TRAILBLAZING Glasgow girl band Sophisticated Boom Boom will reunite for a special one-off gig this October.
The 80s pop pioneers, who include ex-River City star Libby McArthur, are appearing at Mono in Glasgow on October 18 to mark the cinema release of Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands.
The documentary features the female popstars and post-punks who challenged a male-dominated industry, acknowledging their rightful place in music history and examining the enduring barriers faced by women making music.
Written and narrated by singer-songwriter Carla J Easton (solo artist and member of TeenCanteen) and co-directed by music promo director Blair Young (collaborator with Belle and Sebastian, Biffy Clyro, Teenage Fanclub and many more), Since Yesterday unearths the rich history of Scottish girl bands from the 1960s onwards.
The film includes personal anecdotes from a host of bands, including Jeanette Gallacher from The McKinleys (the first Scottish girl band to break into the charts in 1964 and the first girl band to ever play Wembley Arena), The Ettes, Strawberry Switchblade, The Hedrons, Sophisticated Boom Boom, Sunset Gun, His Latest Flame, The Twinsets, Lung Leg and Hello Skinny.
It also features unheard demos, lost archives and rare performances that celebrate the women who never compromised, and subsequently got lost in time.
Following its world premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 21 (which sold out in under 30 minutes), Since Yesterday will kick off its general cinema release with a special screening at Glasgow Film Theatre on October 18.
Ticket holders will also gain access to a live after-screening gig at Mono where Sophisticated Boom Boom (Libby McArthur, Tricia Reid, Irene Brown, Jacqueline Bradley and Laura Mazzolini) will reform for one night only.
Also on the bill will be Louise Rutkowski (Sunset Gun/ This Mortal Coil) and Jeanette Gallagher (The McKinleys) and Scottish female and non-binary songwriting collective Hen Hoose, performing songs from the film.
Carla said: “Since I first suggested to Blair the idea of a documentary about the history of women who had formed bands in Scotland way back in 2016, we have been excited about letting an audience hear all the great music we knew about already, and then all the music we subsequently discovered.
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“But more than that, it became about letting people hear the experiences of the women who made the music tell their stories, something they had never really gotten the opportunity to do before.”
Blair said: “I’m excited for people to hear this music and meet these amazing characters, both in the film and through the live events happening in conjunction with the screenings and beyond and I hope it can go some way to help change things for the bands of the future.”
Tickets for the special screening and live gig at GFT and Mono on October 18 go on sale at 12.10pm today (August 16) on the GFT website and at the box office.
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