They turned down an offer to be Bob Marley’s backing singers to write songs about toxic masculinity and speculum exams. Thirty years after
BREAKING up, they are releasing a debut album
There weren’t many options for
Women in
music in 1974. Only three women – Diana Ross, Karen Carpenter and Lena Zavaroni – made it into the Top 10 of the
UK album chart all year, and Broadway
Singer Bette Midler had just won best new artist at the
Grammys. Female rock stars were starting to gain traction – Suzi Quatro was rising up the charts and the Runaways were waiting in the wings – but it was still years before female punk acts like X-Ray Spex and the Slits.
The Stepney Sisters, embedded in the Women’s Liberation Movement, took a completely new tack. Decked out in their band uniform of cropped haircuts and denim dungarees (a far cry from the leather and corsetry of the era’s female rockers), the group wrote politically charged pop-soul brimming with multi-part harmonies straight from the 60s girl group era. They were prolific composers and sticklers for equality, each member encouraged to express themselves through their songwriting.