Skip to content
Widely acclaimed as one of the musical highlights of the post punk period and a breakthrough moment for women in music, The Raincoats self-titled debut was recorded in 1979 by Ana da Silva, Gina Birch, Palmolive and Vicky Aspinall and produced by Geoff Travis and Mayo Thompson. The group created a sound here that, while inspired by punk and rock music that had come before it, was uniquely and uncompromisingly powerful and female, and which has held a fascination over all those lucky enough to stumble across it. Primeval punk-folk originals like "Fairytale in the Supermarket" and "In Love" sit alongside deconstructions of the Kinks' "Lola."
One famous story is that of Kurt Cobain travelling to the Rough Trade shop in Talbot Road in 1992 in an attempt to replace his worn out copy of The Raincoats LP, a trip that in the end led to reissues of the band's back catalogue and the offer of a tour with Nirvana that sadly never took place. The Raincoats have always impressed; in 1980 John Lydon announced in Trouser Press, "Rock'n'Roll is shit...music has reached an all-time low – except for The Raincoats." Rolling Stone added in 1980, "Within a minute, they seem to have trashed every female stereotype in rock and roll.