Big Joanie

The last time I saw the band Big Joanie was back in June when they supported Bikini Kill at the Brixton Academy www.blipfoto.com/entry/2585188485329584393. Tonight they were headlining at EBGBs in Liverpool, and they were just as wonderful as I’d remembered them being!

The band refer to themselves as a feminist punk Ronettes, and that’s a pretty good description (although I’d argue they sound more post-punk than punk!), so I was very excited to be right down at the front, camera poised, ready to take some decent shots of all three band members - Steph Phillips (guitar/vocals), Estella Adeyeri (bass/vocals), and Chardine Taylor-Stone (drums/vocals) - who are all dynamic performers and engagingly witty, articulate and politicised speakers.

However, I experienced a mystery camera malfunction and simply couldn’t get the camera to focus at all!  I tried everything I could think of, involving lots of fiddling with the menu function, but to no avail. Despite taking lots of pictures, this one of Steph was, for some reason, the only one which came anywhere close to being in focus. 

I’m back-blipping this the following day and am suitably shamefaced to reveal that having spent so much time faffing about at the back of the camera I’d completely failed to have a look at the focus switch on the front... which had clearly taken a knock at some point and was decidedly out of whack. Problem solved! I’m a buffoon!

If you enjoy ‘It’s You’ by Big Joanie www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0OMOLDIkXk you may also enjoy the BBC radio documentary about today’s Blip subject, ‘The Voices of... Stephanie Phillips’ www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006zxg