77 items

• Siren Band Poster - defaced with homophobic and sexist comments
  
  CW: This digital reproduction contains sexist and homophobic language. This shows a poster advertising Siren band playing at the Emporium in Leicester that has been defaced. The poster had been defaced with what was described in a letter attached to the poster as anti-feminist and anti-gay comments.
• Siren Band Warm Up
  
  This shows Tash Fairbanks and Jane Boston warming up before a Siren band gig.
• Siren by Roadside
  
  This shows Jude Winter sitting with some of the props on the side of the road, waiting for the van to be fetched to load up the gear after a Chic to Chic performance.
• Siren Gig - Jude & Jane
  
  This shows a photo of Jude Winter and Jane Boston playing music from ‘Curfew’. They are both dressed in the costumes for the show.
• Siren Gig - Jude & Tash
  
  This shoes Jude Winter and Tash Fairbanks playing in Siren band.
• Siren in Front of New Van
  
  This shows Deb Trethewey, Tash Fairbanks, Jane Boston, Hilary Ramsden and Jude Winter with a friend, Susy Taylor in foreground of photo. Throughout Siren’s tours, they stayed at friend’s homes (or their parents) as we were not funded and could not afford B&Bs. This often meant sleeping in our sleeping bags on the floor.
• Siren in Van
  
  This shows Jude, Tash and Deb in the van after a performance of Chic to Chic, still in costume.
• Siren Plays Record & Sleeve
  
  A scanned image set of the Siren Theatre Company 1982 vinyl record and sleeve 'Siren Plays', released by 'Stroppy Cow records’. It shows a list of the inner sleeve with the lyrics of 10 songs composed by various members of Siren and performed by Siren. It also shows photographs of Siren on the back cover, namely Jane Boston guitar, Jude Winter keyboards, Debra Trethewey drums and Tasha Fairbanks saxophone. This was Siren’s first time in a professional studio. Being penniless, as usual, Siren cut the cost by doing the half price all-night sessions. Memories of a lot of coffee and biscuits, being shaken awake every few hours to stagger over to an instrument and try to remember which song you were supposed to be recording. The album sold at Vinyl Demand, Odd Volume, Subway Records and at the Women’s Centre.
• Siren Queuing
  
  This shows Tash Fairbanks, Jude Winter, Jane Boston and Deb Trethewey fooling around ‘queuing’ to get into the van.
• Siren Theatre Company 'Now Wash Your Hands Flyer'
  
  A digital reproduction of the flyer (front & back) advertising Siren’s play ‘Now Wash Your Hands Please’. The play opened at the Nightingale Theatre in Brighton, and was directed by Sue Saunders. Siren was joined by a new company member, Hilary Ramsden, for this play and for future Siren plays. Jane Boston did not perform in this play.
• Siren Theatre Company Brighton & Hove Gazette Newspaper Article (1983)
  
  A newspaper about Siren Theatre Company in the Brighton & Hove Gazette Newspaper in 1983 concerning the group receiving a loan of £2500 from Midland Bank to produce their album. The article inaccurately says Siren formed “eight months ago”, which would have been in 1982, but Siren actually started in 1979 and produced their first play (with music) in 1980. The article referred to the Midland Bank in Dyke Road as being ‘behind Brighton’s lesbian rock band’. The bank was actually not aware that it was lending money to a lesbian band, which in 1983 was not a trendy thing to do!
• Siren Theatre Company Brighton Leader Newspaper Article (1987)
  
  Digital scan of a Brighton Leader Newspaper Article about a Siren performance of their play 'Hotel Destiny' at The Nightingale in Brighton, 1987. This shows a photo of Jane Boston as the character ‘Chance’ in Siren’s play ‘Hotel Destiny’. The photo was taken by Anita Corbin (but the photo is not of Ms Corbin, as wrongly described). The preview was for the opening of ‘Hotel Destiny’ at the Nightingale Theatre in Brighton.
• Siren Theatre Company Mama's Gone A'Hunting Flyer (top & lower half)
  
  This is one of a number of posters used to promote Siren’s play ‘Mama’s Gone A’Hunting’. It is created in the form of an urgent telegram outlining the plot of the show, stating that woman intends leaving for a new planet without man. The digitally produced poster was felt to be a ‘new’ form of photography at the time that it was on the high street, predating all the digitisation of photos that are now done on one’s own devices. Siren felt it reflected the futuristic content of the play.
• Siren Theatre Company Mamas Gone A Hunting Flyer
  
  A handmade flyer for Siren Theatre Company's performance 'Mamas Gone A Hunting'.
• Siren Theatre Company Pulp Programme (1984)
  
  This shows the programme cover of the pay Pulp. The programme shows a number of adverts, including from prominent lesbian organisations, such as Rackets, Dimples and Lesbian Line, as well as feminist companies such as Silver Moon bookshop Women’s Press. Nalgo (National and Local Government Officers Union) took out a full page advert supporting lesbian and gay rights. The programme promotes Siren’s cabaret show ‘Chic to Chic”, as well as their cassette ‘Siren in Queer Street’ and vinyl record ‘Siren Plays’. Page 4 & page 8 have the lyrics of seven sounds from Pulp, which were written by Jane Boston, and performed live by Siren. Page 5 has the Company Policy and a description of the play ‘Pulp’. It also shows some excerpts from reviews of previous plays. The play was directed and choreographed by Noelle Janaczewska. The artwork and layout of the programme was by Jenny Millington.