International Women’s Day feels especially powerful in the world of rock and metal. This scene is all about rebellion, resilience, and the strength through voices that won’t be silenced. Today, here at Devolution HQ, we’re celebrating women who made their own way through the noise and showed that music can be at its boldest when driven by female energy. We asked our contributors to honour the women in music and media who inspired them, the icons, the innovators and the fearless forces who have and who keep changing what it means to be powerful. Their words come together as a proud tribute to the queens of chaos who keep this spirit thriving.
“Even at the age of 72 (really!?) It’s hard to think of a cooler woman than Kim Gordon. Bass player, co-founder, sometime guitarist and singer for the utterly revolutionary Sonic Youth since 1981. Kim Gordon co-piloted the most creative musical force to come out of the New York punk scene. Sonic Youth not only laid the blueprint for Noise Rock, Grunge, Post Rock, Riot Girl culture and every derivative that they spawned, their unconventional approach to their instruments and art inspired several generations of noise makers in their wake. Even now she’s readying the release of her second solo album Play Me which takes hip hop and electronica into her fiercely unique blend. Her memoir, Girl In A Band is the definitive word on the challenges of being just that and serves as essential reading for anyone who has even a passing interest in alternative music history and culture. Some people could wake up with zero make up and sling on a thrift T-shirt and ripped jeans and still be the coolest person in the room. Kim Gordon is and always will be the definition of this, she pretty much invented it. This powerful lady is still more relevant than most artists of any gender. In a world of awful Kim Kardashians, always, always be a Kim Gordon.” ~ George Miller
Jo Whiley – Radio One
“Don’t hate me, but I was possibly the only teenager in the world who willingly did her homework. The night she got it. And then got the bus to the library to do a bit more learning. I was plotting my escape, and the only way I knew how was to excel at academia. What a twat. But my soundtrack was Radio One’s Evening Session. From 7pm to 9pm, Mondays to Thursdays, DJs Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq literally played nothing, but the best indie and rock records recently released, soon to drop or blasts from the past. And Jo Whiley was the queen of my world. She was like a cool older sister. Speaking about all stuff music related with that gentle husky voice but getting as excited about the new bands she was spinning as that complete teenage geek (read: me) who was reading Flaubert’s ‘Madame Bovary’ in French. I loved how she blended friendly with fangirl when she interviewed bands. Jo Whiley could’ve played a recording of a Labrador snoring over rave beeps and blast beats, and I’d have been down with it. She did, however, consistently champion the bands with the girls in. L7, Belly, Kenicke, Echobelly, Skunk Anansie, Garbage… Shit, I even went out with a boy called Steve for a little while. Every weeknight for as long as I was a teenager she was on air, and Jo’s voice and choice of music didn’t just shape my life – they were my life.” ~ Jo Wright
Lorraine Lewis – Femme Fatale
“As a shameless metalhead growing up in the 1980’s, there was a distinct lack of females in the scene. Sure, bands such as AC/DC and W.A.S.P. wrote plenty of songs about women but they were mainly male constructs, written for a target audience (i.e., randy young men). Enter Femme Fatale and their 1988 eponymously titled debut album. A quintet fronted by Lorraine Lewis, she was a vocalist who appropriated all those tired old sexist tropes, subverting them and presenting things in a new light. On the surface song titles such as ‘My Baby’s Gun’ would appear typical heavy metal double entendre, yet by adopting such language Lorraine claimed ownership and recalibrated the scales. When a character like Rambo brandished a gun it was full of phallic symbolism, but when Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley picked up a gun inAliens it was given new meaning, and a similar thing happened here. Femme Fatale certainly played up the sexual angle (Lorraine was what we would have called a “fox” and her backing band “mimbos”), but growing up on a diet of popular culture my memory is haunted by Elvis shaking his hips and Michael Jackson pointing to his crotch with a spangly glove, and if men could make a career from exploiting their sexuality, I don’t see why Lorraine couldn’t. My feeling is that Lorraine would have liked Femme Fatale to be an all-female band (as later incarnations were), but even so, in 1988 Lorraine was a trailblazer who forged a career in a male-dominated industry and prised open a door for others to follow.” ~ Peter Dennis
Amy Lee – Evanescence
“My initial thought when asked to choose a single woman in music that has had the biggest influence was – that’s impossible! So before waxing lyrical about my pick I need to name a few others I could have easily selected. Let’s start with my younger years and the new wave brilliance of Debbie Harry or the total uniqueness of Kate Bush. Then there was the often-misunderstood Wendy O Williams and the down-to-earth Kelly Johnson. Newcomers have had a profound effect on me too. It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of Delilah Bon and Hands Off Gretel. I also have huge respect for Millie Manders and both of the Nova Twins. There are so many rock-oriented women that I have to mention. Lzzy Hale, Cristina Scabbia, Floor Jansen, Lena Scissorhands, Heidi Shepherd and Tatiana Schmayluk all spring to mind. The thing is there was a part of my life when my love of music, such a constant since I was little, had diminished. I’d grown a little weary of the same old. Then one album and one quite magnificent voice literally rocked my world reigniting a fire that has grown ever since. That album was ‘Fallen’ and of course the singer was Amy Lee. Her vox was just so ethereally beautiful it moved me. Even now many years later I find myself getting a little emotional when I see Evanescence perform live or stream a song. So, thank you Amy for making me fall in love with music again.” ~ Gary Trueman
“Growing up we are surrounded by the influence of music other people like, but there is something magical about the definitive moment when we first find music either by ourselves or that truly speaks to us. For me this was Amy Lee and Evanescence. The music encapsulated many themes I liked as a child and opened me up to a deeper and more emotional world I hadn’t been able to articulate before. Amy Lee’s unique and haunting vocals spoke to the horror lover in me as well as the gothic style of the band’s music videos. Her visuals and customised style of clothing also helped me in exploring and finding my own style. She is still an absolute powerhouse of a musician and inspiration to me as a parent; being true to yourself and what you love.” ~ Alice Bizarre
“My Women’s Day Tribute to the Woman Who Taught Me How to Be One
The year was 1997, and I was a girl on the edge of becoming something more. I’d just left school and thrown myself into a college where I didn’t know a single soul. A self?imposed exile wrapped in velvet gowns, tiaras, heavy boots, and eyeliner that never quite stayed where I put it. I spent my canteen lunch breaks scribbling poetry that was raw, messy, and probably terrible, but it was mine, and for the first time, I was trying to understand who I was beneath the layers. That autumn, everything changed.
I took myself to the Wedgewood Rooms to see a band called Tura Satana. I’d been following their frontwoman, Tairrie B, through the pages of Kerrang! And reading her brazen industry callout, “The Immaculate Conceptions of Miss B” columns in Metal Hammer. This fierce, unapologetic force of nature who radiated defiance and refused to shrink for anyone. She was everything I didn’t yet know how to be.
When Tura Satana walked out onstage, something in me truly ignited. Tairrie didn’t just perform that night – she summoned. She tore the roof off the venue with a presence so commanding that the entire room momentarily held its breath. I watched her snarl, scream, and stand unmovable in her power, and for the first time in my life, I felt seen. She reached into the parts of me that I’d been hiding and dragged them into the light. Years of uncertainty cracked open as I was baptised in sweat, noise, and the holy chaos of the mosh pit. From that night on, she became my muse.
It was through the music of Tura Satana, through My Ruin, through her solo work, through her activism and her unwavering voice for women that Tairrie has been a constant source of catharsis and courage. She has always fiercely fought for those who needed a voice, and in doing so, she absolutely gave me mine.
Her music became home. Her fire became a map. Her presence became a stark reminder that women can be loud, unafraid, and unpretty in all of the ways the world demands, and still utterly, devastatingly powerful.
I have never felt more alive than when I was screaming into a microphone at one of her shows, which I did for over two decades, watching a woman born to roar make every single person feel like they were the only one in the room. For almost thirty years, she has been my inspiration, my guide, my reminder that strength and vulnerability can coexist in the same breath.
And the most extraordinary part? I am lucky enough to call her my friend.
So, this International Women’s Day, on the timely recent release of her incredible brand-new album, the first in just over a decade, ‘Declaration of Resistance’ my chosen woman, my muse, my mentor from afar, my Firestarter, is and always will be Tairrie B Murphy. She helped me grow into the woman I am. She taught me how to stand tall. She showed me how to own my voice.
This is my homage to her. With love. With gratitude. With devotion.” ~ Nickie Hobbs
