The Au Pairs were a Britishpost-punk band that formed in Birmingham in 1978 and continued until 1983. They produced two studio albums and three singles. Their songs were said to have "contempt for the cliches of contemporary sexual politics"[2] and their music has been compared to that of the Gang of Four and the Young Marble Giants.[3] The band was led by Lesley Woods, who was once described as "one of the most striking women in British rock".[4] A new iteration of the band, led by Lesley Woods, is touring the UK in 2026.
Au Pairs formed in Birmingham in 1978.[5] The genesis happened after guitarists Lesley Woods and Paul Foad met at a bus stop in Birmingham in 1976.[6] They began dating and set about starting a band, though their relationship came to an end before the first Au Pairs album came out.[7] Woods was initially a student of philosophy and French at Birmingham University, but transferred to Keele University in Staffordshire as it was a "hotbed of leftwing politics and feminism".[7]
Drummer Peter Hammond had attended school with Foad. Foad and Woods were living together in Smethwick and performing as a folk duo. Foad asked Hammond if he was interested in forming a band.[6] They recruited Jane Munro who had recently started playing bass. They had their first rehearsal at the upstairs function room at the Earl Grey pub in Balsall Heath.[6]
The group were involved with the Birmingham Rock Against Racism action group, and would play gigs for the organisation with other local bands.[5] In 1979 the band had earned enough money through gigging to self-release their own single, "You",[8] and print 1,000 records. They sent a copy to John Peel who played it on BBC Radio 1 and invited them onto the show to play live.[6][9] The single was released under the band's own 021 Records, which later released the debut single by Musical Youth.[10][11]
Playing with a Different Sex
Their first album, Playing with a Different Sex (1981), reached number 33 in the UK Albums chart and number 1 in the Independent Albums chart.[12] It is considered a post-punk classic, with strong, sarcastic songs such as "It's Obvious" and "We're So Cool" taking a dry look at gender relations.[5] The former has been described as a fantasy "about a time when gender roles ceased to matter".[7]
"Headache for Michelle", about being too high to object to problems in society, was inspired by Woods’ first girlfriend. Though Woods identifies as bisexual, at the time she felt it was easier to tell journalists that she was a lesbian, even though it risked harming her career.[7]
Other songs, such as "Armagh"—with its refrain, "we don't torture"—criticized the British government's treatment of Irish Republican prisoners during the troubles in Northern Ireland.[5] Foad told The Guardian that the BBC did not want them to play the song during their performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test. During the live broadcast, the group proceeded to play it anyway. Foad said they were told they would "never work for the BBC again".[5]
The band's second album, Sense and Sensuality (1982), showed a greater influence of jazz, soul, funk and disco on the band's sound, but was less well received.[14]
Following the departure of bassist Jane Munro in 1983, the band recruited Nick O'Connor who also played piano and synthesizers. At this time the group were further augmented by Jayne Morris (percussion and backing vocals), Graeme Hamilton (trumpet) and Cara Tivey on additional keyboards.[citation needed]
Dissolution
The band were scheduled to record a third album with producer Steve Lillywhite in 1983 but broke up. Woods has intimated that the hostility and violence she and other women faced playing music was a factor in the group's demise: "There comes a point where you can’t go on any more at that level," she told Nige Tassell of The Guardian.[15]
Post-breakup
Woods formed an all-woman band called the Darlings in the late 1980s, but then left the music industry. Now, as Lesley Longhurst-Woods, she works as a lawyer in London.[16] Guitarist Paul Foad is a jazz musician and music teacher. Bass player Jane Munro is retired from working as an complementary therapist in Birmingham. Pete Hammond also remains an active musician and teaches percussion in Birmingham.[5]
Rights dispute
Foad, Hammond, and Munro have had a dispute with Woods over the rights to the band's songs, and their royalties. Woods says that she was the lyricist and the songs originate in her experiences: "These are songs that came out of me, they’re part of me".[5] The trio claim that the band co-wrote the songs together, and that a decision was made when they formed to share credits and royalties. In a joint statement, they said: "One of the founding principles of the Au Pairs was equality, and that extended to the members of the band – each one of us uniquely important. We are saddened by Lesley’s desire to take our rights away from us."[5] Though there has been sporadic email contact, Woods says they haven’t been in the same room for more than 40 years.[7]
In 2025, Woods approached the other former members about reforming. They declined, but Woods trademarked the band name and a tour will go ahead in 2026 under the Au Pairs name, but featuring only Woods and some new musicians.[7] The new musicians are Estella Adeyeri of Big Joanie, and Thurston Moore Group’s Jem Doulton and Alex Ward.[7]
Reception
Critical reception
In mid-1981 critic Robin Denselow of the London Guardian praised the group's "viciously well-observed lyrics on contemporary life and love and the role of women’.[17]
The Au Pairs toured the United States in 1981. In a review of their first show at the Whisky a Go Go, critic Richard Cromelin said: "When the crowd at the Whisky kept calling Au Pairs back to the stage for encores Wednesday night, it was as if they were trying to tell the group's singer Lesley Woods that her band had done just fine and she could go ahead and loosen up a little."[18]
Writing about their show at The Ritz, John Rockwell said "The Au Pairs blend political lyrics, a tough, funk-dance-rock idiom and an at least initially dispassionate vocal style, rather like the Gang of Four meeting the Young Marble Giants" and suggested that Lesley Woods "and the band were able to build the insinuating monotones of the songs early in the set through street taunts into a rousing rock-and-roll climax."[3]
Music historian Gillian G. Gaar noted in her 2002 She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock and Roll (Live Girls) that the band mingled male and female musicians in a revolutionary collaborative way, as part of its outspoken explorations of sexual politics.[19]
Lester Bangs wrote that "the absolute best rock’n’roll anywhere today is being played by women: last night I saw God in the form of the Au Pairs."[7]
Influence
Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill cited the Au Pairs as an influence on her band, and the wider riot grrrl movement.[7]Miki Berenyi of Lush has named the band as an influence, saying of first hearing "Diet", "the spikiness lit up my teenage synapses", and that "Playing with a Different Sex is one of my formative albums, and it’s never far from my thoughts when writing my own lyrics".[20]
↑Gaertner, Joachim (2007). They Could Have Been Bigger Than EMI: A Discography of Now Defunct Independent Record Labels that Released Vinyl. J. Gaertner. ISBN9783000211614.
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