Now that things have settled a little I would like to go back to an extremely embarrassing moment during the Q&A with Steve Ignorant at the Ancienne Belgique on Sunday October 16th.
The Q&A was hosted by Silke from the Girls Go Boom collective, a collective that strives to put more women on stage. That night Steve was performing Crass songs with singner/keyboard player Carol Hodge, guitarist Pete Wilson, bassist Pete Rawlinson and drummer Jay Bagnall. Support band were all-men band The Headsticks.
During the Q&A I spoke to Steve, pointing out that Crass had been such pioneers regarding feminism. Therefore I was disappointed in seeing so few women musicians on stage that night.
Ensued a muddled reply about not giving in to tokenism. Then Steve ventured down the slippery slope of « where are they ? » (referring to women musicians), which is an argument often used by anti-feminists. Which of course Steve is not.
Feeling this wasn’t getting anywhere I suggested that he could have invited a support band with women musicians. There again Steve gave a confused answer. The room was filled with embarrassed silence.
Feeling again this was getting nowhere I concluded that it was great to see him and that I hadn’t come to ruin his evening. Steve joked saying « well now you have ruined my evening! « and the audience laughed, like a court laughing at a king’s jokes.
My friend Wim attempted to break the ice by asking «Are you a dog person or a cat person? ». The audience roared.
Voilà. Un grand moment de solitude pour moi.
I think I can say that we all agreed that Steve Ignorant is out of touch with what’s going on in the music world these days, that he probably isn't in touch with younger musicians. Also I assume that he is unaware of the #MusicToo movement.
It takes guts to raise such issues and frankly it was a bit of a blow to see how critical thinking seemed absent that night at the Ancienne Belgique, all the more in a room filled with many people that would describe themselves as punks.
