A lot of rock music is still pretty masculine and testosterone-driven. What’s the hardest thing about being a woman in a band and in the music industry?

Sexist promoters and producers and sexist band members. Sexism hurts men too so it isn’t just an issue that affects women.

It seems women don’t make angry records as often as they did before. This made me think of all the places women could possibly be drawing anger from.
Where do you draw anger from now?

Injustice and cruelty, there’s so much to be angry about in the UK alone, when you factor in the suffering in the rest of the world it’s mind blowing. The ruination of the planet, the slaughter of billions of animals through factory farming, the misuse of charitable funds wasted on vivisection,War, female genital mutilation, corrupt hypocritical politicians, the perverting of religion to justify murder, rape and cruelty.

Do you think music has lost its aggression?

No, the more you play the more stamina you develop and the faster and more furious you become.

Was it difficult as a woman in a band, with the dominance of men in rock?

I was far too young to really understand just how dominant men were, I was full of pubescent hormones and lived for the moment. There were lots of attempts to control me from within the band and from management and record companies so being an awkward teenager I would do the opposite! I didn’t realise till later that being female meant I was more likely to be underpaid or placed lower on the bill at festivals etc. It’s difficult being in a band whether you’re female or male.

In musical and personal terms: What was your ambition as young woman? What is your ambition now?

As a child I wanted to sing, write songs and play guitar, and basically that’s what I want to do now. I’ve always loved music, especially the sound of electric guitars. Music moves me deeply, it’s the love of my life. I wanted to own an animal sanctuary but forgot the fact you need to make money to buy land, so that’s an ambition that I’ve yet to fulfill.

Do you think there are enough interesting women bands in the public eye right now? In what way would you hope these younger female artists are inspired by your music and personality?

There are loads of successful female Pop and R&B artistes but far less successful women in Metal and Punk. There are some great female Punk singers in the UK right now, many of them are vegan and some say I inspired them to take an interest in Animal Rights so I am very pleased about that.

Did you ever want to take your role as a punk figurehead any further, in a political sense maybe?

I’ve thought about it but I’m too thin skinned to endure the abuse politicians get and also I don’t have the patience to deal with people who choose to be ignorant. I think a basic IQ test should be a necessity before you get to vote. I used to think British people were quite intelligent and well educated but from what I’ve seen recently this isn’t the case. A lot of our politicians are not only corrupt but clearly unfit for office.

What would you say, then, to a young group who are offered a major deal?

It’s highly unlikely for a group to be offered a major deal these days because the music industry is in decline. Nowadays major labels offer what they call 360 degrees deals where they get a chunk of everything the artiste earns, i.e merchandise and gig income as well as record sales. In effect bands are now the indentured servants of the record companies. So my advice would be to get a good lawyer and make sure you understand what you are getting into, especially regarding who has artistic control.

Were the Vice Squad destined to burn bright and burn out fast?

As to the original line up then given our extreme youth the answer is probably yes. If we’d been in our twenties instead of our teens we may have lasted longer. As for the line up since 1997 then no, because we are more experienced and far more in control.

The tabloids painted you as a notorious figure. Did that mess with your head?
Did you like being in magazine covers?

I was too young for it to mess with my head, I quite enjoyed the notoriety at first but was embarrassed at seeing myself on magazine covers, rather like I was embarrassed at hearing my recorded singing voice for the first time. Later on I realised that the notoriety was a stumbling block because people were quick to dismiss me as a ‘ screaming pissed up punk ‘ when in fact I was a very dedicated hard working singer and songwriter.

In those punk days: were you physically attacked?

I was pulled off the stage a few times and had earrings ripped out, plus someone stole one of my boots at a gig which was a bit awkward as I had to hop around for the rest of the night. The gobbing was the worst thing, I used to be covered in it,it was utterly revolting, especially when we had to sleep in the truck and had no access to washing facilities.

Why do you think some of those punk audiences were/are hostile?

They weren’t hostile, they were just enthusiastic!!!
There was a neanderthal element of the audience that was affronted by a girl being on stage fronting a band, and to this day Punk is still very male dominated, you rarely if ever see a female headline a Punk festival. Back in the late nineties one of our agents told me that ‘People won’t come out to see a girl’.

Vice Squad: What went wrong/what went right?

We were too young and emotional to relate to each other in an adult way. I think the other 3 members treated it as a bit of a laugh whereas I was deadly serious about Punk. I was the youngest in the band yet the first to leave home and live in a different city and try to stand on my own two feet, my experiences in London made it hard for me to relate to the band and manger who all stayed in their home town and lived with their parents.
Our inability to play and sing properly meant that we couldn’t copy other bands so we accidentally sounded quite unique

Why did you chose to reform to the band?

People kept asking me to play the old Vice Squad songs when I was in the Bombshells and we were asked to play a one off gig at ‘Holidays in the Sun’. At the time we had a broken down transit van that needed a lot of repairs. We used the van to get to gigs and if we didn’t gig I didn’t eat so I said yes to the ‘Holidays’ gig as the fee they offered was enough to repair the van. I’d been writing songs on my own and sent the demo to PHD/Rythm Vicar who offered us a licensing deal so we released ‘Get A Life’. After ‘Holidays’ we were invited to play a gig in Ljubjana which was brilliant, the audience was fantastic and for me they represented the true spirit of Punk, so we decided to tour Europe. After that we played the Social Chaos tour in the USA in 1999 and we’ve been touring and releasing albums ever since.

What happened with Beki and the Bombshells?

We continued up to the end of 1999 then stopped gigging. My time in the Bombshells taught me to sing, there’s nothing quite like 3 or 4 gigs a week in smoky bars and clubs to develop the vocal cords. It also taught me how hard it is to run a band and keep it functioning, it was my first DIY band so I learned a lot about booking gigs and maintaining equipment etc.
We had a lot of laughs but the Bombshells was very hard work. We’d often find ourselves desperately trying to find yet another new band member when one of them inevitably quit because it was just too hard and too low paid. I struggled on with chronic asthma trying to hold the notes on a punishing set 3 nights a week in smoke filled pubs. I never quit in spite of being regularly plunged into despair by sheer frustration and lack of money and power.
We tested the theory that the Bombshells were being discriminated against because of my past by recording a demo and submitting it to a magazine called Future Music under the name ‘Autoerotica’, it was featured as demo of the month and the reviewer lavishly praised my vocals, saying ‘Who needs parametric EQ when you can sing like that?’. I doubt my voice would have received such praise if they’d known it was that ’Screaming pissed up punk’.