WORDS:IAN WINWOODPHOTOS:TOM BARNESBITE
THE POWER
T
he news that Skunk Anansie
are this year’s inductees into
the Kerrang! Hall Of Fame
has put the band’s singer,
Skin, in both a delighted and
a reflective mood.
As well as being “a genuine
honour because it’s the kind
of award that actually means something”, the
prize has prompted the band’s public face to
delve back into the mists of time. She does
this by browsing the internet for past issues on
which her face has appeared on the cover.
“Oh look, this is the first time I was ever
on there!” she remembers. “April 27, 1996.
I remember that one because I was covered in
gold paint. Twenty-three years ago – wow, us
and Kerrang! go back a long way.”
On another cover she appeared with Marilyn
Manson, with whom Skunk Anansie would later
tour. Another time she was pictured atop a
Triumph motorcycle. There was another where
she shared the limelight with Tim Wheeler from
Ash and Tony Wright from Terrorvision. Other
composite covers saw the now 51-year-old
resident of Hackney Wick posing with Grant
Nicholas from Feeder, Gary Stringer from Reef
and Gavin Rossdale from Bush.
“Kerrang! has always been a great supporter
of homegrown rock,” she says. “Back in the
‘90s, British music papers like the NME and
Melody Maker [both now defunct] were going
crazy over Britpop, but most of those bands
were shit. Then there was also this other group
of bands who were really good – people like
The Wildhearts. And there was us, too; we’re
pretty good.”
That they are. Just 15 months after playing
their live debut at London’s Splash Club in
March of 1994, in the summer of the following
year Skunk Anansie won their first ever Kerrang!
Award when readers named them the Best New
British Band. Since then, the London-based
quartet have amassed no fewer than six pan-
European platinum discs – not to mention 15
gold ones – as well as nine Top 40 singles in theUK. Among the band’s legions of supporters
was Lemmy, who invited guitarist Martin ‘Ace’
Kent to appear with Motörhead onstage on
numerous occasions.
“We’ve had a lot of success,” says Skin.
“We’ve sold millions of records, for one thing,
but at the same, we’ve never been one of
those bands that have won loads of awards;
those kind of things have usually gone to other
groups – the kind that are seen as being more
fashionable, for some reason. So to become
members of Kerrang!’s Hall Of Fame really
means something. It’s a proper magazine that
writes about great bands, and I’m really proud
that we’ve been recognised in this way.”
As inductees to the Kerrang! Hall Of Fame,
Skunk Anansie join a list of alumni that includes
Green Day, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Rage
Against The Machine and Marilyn Manson. But
as well as being the home for three generations
of bands whose appeal and legacy speaks for
itself, Kerrang! is also the natural home of the
underdog – just one of
the reasons that Skunk
Anansie’s place in such
fine company is so
richly deserved. “That’s
why this award means so
much,” says Skin.
Skunk Anansie’s tenure
at the forefront of British
rock’s firmament has not
been interrupted. An
11-year gap between
their third album,
Post Orgasmic Chill,
released in 1999, and its
successor, Wonderlustre,
meant that listeners were
deprived of the band’s
always commanding take
on politics, love and life
for more than a decade.
But since returning to
the fray in 2010, Skunk
Anansie’s forward-thinking but classically-rooted sound has been a
reliable refuge for listeners looking for that little
bit of class.
“I’d say that the secret to a band’s longevity,
and certainly to our band’s longevity, is to
remember to have fun,” says Skin. “That’s the
reason we stopped making music during that
time, because we’d forgotten how to have fun.
We were taking things far too seriously, and
it became a drag. The music can be serious,
certainly, but being in a band is a special thing,
and having fun is a big part of that. Since we
got back together, that’s something that we’ve
never forgotten. If you could see us on the
[tour] bus now, you’d see that we’re always
laughing our arses off. Even at our age, we’re
like a bunch of school children!”
With this award now nestled in Skunk
Anansie’s trophy cabinet, the band are able to
take stock of the past while at the same time
keeping their eyes fixed firmly on the future. At
the time of writing, the quartet are fresh from
a studio in which they
have been recording a
brand-new single, the
title of which will be
unveiled in the coming
weeks. As for what
might come after that?
Skin is unsure, and she’s
happy to be so.
“We’ve found that
it’s best not to plan too
far into the future,” she
says. “We’ve found that
it’s better for us to have
the band as something
we return to whenever
we feel we have
something to say, rather
than something that
consumes every moment
of our lives. As we get
older, we’ve learned that
that’s the approach that
suits us best.”THE WINNER SPEAKS...
SKIN: “Am I the first woman to win a
Kerrang! Hall Of Fame award? I think I am!
We’ve never got something like this before,
so it feels very special. We’ve been around
a long time and we’re all still here because
we’re mates and we genuinely love each
other. It was great to have it presented to
us by Grant [Nicholas, Feeder] too, because
we’ve always been there for each other –
even though he once tried to steal drummer
[Mark Richardson]. But we stole him back.”SKUNK ANANSIE vocalist SKIN reflects on the band’s roots, shares
the secret to their survival and allows herself a little celebration...
SKUNK ANANSIE42 KERRANG!
THE AWARDS
hall of fame