The opening act for Skunk Anansie were Liverpool-based rock band Queen Zee who came out to a three-quarters full venue. Looking sharp, their whole image worked well. As I’ve said before, I like to see a band look like a band, and these guys ticked that box. Vocalist and guitarist, Zena “Queen Zee” Davine, was an absolute nutter on stage – full of energy that didn’t wear out for the whole show, rocking a black string vest, and just going for it! Continue reading
Skunk Anansie were born radical and have stayed that way ever since. It’s there in their music, which slips effortlessly between the confrontational and the tender, the politically charged and the nakedly emotional, the upfront and attention-grabbing and the quiet and restrained. But it’s there in the band’s essence too – in the blend of influences, cultures and personalities they have so successfully brought together. When the band emerged from the sweat-drenched backrooms of London in 1994, electrifying everyone who saw them and jamming an adrenaline shot into the arm of a decadent music scene, they sounded and looked like nothing that had come before them. “Nobody in our manor had seen anything like us before”, says singer Skin, who co-founded the band with bassist Cass and guitarist Ace. “We were an earthquake.” Continue reading
