Siren is an all-women lesbian band and theatre company formed in 1979 at the height of Thatcher’s Britain. They aimed their artistic expression at the twin enemies of the day – Margaret Thatcher’s conservatism and the sexist assumptions that were built deep into the social infrastructure. Influenced by Punk and New Wave music, they forged their own style of songs that had at its core a critique of life under the cloud of the reactionary conservatism of the 1980’s in Britain. Siren re-formed as a band in 2014 and continue to compose and perform.
Siren is Jane Boston, Tash Fairbanks, Deb Trethewey and Jude Winter.
In 2022 LatestTV commissioned a full-length documentary film to be made about Siren. It is directed by Deborah Espect and was first shown in December 2022. It is called ‘Bending the Note: The Story of Siren”. The shortened version of the film won an award at the Brighton Rocks International Film Festival.
Siren’s Unfinished Histories theatre interview is now deposited with the British Library Sound Archive, V&A Theatre Collections and the Bishopsgate Institute.
Link:Unfinished Histories: Recording the History of Alternative Theatre.
Original Siren music available to listen:
Link: Siren on Soundcloud
Link: Women’s Liberation Music Archive