Section:GDN 12 PaGe:10 Edition Date:190815 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 14/8/2019 17:25 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian
10 Thursday 15 August 2019
Arts
‘They called
my girlfriend a white supremacist,”
says Skin indignantly, over the noisy
chatter of a London pub, leaning
towards me on a creaky sofa and
recalling a recent incident where her
partner was called out online. “I think
the woke kids go too far. They call
my girlfriend a white supremacist?
I mean, how dare you? Do you know
what a white supremacist is? Do you
know what those people do? And
you’re aligning my girlfriend and me
with these people?”PHOTOGRAPHS: LINDA NYLIND/THE GUARDIANSkin in
the game
Skunk Anansie’s
frontwoman was
blazing a trail for
black headliners
at Glastonbur y –
before Stormzy
and Beyoncé. She
talks to Charlie
Brinkhurst-
Cuff
From the start, our interview,
which is taking place on a muggy
summer evening, has been touched
by Skin’s mantra: “Everything is
political.” As the frontwoman of rock
band Skunk Anansie, the 52-year-
old is a queer black icon, known for
such consciously emotive anthems
as Weak and Hedonism , not to
mention her fashion sense. She has
been called “radical” , but these days
seems to be treading slightly new
terrain in the era of “wokeness”.
Her band, currently on a Europe an
tour , formed in 1994, sandwiched
by the politics of John Major and the
relative banality of Britpop – worlds
away from the discourse today.
“There was a conversation about
multiculturalism,” she says. “That
was what we called diversity, back in
the day. I like to say that a lot of the
discussions now are standing on our
shoulders. We started that shit .”
Today you’ll see Skunk Anansie
on throwback playlists with Blur,
Sleeper and the Verve, but in the
1990s they blazed a distinct trail.
Their name spoke to their diff erent
races , skunks being black and
white. Their fi rst single, Little Baby
Swasti kkka , was a rumination on the
corrupting infl uence of fascist, racist
ideologies. But although she still
feels a deep responsibility to get off
the fence and fi ght against fascism,
homophobia and sexism (“ The more
artists that do that, the better”), our
interview keeps returning to the
topic of political division.“We’re making it too black and
white,” she says. “Because the world
is not black and white. I have some
views that are quite conservative.
But I would say mainly my views
are leftwing .” What would be an
example? “Oh, I don’t know. Umm.
You know, I’m not into smoking weed,
for instance. Because of my family’s
experience.” The gist is that Skin – like
others of her generation – is frustrated
by what she sees as intellectualised
leftwing distractions getting in the
way of the serious business of fi ghting
the extreme right.
“Trump has told four black
women to go back to their
countries ,” she says, fi rmly.
(Actually, the women are all ethnic
minorities, not all black, but you get
her point.) “That to me is one of the
original racist sins. When you tell
someone to go back to where they
came from. The fact that that is being
said by an American president? It
normalises it.” Of Boris Johnson she
says: “We didn’t vote for him. We
should be having a general election.”
The band’s anniversary LP –
25LIVE@25 – came out earlier this
year, marking their quarter century
in the music industry, but Skin says
everything is still fresh. “It feels
like an original rock band. There’s a
chemistry about bands that means
you can stay childlike and stupid for
ever.” Consisting of Martin “Ace”
Kent on guitar, Richard “Cass” Lewis
on bass and Mark Richardson on
drums, the quartet keep each other‘Discussions
about diversity
are standing on
our shoulders’
... Skinon their toes – and take the piss out
of each other in a “very English”
way. Though the y separated for
eight years in the 00s, part ly due
to alcohol and drug problems ,
friendship drew them back.
Even if it did end in a break-up,
Skin’s memories from that fi rst
blast of fame are scintillating. She
duetted with Pavarotti in front of
the Dalai Lama, sang happy birthday
to Nelson Mandela, and became
the fi rst black Brit to headline
Glastonbury in 1999, something she
had to remind the world about after
Stormzy’s vaunted performance
this year. “If I’m really honest,” sheAt one US diner,
people were
praying for us:
‘Please God,
look after the
heathens on
the other table’
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