When Malcolm McLaren corrupted Bow Wow Wow and Bananarama
Sex Pistols overlord McLaren knew how to shock. The Kings Road boutique he ran with Vivienne Westwood was called Sex (gosh!). He was behind 14-year-old Annabella Lwin posing nude on a Bow Wow Wow album cover (grim!). And he wrote a song for Bananarama called Don’t Touch Me Down There, Daddy (ew!). Wisely, they never recorded said incest-bop.
When L7 took a tampon on tour
Let us raise a golden Mooncup to Donita Sparks, who on 30 August 1992 at the Reading festival, made menstrual history. Rather than let spotty teenage boys fling clumps of mud at her, she casually removed her bloodied tampon and chucked it in their general direction. Hero.
When Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes comitted arson
After her American football-playing partner Andre Rison allegedly became abusive, TLC’s Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes found that revenge was a dish best served hot. And not just hot. In burning flames. And it wasn’t quite a dish. It was a house. And it wasn’t any old house. It was a mansion.
When Frank Zappa gave birth to The GTOs
Made up of proud groupies and rock star nannies, Girls Together Outrageously were masterminded by Frank Zappa and starred Pamela Des Barres, author of I’m With the Band and total icon. They danced onstage with Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, wearing wild clothes, no clothes, or pigtails and giant nappies. They also made a record of their own, 1969’s Permanent Damage, featuring a song about Captain Beefheart’s shoes.
When Phil Spector screwed over Darlene Love
When it comes to scandal and girl bands, it’s only a matter of time before Phil Spector’s name crops up. The Wall of Sound tyrant and ex-husband/emotional abuser of Ronnie Spector spectacularly screwed over Darlene Love, singer with the Blossoms, by using her vocals in He’s a Rebel, a hit single for another of his acts, the Crystals. He then promised Love a solo career but sidelined her, all the while keeping her under contract until 1974.
When The Supremes kicked out Florence Ballard
Basically the best singer in the Supremes (soz, Diana), Florence Ballard was made to leave the band in 1967 after her drinking got out of hand. A faltering solo career, alcoholism, legal battles, depression and rehab followed and she died of a heart attack aged just 32.
When Kim Fowley cast his shadow over The Runaways
Kim Fowley was, by all accounts, a very bad man. Svengali of all-girl teen punks the Runaways, bassist Jackie Fox claims Fowley raped her on New Year’s Eve 1975 while fellow members of the band were present. Yet after Fox’s claim in 2015, her bandmates Joan Jett and Cherie Currie denied they had witnessed the alleged rape, saying they would not have stood by while it took place.
When the Dixie Chicks boycotted George Bush Jr
The trio were blacklisted by country music stations after frontwoman Natalie Maines spoke out against Dubya’s incessant warmongering back in 2003. CDs were burned, songs dropped from radio playlists and Bush said: “They shouldn’t have their feelings hurt just because some people don’t want to buy their records.”
When the Sugababes became the new Sugababes
Featuring more members than Iceland’s penis museum, Sugababes’ rotating-door policy meant that the final lineup of the band shared not a single ’babe with the first iteration of the group, Keisha, Mutya and Siobhan. The best dramz came in 2009 when new ’babe Amelle quit, origibabe Keisha was forced out and then new ’babe Amelle rejoined. Mutya Buena later applied for the trademark of the group’s name. She got it, but only for use on stationery and gift ribbon. Useful.
