The Story of The Slits
One of a new breed of all-girl groups, in a way The Slits epitomised everything that was great about punk, and in the process did a pretty good job of highlighting a few of those things that weren’t so great too. Formed in 1976 when future singer Ari Up (born Adrianna Forster) met drummer Palmolive at a Patti Smith gig, and on the spot decided to form a punk rock group; Tessa Pollitt and Viv Albertine were brought in soon after to complete the line-up. One of the very first all-girl groups to also play their instruments rather than simply sing, the ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude of the punk rock movement coupled with the fact that The Slits, in the beginning at least, were all women, meant The Slits greatly influenced succeeding generations of female musicians, perhaps more than is deserved on their limited recorded output.