Instruments Guitar, vocals Awards NME Award for Best Book Role Singer · vivalbertine.com | Name Viv Albertine Years active 1976-present | |
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Birth name Viviane Katrina Louise Albertine Associated acts The SlitsThe Flowers of RomanceNew Age Steppers49 AmericansFlying Lizards Books Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. Music groups The Slits (1976 – 1981), The Flowers of Romance Movies Exhibition, Coping With Cupid, Sid!: By Those Who Really Knew Him Albums The Vermilion Border, Cut, Return of the Giant Slits Similar People Ari Up, Palmolive, Poly Styrene, Tessa Pollitt, Joanna Hogg Profiles | ||
Viv Albertine @ The Thunderbolt, Bristol. 13-05-2011
Viv Albertine at Bass Culture Expo: Punks & Lovers
Viviane Katrina Louise "Viv" Albertine (born 1 December 1954, Sydney, Australia) is a British singer and songwriter, best known as the guitarist for the English punk group the Slits. She lives in Hackney, London.
Contents
- Viv Albertine The Thunderbolt Bristol 13 05 2011
- Viv Albertine at Bass Culture Expo Punks Lovers
- Early life
- Music career
- Film career
- References
Early life
Albertine was born in Sydney to a Swiss mother and a Corsican father. She was brought up in north London, attended comprehensive school in Muswell Hill, and at the age of 17 enrolled in Hornsey School of Art. After completing a foundation course at Hornsey, she went to Chelsea School of Art to study fashion and textile design. In 1976, while still studying at Chelsea, she helped form the early punk band the Flowers of Romance.
Music career
Albertine was amongst the first "inner circle" fans of the Sex Pistols, and was a close friend of both Mick Jones and Joe Strummer of the Clash. She joined the Slits as the band's guitarist after founding member Kate Korus left in 1977. The Clash's 1979 song "Train in Vain" has been interpreted by some as a response to "Typical Girls" by the Slits, which mentions girls standing by their men. Albertine split up with songwriter Mick Jones shortly before he wrote the song.
While continuing as a key member of the Slits, Albertine contributed guitar and vocal work to the 49 Americans' 1980 album E Pluribus Unum.
She became part of Adrian Sherwood's dub-influenced collective New Age Steppers, and played on their self-titled 1981 debut album. She appeared as a guest guitarist on the Flying Lizards' debut album, as well as Singers & Players' 1982 album Revenge of the Underdog.
After the Slits disbanded in 1982, Albertine studied filmmaking in London. She worked as a director, mostly for television, throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s. Her freelance directing work included stints with the BBC and the British Film Institute.
In 2009 she began performing as a solo artist. Her debut gig was at the Windmill in Brixton on 20 September 2009. She went on to tour the USA, opening for the Raincoats. In March 2010 she released a four-song debut solo EP entitled Flesh on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! label.
Albertine recorded a cover version of David Bowie's "Letter to Hermione" for the Bowie tribute album We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie which was released on 6 September 2010. Her debut solo album, The Vermilion Border, was released on 5 November 2012 through the Cadiz Music label. The album was a featured project on Pledgemusic.
On 17 June 2013 she opened for Siouxsie Sioux at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
Albertine's memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys, was published in 2014 in the UK by Faber and Faber.
Film career
In 1991 Albertine wrote and directed the short film Coping with Cupid, a film about three aliens as blondes that come to earth to research romantic love. In 2010 she worked with Joanna Hogg on the soundtrack to Hogg's 2010 film Archipelago.
In 2012 she started filming with writer/director Hogg on the 2013 film Exhibition, alongside Tom Hiddleston and Liam Gillick. The film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in August 2013, and was released on DVD in 2014.