Women in Music get their own exhibition in Suffragette City

Debbie Manley | 22nd February 2018

For those bored of the stories of punk, Factory Records and Britpop, Suffragette City will show a completely different side of the Greater Manchester music industry – the women in music.

Alison Surtees of Manchester Digital Music Archive  has dedicated 15 years to charting the history of Greater Manchester through its music and Suffragette City at The Refuge in Manchester Friday 23 February – Saturday 10 March 2018 is their latest project.

“This year it is 100 Years of Suffrage. The big question is we have come 100 years from getting the vote but have far have we really come in having a voice, taking our rightful space in being part of everything.

“Some people say ‘there are loads of women out there’. But how many times do you hear their voice? How many do you know about what they do. They are not just the pretty thing on stage that sings on stage.

“For many of us in the tech side of things that is always an annoyance. I wanted to show all the different sides of the industry so we have split it into five categories.

Technical – sound engineers, producers, front of house.

Image – the photographers, PRs, press, all of that, because that plays a massive part in what makes the industry.

Management  label management, artist and talent management, venue management.

Writers – not just the lyricists but the women who write about the music, the journalists and the critics.

Performers – who do we want to celebrate? If you think about the lack of voice of women, you only have to look down that register and look at black women, which a lot of our music is built around, that soul, rhythm, so that was really important as well. 

“We put on a panel last year, as part of Louder Than Words Black Female Voices, because we are really keen on having that space and that dialogue because we have a lot of amazing black female artists in this area that do amazing wonderful things that no-one knows about.

“I created a Facebook post and tagged loads of people in. We ended up with a really long list of 270 women and there are loads more, that’s not the end of it.

“Then depending on how many times those women were mentioned we drew up a shortlist in those five areas and put it to the vote.

“The top in each category filmed a short documentary interview with three items that sum up why they do it and what gives them inspiration.”

THE TOP FIVE WOMEN IN MUSIC IN MANCHESTER

Technical: Yvonne Ellis
Tech/Sound –Simply Red

Image: Elspeth Moore 
Viva photographer and much, much more

Writer: Melanie Williams 
Lyricist/Writer – Temper Temper, Sub Sub, Butterfly Jam

Management: Kate Mountain
Venue Manager, The Roadhouse

Performer: Denise Johnson
ACR, Primal Scream and many more

Alison added: “Then I didn’t want to stop. The films are a way of encouraging other women to recognise that it’s not just this glamorous person that has done all this stuff, there are all these women behind the scenes.

“I wanted to put faces to people because we don’t see their faces outside of the performer. We were offered the Refuge and we have the whole of that wall space as you walk into the venue. There will be 25 portraits and five films. But that still wasn’t enough.

“We are also running an online part of it – an ongoing, living space. So you can learn more about what they do and that will grow. Sharing those hidden stories. Mostly the dominant narrative around Greater Manchester has been predominantly male. We want to redress that.

“When you think about what Manchester is famous for around the world – it is football and music. We finally got our football museum. If you look at the stats I think eight out of ten of the top exhibitions are music and we have worked on those.”

For more details visit: mdmarchive.co.uk