the beginning of the women’s drumming movement in Britain. And neither Xena nor the Spice Girls had anything to do with it. This article contains the substance of two exclusive interviews — covering the conception and continuance of the SheBoom phenomenon.
Background
SheBoom is a powerful and unforgettably dynamic Celtic women’s percussion band based in Glasgow. It came into the world with a pyrotechnic bang on Samhain (Halloween) 1993 at the Glasgow District Council funded Glasgay! festival. Their sensational success sparked instant critical acclaim and inspired the birth of many women’s drumming bands initially within Scotland and lately throughout Europe. Since the launch of the SheBoom website, contact has also been made with several similar groups all over the globe.
SheBoom perform a mix of Afro-Brazilian samba, African, Latin American, Celtic and European rhythms creatively arranged for mass performance. They are 40 strong and play a range of percussion instruments such as the repenique — high pitched light drum with a distinctive ‘cracking’ sound that makes it ideally suited to ‘call’ to the other drums engaging them in drum dialogue; surdo — large, heavyweight drum with a deeply resonating and imposing voice which is the pulsating ‘heartbeat’ of the ensemble; tom — tenor and bass toms are of various sizes and timbres which together strengthen mid-range melody; snare — racy, rapid, rhythmic, providing clear contrast to toms and surdos with its exacting precision. Other instruments include the tamborim, whistle, shakers, agogo bells, wood blocks, conga and bongo.
In seeking to foster a spirit of solidarity instead of rivalry, SheBoom maintains strong links with its daughter/sister bands. Our occasional combined drumming sessions have been awesome and can be heard for miles around! Although not an explicitly political group, SheBoom has supported many local and national campaigns that concern its members. For example, the launch of the Zero Tolerance Campaign at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow; London Pride and Pride Scotland Marches, World Aids Day events; the Yes/Yes Campaign for Scottish Devolution. From time to time SheBoom has also played at charity and political fund-raising events such as Ayrshire Hospice, People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, Barnardo Homes, Stonewall Equality Concert, Strathclyde Rape Crisis Centre, Anti-Poverty Campaign, Faslane Peace Camp, Big Issue. The bulk of SheBoom events remain firmly rooted in sheer entertainment and the celebration of great percussion music.
They have performed to appreciative audiences at the Royal Albert Hall, London; Bath International Music Festival; Glasgow International Jazz Festival; Edinburgh Winter Festival Torchlight Procession and at the famous ‘La Merce’ Dragon and Fire Festival in Barcelona. They have received press acclaim for their contribution to the new Pet Shop Boys album ‘Bilingual’ and the single taken from it Se a Vida Ú (That’s the way life is). SheBoom represented the city of Glasgow at the 1997 European Cultural Celebrations in Bavaria. SheBoom also featured prominently at The New Yorker magazine event which was part of the 1997 American Society of Travel Agents convention held in Glasgow. More recently, SheBoom performed in Edinburgh at the high profile victory celebrations of the Yes/Yes Scottish Devolution Referendum Campaign and has since become associated with the spirit of Scottish devolution.
Deeply rooted in Scottish socialist traditions, SheBoom operates as a self-funded collective of percussionists and has grown from strength to strength. To date, the band has benefited tremendously from the selfless experience of excellent musicians such as Erin Scrutton, Marion Christie, Sue Ferner, Fif Cook, Anne Marie Murray, Val Graham and Karen Mashalsay; each with their own musical styles as reflected in SheBoom’s repertoire.
Feminist politics/Frivolous pleasures
I interviewed multimedia artist Jane Sutherland, whom many consider to be the woman who first visualised the phenomenon which became SheBoom. Jane continues to drum, work and live in Glasgow.
Magda Ang-Lygate: We all know you were there when it all began and you often remind us that the band had no name to begin with. Band member Olive Miller later coined ‘SheBoom’ which seemed to capture the phenomenon of women drumming. Tell us what it was like and the role you had in the early days of SheBoom.
Jane Sutherland: A magical process. A set of circumstances, magic all coming together really. There was the first Glasgay! being mooted in early planning meetings. This was going to happen in October, and it was way back in February 1993. They were looking for visual arts, which was why I was involved in having some input as a multimedia artist. I actually wanted to do something much bigger in scale. I wanted to do a big performance piece. Great opportunity to do something for Halloween because that was right at the very beginning of the first gay festival. I had never done any performance work until this first gig.
One of the things I wanted as part of this performance was a huge women’s drumming band. And so I got together with some friends like Erin Scrutton and spoke with her at a party one night and asked if she was up to getting this together. And that was the ball rolling really. The idea came like a dream. I wanted to see fire and celebration and women coming together to do something very creative over the river Clyde to celebrate the lives of women like ourselves but who had a much more difficult time — women who got dunked in the river and set fire to for their wayward ways.
And so we were out there kicking, making big noise. There was fire and drums and film and fireworks. Lots and lots of involvement by women who never thought they could do things like that before. And I was one of them.
Magda: How many women were there?
Jane: There were over 50 women actually involved in the drumming side of it but there were over 120 women involved altogether in the costume making and the welding works, pyrotechnics and all the other side of it. The women who took part in the performance on the bridge created something which was something completely unforgettable. The women joined up to do that one performance — the band was created for that one performance only. Getting up there and performing. Most of us had never performed before — it was so fiery and scary… The bridge was dancing. It was a suspension bridge. One person on the bridge can make it move. Fifty women rocking … They had the Council out tightening all the bolts on the bridge before we played. And I was having nightmares that the thing would go and here would be another fifty witches in the water!! But no, the bridge danced with us and it was a full moon. It had been raining all day and then all of a sudden it stopped.
I spoke to people afterwards who had seen the gig and they were saying that they had arrived late for it. We had actually managed to start the gig on time, which was pretty good for a first gig. And people could hear it from blocks and blocks away. Well over half a mile away to the heart of the city. The sound just travelled. it was like a rallying call and people just came to the sound and to see it. We played four numbers in the first performance. We played them on the bridge and then it was interspersed with fireworks and banners and film and other bits of performance and then we came round to the riverside and played the same set again. It went like a storm. It was about half and hour all in. It seemed to last forever and it seemed to go by in an instant. Very strange time warp. An absolutely big bang! It was the detonation point. It really was.
Prior to SheBoom getting together, the only samba that was happening in Scotland was the mixed band MaCumba. We borrowed their drums. To begin with we were playing on dustbins, mop buckets, broom handles. We had 10 weeks and four or five women who had played drums before. We had Erin who was a magician in pulling us all together and teaching us in a really fun way. It was not heavy duty musical theory. It was wee ditties and she made it really learnable and pulling us all together. I think there is an ancient and primordial thing. Although it might seem alien to British culture, it was certainly in my psyche and something I wanted to see happen. And just from the impact it has had. Like there was only MaCumba with eleven, twelve strong. And then us with 50 strong — all women.
Loads and loads of women who saw the performance wanted to join and several of the women who were in the band had made the commitment to do the one performance but couldn’t take the commitment any further. So the band both shrank and grew. In fact it more than doubled in size within the first couple of weeks. And we had two more gigs that week even though we hadn’t made any plans. We just went down an absolute storm. Major impact, straight onto the box with offers of more gigs and things. And it has had amazing repercussions. Just about everywhere we played since, there have been samba schools set up. There have been women’s drum groups set up the length and breadth of Britain and further afield as well. Last year (1997) for the Midsummer Carnival at Glasgow’s West End, there were 50 samba bands and only one of them was Irish and the rest were Scots. All within the space of three years. You don’t have to be able to read music. You can just celebrate and have a bloody good time.
Magda: Several of the women I spoke to earlier have said that they joined SheBoom very soon after they had seen one of these early performances. Have you had any feedback from women about the impact these performances have had on them?
Jane: There has been various accounts. Most women have just said it just really really stirs them up. It gets them going and they find it really really exciting. It is amazingly sexual, very potent, dynamic, exciting. And getting together a whole bunch of women doing something women haven’t been traditionally doing. And I think a lot of women have said it has completely changed their lives. They have found themselves getting involved in doing all sorts of things they didn’t think they would be doing. Whether it is playing with the Pet Shop Boys, at the Royal Albert Hall, running about the place with fireworks, taking part in really memorable gigs like the dragon fire run in Barcelona. Feats of organisation bring forth creative skills, organisational skills, rhythmical skills — great untapped sources are being plugged into.
Magda: Where did you get the idea about women drumming? Were you a drummer?
Jane: No, I wasn’t before and it would be cheeky to call myself a drummer now! My wee brother is a drummer and I’ve always enjoyed getting in there and borrowing his kit and having a shot. I remember going to see a fantastic performance, ritual really, of the Beltane Fires in Edinburgh back in 1989 when they were just beginning to get established. And this was all fire and drums and dancing on top of Calton Hill. They only had 6 drummers and they were all guys but there was something very primordial about it because up in the hill top with the fire and everything. I just wanted to see this 10 time, 20 times, 1000 times bigger with all women. I just thought it would be a very different dynamic. Good ritual magic. A very good way to celebrate. The old festivals need to be reinterpreted and replayed, recycled.
Magda: Tell me about the women who join SheBoom. How many drummers are there?
Jane: They are as many and varied as women are. From young girls to wise grandmothers and every size, shape, a huge range of experience, shy, outgoing. You name it we got it. In the years that SheBoom has been going there have been over 250 women who have played in the band. But the character of the band is still dynamic. Sometimes quite sparky, a creative hotbed. Other times a bit of a cesspit too. But it is part of it all.
Dancing with the devils
Magda: Most people first come across SheBoom through the documentary ‘Dance with the Devils’ made by band member filmmaker Lucinda Broadbent about SheBoom’s trip to Barcelona in 1994. Can you tell me how the Barcelona episode happened?
Jane: Many years back I went out to Barcelona to do the Gaudí homage and made friends with a wonderful woman called Merce. Her big brother French was the President of the Federation of Devils. Now none of it made any sense at the time. Merce came to Scotland and came and visit me. She saw that I had a houseful of dragons and said to me ‘You’ve got to come to Barcelona. You’ve got to come and see the dragon fire run.’ She kept saying this and every September, she would say — ‘When are you coming to Barcelona?’ ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll get there.’ And eventually one year I phoned her up and said, ‘Look can I bring some of my pals?’ And she said ‘Yes. How many?’ And I said ‘65 to 70. A few of the girls anyway.’ And she said, ‘Right. Talk to French about it.’
It seemed impossible but getting the band together in the first place had seemed an impossibility. It was an act of faith, a dream and something I felt really passionate about. So we went out there. We managed by all sorts of wonderful, creative but devious means as well to go out there — 65 women, a very large dragon, all the drums. We were the first non-Catalans to actually run the fire and take part in this ancient 900 year old festival. Actually it is older than that but it has been written about for 900 years. At our very first gig out there that night (at a women’s centre) a Catalan women’s band was formed in Barcelona. Its still going strong and they are getting national press coverage for doing International Women’s Day things. So we made a direct impact there.
They have had women in the various devils groups but they are just a few women drummers amongst what tends to be large groups of men so it was good to see women-only bands setting up now. And I think there are even women-only devil groups going. At least one. Stirring things up and changing things and having a big impact on us — apart from being filmed, documented and being on the box and giving us wider coverage, it showed us we could do something completely outrageous and survive it and learn from it and hopefully go on to do bigger and better things. Also to see how scary and dangerous other people like to play it.
Magda: It must be very exciting to be around to see the revolution you started still gaining momentum and evolving in very unpredictable ways. Do you have a vision for the future?
Jane: I have loads of visions for the future! One of the things I’d really like to see is for all the bands to come together and have a massive bash. Maybe more than once but to get together for a really big celebration, probably Midsummer in an urban setting and also right up in the hills, a great big pagan ritual — all the bands coming from all over Britain and possibly getting a family of devils across from Barcelona to do more pyrotechnics. I’d really like to see these bands come together for something immense. And for SheBoom to rule the world! We are a revolutionary group which is new and vibrant. A whole new rhythm of life, a new rhythm for the country, the nation. I’d like us to be there for the opening of Scottish Parliament. I’d like to see some of the women in the band running for seats in the Parliament: Samba Federation in Scotland.
Magda: One question you must be asked a lot: ‘Why are there no men in SheBoom?’
Jane: Because it is a women’s band. Simple as that. Now that there are so many samba bands, I think there are three women’s bands in Glasgow alone. All the others are mixed. I think because men could not join SheBoom, they have done the next best thing and gone out and started growing samba schools. But I love the dynamics and energy of women. On the occasions we have played with men’s bands, it has a different dynamics and can set up a competitive spirit and I think it is more collective and co-operative with women.
International Women’s Day
Every year since SheBoom was formed, the band had been inundated with invitations to play at International Women’s Day (IWD) events. Taking the months of January and February off to learn new pieces and to rest, March 8 had traditionally been SheBoom’s re-entry into a new gig season. These gigs were usually organised by various women’s groups and SheBoom often played to women-only audiences. Whilst these performances were important, many band members felt that they were a form of ‘contained’ celebration because gigs were usually indoors, to women-only (feminist) audiences — preaching to the converted — and they were sometimes a little self-indulgent. Further, in previous years Glasgow City had been supportive of International Women’s Week events by providing free publicity and distribution of publicity materials e.g. special publications of newsletters, but in 1997, due to cuts in funding they had pulled out of this crucial role they used to play. Subsequently, even though many events were organised in and around Glasgow city, they were not well publicised and the day was in danger of slipping away unnoticed. Besides, a year earlier there was a lot of media attention on IWD because The Scotman newspaper became The Scotswoman for the day. Although it was a publicity stunt for the Scottish newspaper, it was actually very successful in raising public consciousness that it was a day set apart to remind us of unfinished business of sex discrimination and related issues. And SheBoom wanted to continue reinforcing public consciousness.
As such, the band made a conscious decision to take more control over how that day was spent. Instead of playing the odd 20 minutes here and there in support of other women’s organisations, members decided they wanted to make a noise on their own behalf. Refusing all engagements, SheBoom chose to perform their latest repertoire — uninvited, in public, for free. This was to happen on the busiest pedestrian precinct in Glasgow city, on a Saturday afternoon, March 8 1997. The plan was to make as much noise (music actually!) as possible to draw attention to the fact that it was International Women’s Day. Women in the audience would be invited to a special party which SheBoom organised to celebrate the day. Leaflets were available to all to advertise the reason why SheBoom was celebrating. And banners flew in the sunshine as we played.
The second interview is set in the context of SheBoom’s decision to perform on Buchanan Street, Glasgow on International Women’s Day 1997. Jenny Hickey describes the SheBoom experience from her perspective as an ‘ordinary’ woman — middle-class, stay-at-home wife and mother, and as someone who saw the light on her way home from the shops. She has taken more organisational responsibilities in the band and now stays out late and parties all night if she feels like it!
Magda: Jenny, you have been a member for a year now. Why did you decide to join SheBoom in the first place?
Jenny Hickey: I saw SheBoom busking on Buchanan Street about a year ago (March 8 1997) and simply knew I had to become a drummer. They completely fired me and I thought they were wonderful! Fate had something to do with it too. I came home and spoke to my neighbour Sue about SheBoom and she said ‘Oh I’m going to see them tonight’. It was a party at a community centre. I went with her and spoke to Val (musical director at the time) and asked ‘Do you take beginners?’ I asked to be put on the waiting list and three weeks later I joined the Baby Boomers. [Against its many appearances at concerts and festivals, SheBoom also keeps an important community-based profile by running beginner drumming workshops for women.] Coming across SheBoom was like an epiphany. Big changes have happened in my life since. It was as if I needed to do this. I just needed to do this thing. The fact that it was women, a lot of women, communicating in a primordial and primitive way was very strong. I could feel something deep in my guts. It blasted my consciousness. I was a traditional woman — wife, mother, looking after kids at home. Suddenly there was this opportunity to express myself in the social world. To put something into the collective social world was a total revelation to me. Drumming has communicated with me on a deeper level than anything else. It has given me an opportunity to communicate with others — especially other women in the crowds. Middle aged women really grooving to it. I have found it to be cathartic, being part of a group. I love performing, being someone else, something else, having fun. Its therapeutic. I feel like I am Freddy Mercury at Wembley. SheBoom has woken me up.
Making a big noise