24/02/2026
Vi Subversa, was already a woman in her forties, a mother of two [when Poison Girls was formed]. She successfully broke every rock’n’roll mould that came to hand. A middle-aged, militant feminist, peacenik, anti fascist, anti capitalist punk!
With guitarist Richard Famous and drummer Lance d’Boyle, they expressed ideas and emotions utterly unknown to the spikey-tops and bootboys. Their sound developed in all directions and, if anything, their centre of artistic gravity was a London update of the Berlin cabaret, Vi Subversa’s voice a ni****ne rasp that cackled or crooned her words of love, outrage or hurt.
Their indifference to left/right politics gave them no easy platforms. They found themselves ostracised by rock’s bland, new consensus after 1985’s Live Aid. Yet their extraordinary integrity and intellectual energy sounds more current today than any from that period.
Vi’s impassioned exploration of female aging is unmatched in mainstream rock and the connection between personal and political, that Poison Girls dissect with razor sharp incision, has never been bettered.
Images and text are property of the excellent official Poison Girls website. You can discover everything you need to know about them at www.poisongirls.co.uk
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