DATE OF INTERVIEW: 10th April 2018
KROW
METAL DISCOVERY: Rockbitch and MT-TV always had a strong conceptual element to the live shows, so are you a firm believer of marrying performance with music, so that one reflects the other, to help convey your messages in a more potent way?
KROW: I am, yes. I believe that, if you’re entertaining, to entertain people, you have to put on a show for somebody. And, so, I quite like the theatrics of that. I think it just gives another element to the show, as opposed to just sitting there with a guitar, singing a song. I think it gets across who you are and your message, just a lot stronger. And I think, in a theatrical thing, as well, you do get to just forget. Before you know it… you’ve forgotten about your bills and the fact that your boss was shit to you, earlier on. And, you know, I think that’s just wonderful. It's wonderful to give people time off.
(Krow on a masturbatory segue from Rockbitch's 'Motor Driven Bimbo')
"I remember Babe being fingered and her wanking off for one of the segues. It was beautiful because the sound engineer had to mic her up!"
PART 3 BELOW
PART 3 ABOVE
Krow - promo shot
Interview by Mark Holmes
PART 3
Photograph copyright © [unspecified year] - uncredited
PART 3
RELATED LINKS
Official Krow Website:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Lesley Green for offering and arranging the interview
Official Krow Facebook:
Official Krow Twitter:
Review of 'Demon, I':
MD: That’s the best kind of gig, to lose yourself in completely. For me, Rockbitch were, and will always remain, one of the most unique, sincere and culturally significant bands in the history of music. But, back in the day, there seemed to be some sort of modern day witch hunt with all kinds of nasty prejudice directed your way. How do you reflect back on those times now?
KROW: Yeah, they were hard times. The worse thing of it was the closing down. We never got to finish it, if you see what I mean. It was just the tactics of last minute cancellations that inflicted maximum financial damage on us. So there were countries we lost, I think, forty four dates in one go, and twenty dates in another go. The last tour we were gonna do… I didn’t know it was the last tour… we suddenly lost nine dates, and that was on a Friday afternoon, so there was no recourse with the council. It was just, that’s it, money gone, you know, because you’re already half way down the fucking M6. So, as far as that was concerned, it was hard.
I mean, it was a fantastic time. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really the… you know, it was Babe that was the political speaker and very concise about politics. I loved doing it, and I loved doing the theatrics, and I loved representing the community and sexuality; our female, sex-positive stage show. But, when the authorities came out, that was just hard and it was just shit.
I’ll be honest, in coming back, that was the weird thing for us; we realised that it’s still music dominated by men. The actual culture is still dominated by men. I think it was only in 2015, we looked at all the major festivals… you must’ve seen it, the massive gender imbalance.
MD: Oh, it’s crazy, yeah. Totally crazy.
KROW: So, in 2016, we decided to put together our own festival, called PandoraFest. We did it completely, and it was privately paid for by us… we’re still paying off fifteen grand on that. Still in debt on that one. But, we did it because just to show that, actually, it could happen, and you can have women on stage and it’s not a problem. Somebody said to us, “Speak to the funding people and they will definitely give you the money next year.” So,we approached them for funding for 2017, then someone told us on the back hand that, “Yes, it’s all going to a Scottish film company that they’re setting up.”
The bias is still there and that’s the weird thing, for me, it’s actually got worse, I think. It’s almost gone backwards from RB. We thought that was bad but, now, I look at stuff and the Venus of Willendorf, it’s an old statue and it was banned on Facebook. They banned this statue and they actually put a bikini on it to cover up stone boobs and a stone vagina!
MD: That’s a step too far!
KROW: It’s just people running amok! [Laughs]
MD: So, if Rockbitch were around today, or a band like Rockbitch, do you think it would be worse, then?
KROW: Oh, you couldn’t have Rockbitch playing today, no way. Absolutely no way. Society is just… we would go down so badly. The feminists, I’m sure, would come out… and I’ll be honest with the feminists, until they recognise sex workers, then they can go and fuck off. I am a woman who knows her own sexuality; nobody will tell me what to do in my own bedroom; nobody will tell me what to do. And, likewise, I won’t put my thoughts onto other people. If they wanna come into my gig, then I can tell you my thoughts, that’s fine; but, other than that, you can just look the other way.
But Rockbitch, there’s no way we’d play now. It has seriously gone backwards. Just from the social media point of view, you couldn’t do it, anyway, because we used to have locked down gigs where there were no photographs allowed. So, straight off there, you couldn’t do anything because of all the phones that everybody’s bringing.
MD: That’s an unfortunate plague at gigs, isn’t it, mobile phones.
KROW: It is. It’s a little bit depressing. Sometimes, I kind of like think, “Oh, that’s sweet, I hope they show that to somebody else.” But, at the same time, I’d rather they just enjoy it.
MD: For me, I think part of the problem with the world is that so many people generally think in binary terms, so everything has to be black or white, right or wrong, feminine or masculine, female or male. There’s little consideration for everything in-between, and I think it’s wrong when people genderise everything - like, all women think this and all men think that. Do you think the world would be a better place if people were always considered as just people, free from gender and other delimiting social filters?
KROW: I think that’d be better, if we just saw each other as people, but I think it’s all gone too far. I think, at the end of the day, even the little babies that beautiful women have, who do give birth, we are just creating really frightened people. They don’t know whether to fucking sit or stand. It is chaos. It’s the Kali Yuga. It’s just life gone mad. It’s difficult for somebody, now, to be in the moment, if you see what I mean. Social media has ruined a lot of family spirit, I would say.
MD: Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it.
KROW: Spontaneity, as well. Everyone’s waiting for the next email. You know, it’s a wonderful thing, social media, but when you’ve all gone down to the pub and there’s six of you sat around the table just staring at your phones, that is really sad.
MD: Yeah, I’ve been in those situations… and quickly get out of those situations, to be honest…
[Laughs]
MD: Not a good bunch of people to socialise with if they're staring at their phones… well, socialising being an inoperative word in that sentence!
KROW: Yeah!
MD: Going back to Rockbitch, ‘Motor Driven Bimbo’ remains in my top ten albums of all time… I’m being totally sincere when I say that, as well, as I genuinely believe it’s stood the test of time. A timeless classic! How do you actually regard that album now?
KROW: I love it. I absolutely love it. It was good doing it; it was hard work doing it, I remember, but I think it was just something that we all enjoyed. And I remember Babe being fingered and her wanking off for one of the segues. It was beautiful because the sound engineer had to mic her up!
[Laughs]
MD: That was towards the end of the album, wasn’t it, at the end of the penultimate song.
KROW: Yeah, and it was just wicked to see his face! He had to come in and he was all professional as he had to place it near her vagina!
[Laughs]
KROW: And, “Oh no, it’s not loud enough, I’ll just move it a bit closer.” You know, bless! But we had a really good time on that, and it’s nice to know that it’s still out there and it’s still appreciated by people.
MD: Oh, absolutely, yeah. So, the final thing I wanted to ask then - if there’s one thing you could change to make the world a better place right now, what would it be?
KROW: I would put women in charge.
MD: Good answer! I think that would make the world a better place.
KROW: It’s no disrespect to men, at all, but women give birth; they understand the pressures; they understand what it takes to create a life. And I think that they wouldn’t be so quick to go to war. And I think we multi-task a lot better. Here’s the thing, I think guys are fantastic but, again, it’s what we were saying about society, at the moment, they have been marginalised. You can’t be a man-man, anymore. I love a man-man; you know, get your muscles out, rahhh! But, at the same time, I just think a woman would run the place so much better.
MD: Absolutely. Unlike wig-wearing, fascist clowns like Trump.
KROW: We would rather work together, to find something, than just go to war straightaway because he looked at him wrong in the street. That’s not a way to live and we live in fear. And, you know, men are hierarchical and women work together in groups. That’s why we live in our community. You know, we’re still there, all these years later. It wasn’t a phase and, sometimes, it’s just sad looking at the world outside our windows.
MD: Yeah, and your commune still being together is the living, breathing proof of what you’re saying. To perpetuate it all these years is amazing and that’s what people should be looking towards.
KROW: Yes!
MD: Good closing words!
KROW: [Laughs]
MD: Okay, thank you so much for your time, it’s been a real pleasure chatting.
KROW: Thank you very much, it was a good interview.