Ari Up of The Slits whacks a skinhead disrupting their gig at the Thames Polytechnic in Calderwood Street, Woolwich, probably taken on 4 March 1978 when The Slits played the venue alongside Penetration and Buzzcocks.
It´s been a while since I posted something on Hive, and this is my first TTT post, but I´m in the mood for love.
So for this I have chosen three of my favorite cover songs.
Let´s start with some Russian fun, cause there´s too much russophobia in the world right now anyway, brave heroes spitting on Russian children in the West, Russian artists being cancelled etc.
Agnostic Front´s "Gotta Go" covered by some Russian fans.
Next one is the iconic Patti Smith covering Nirvana´s "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
Great stuff, putting her typical Smithian spoken word stamp on it while staying true to the original in sound and spirit.
And finally The Slits with Marvin Gaye´s "I Heard It Trough The Grapevine", though strictly speaking Gaye´s is already a cover version, the original was recorded by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.
Enjoy that killer baseline!
As you can see in the cover image (a sixteen year old Ari whacking a skin with her mike), The Slits were no angels, no strangers to violence. I think during her time in Britain, Ari got stabbed twice.
In the immortal words of Viv Albertine (guitar, the blonde in the picture):
"Some guys had a hard time figuring out whether they wanted to fuck us or to kill us, but most of the time they wanted to kill us!"
TheSlits were the original riot grrls.
