Vicky Aspinall

Victoria Marion "Vicky" Aspinall ^[1] is a British musician. She was the violinist in the English post-punk band the Raincoats from 1978 to 1984. In 1992, she and Dave Morgan founded the independent dance label Fresh Records (not the post-punk label of the same name) initially for releases of their own Lovestation project. ^[2]

Biography

Aspinall is a classically-trained violinist, having graduated from the Royal College of Music, London. ^[3]

She was a member of Jam Today, a part of the Women's Music Movement that developed in the late 1970s, playing a hybrid of jazz and rock similar in approach to groups like Henry Cow. ^[4]

She joined the Raincoats after she noticed an advertisement which read "female musician wanted - strength not style" in radical bookshop Compendium in Camden Town. ^[5] She has been credited, by Gina Birch of the Raincoats, with making the band more aware of feminist ideas. ^[6] Aspinall and Birch later formed the band Dorothy which was subsequently signed by Geoff Travis to Chrysalis Records.

References

1. "FAIRYTALE IN THE SUPERMARKET". ASCAP. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
2. Sexton, Paul (7 August 1999). "U.K.'s Fresh Records Spins Out New Sounds". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.
3. "She Plays Her Bass Loud: Post-Punk Legend Gina Birch on Her Debut Solo Album, The Raincoats, and Feminism". KEXP. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
4. "Blog Archive » Jam Today – Stroppy Cow Records 1981". Kill Your Pet Puppy. 12 January 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
5. Pelly, Jenn (5 October 2017). The Raincoats' the Raincoats. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN   9781501302428.
6. The Lost Women of Rock Music: Female Musicians of the Punk Era by Helen Reddington. Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2007. p.142, ISBN   978-0754657736