Viv Albertine
| Viv Albertine | |
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| File:Vivwiki.JPG
Viv on tour January 2012.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Viviane Katrina Louise Albertine |
| Born | 1 December 1954 Sydney, Australia |
| Genres | Punk rock, post-punk, new wave |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, television director |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1976-present |
| Associated acts | The Slits The Flowers of Romance New Age Steppers 49 Americans Flying Lizards |
| Website | Viv Alberine official website |
| Notable instruments | |
| Gibson Les Paul Jr. Fender Telecaster |
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Viviane Katrina Louise "Viv" Albertine (born 1 December 1954, Sydney, Australia[1]) is a British singer and songwriter, best known as the guitarist for the English punk group The Slits. She lives in Hackney, London.
Early life
Albertine was born in Sydney to a Swiss mother and a Corsican father.[1] She was brought up in North London, attended comprehensive school in Muswell Hill, and at seventeen enrolled in the Hornsey School of Art.[2] After completing a foundation course at Hornsey, Albertine went to the 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. Albertine 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. She split up with songwriter Mick Jones shortly before he wrote the song.[3]
While continuing as a key member of The Slits, Albertine contributed guitar and vocal work to The 49 Americans 1980 album E Pluribus Unum.[4]
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.[4]
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.[5]
In 2009, Albertine began performing as a solo artist. Her debut gig was at The Windmill, Brixton, on 20 September 2009.[citation needed] She went on to tour the USA opening for The Raincoats.[6] In March 2010, she released a four-song debut solo E.P. titled Flesh on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! label.[citation needed]
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.[7]
On 17 June 2013, Albertine opened for Siouxsie Sioux at the Royal Festival Hall in London.[8]
Albertine's memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys, was published in 2014 in the U.K. by Faber and Faber.[9]
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.[citation needed]
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.[10]
References
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- ↑ Profile, noisey.vice.com; retrieved 4 October 2013.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Albertine at Royal Festival Hall, Last.fm; accessed 1 December 2015.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Viv Albertine. |
- Use dmy dates from September 2013
- Use British English from September 2013
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with hCards
- Pages using Template:Infobox musical artist with unknown parameters
- Articles with unsourced statements from October 2013
- Articles with unsourced statements from December 2015
- Commons category link is defined as the pagename
- 1954 births
- Living people
- Australian female guitarists
- Australian memoirists
- Australian television directors
- Australian people of Swiss descent
- British female singer-songwriters
- British female guitarists
- British memoirists
- British television directors
- British people of Swiss descent
- Musicians from London
- Musicians from Sydney
