August 8, 2002

5:12 AM

Rockbitch have done their last gig. So no more golden condom awards.Rockbitch are/were a band of outrageous gay and bisexual women (and one guy) who live in a sex-commune in France (although they are mostly British). They gained notoriety for their explicitly sexual performances which ended with a golden condom thrown into the audience. Whoever caught it, male or female, would be joyfully fucked by members of the band backstage. Yes for real. It sounds like rock and roll exploitation gone mad but what is surprising is that their philosophy of sexual liberation and magic seems remarkably coherent, and they are very articulate and responsible (a very strong safe sex code). And sexy. Trouble is after a BBC documentary and much abuse in the press it seems they can't play live any more. Is the world just too straight for Rockbitch, or is this the last gasp of sixties hedonism?
posted by rolo (35 comments total)

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to settle for Russian lesbian pop teen sensations for my live hedonism mixed with popular music. Man, is it just me, or is popular music hedonism gone way corporate these days?
posted by thanotopsis at 5:29 AM on August 8, 2002

Proof that you should never let yourself be profiled by a lesbian ex-nun who came second on Big Brother who does the poor man's Louis Theroux on BBC Choice. Which is a moral we can all use in our everyday lives. Fucking hippies.
posted by riviera at 5:30 AM on August 8, 2002

;)

Anyone else see their big video floatin' around Kazaa?
posted by RavinDave at 5:37 AM on August 8, 2002

Yeah, but have you ever heard one of their albums? Not the stuff dreams are made of, IMHO.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 5:40 AM on August 8, 2002

Look, I think I remember the sixties and I don't recall hedonism like this, gasping or not.
posted by mss at 5:42 AM on August 8, 2002

well, there were those crab-infested hippie chicks in the mud at woodstock...
posted by quonsar at 6:14 AM on August 8, 2002

If you take away the sex (ooh, shocking!) and the occult trappings (ooh, dangerous!) away from this lot, you're left with a band who, frankly, were bloody awful.

Don't let the door hit you on your collective ass on the way out...
posted by ninthart at 6:17 AM on August 8, 2002

not to derail the topic, but whatever happened to Louis Theroux's show, Weird Weekends on Bravo here in the US? He traveled all over the US, and interviewed the loons and wackos that make up this fine country.
He befriended (most of) them and learned a lot about their lives (whether it was professional wrestling, ufo chasers, or televangelists).. if it ever comes back on, it's a must see.
posted by j at 6:23 AM on August 8, 2002

crab-infested hippie chicks

I have been searching for that line for nigh on ten years.
posted by Frasermoo at 6:25 AM on August 8, 2002

They will be missed. So, too, Tiny Tim
posted by Postroad at 6:28 AM on August 8, 2002

j - Louis Theroux did another series where he ridiculed z-list British celebs you will probably have never heard of. Chris Eubank? Jimmy Saville? Keith Harris? I don't think it will be shown in the US.
posted by Summer at 6:35 AM on August 8, 2002

If you take away the sex (ooh, shocking!) and the occult trappings (ooh, dangerous!) away from this lot, you're left with a band who, frankly, were bloody awful.

Don't let the door hit you on your collective ass on the way out...posted by ninthart

They are kinda sexy though.
posted by DailyBread at 6:57 AM on August 8, 2002

Anyone else see their big video floatin' around Kazaa?

Don't know if it's the same one, but I've got one where one of the members performs an oral golden shower to her female band-mate, who then spits in out into the crowd...

Some real crazy stuff.. But that style of performance beats Britney any day in my book.
posted by eas98 at 7:26 AM on August 8, 2002

Wow, remember when people went to concerts because the group were good musicians and thoughtful, creative songwriters? I suppose such mundane things as those can't compete with expectorated urine and flying prophylactics.
posted by evanizer at 7:33 AM on August 8, 2002

expectorated urine and flying prophylactics

That's gotta be a tagline somewhere.
posted by yhbc at 7:48 AM on August 8, 2002

Aw, c'mon evanizerlighten up; it's not as though [insert favorite bard here] is getting bumped off their tour dates by extreme performance art. The audiences, even the venues are mostly separate. Besides, being a big fan of Tom Waits has never kept me from enjoying a Gwar show...
posted by atavistech at 7:54 AM on August 8, 2002

expectorated urine and flying prophylactics

Tagline? That's got to be a BAND (or possibly a double bill) somewhere....
posted by ElvisJesus at 7:55 AM on August 8, 2002

If you take away the sex (ooh, shocking!) and the occult trappings (ooh, dangerous!) away from this lot, you're left with a band who, frankly, were bloody awful.

Well, they weren't my favorite band, but they weren't terrible. They did do some pretty decent "Fuck the world, I'm in a bad mood" music, suitable for driving fast and cursing my enemies.

In a sane world, they would have lived or died by their music, not their stage antics - which is to say, they would probably have quit a lot earlier. Too bad, all the same. The world may never be ready for them, more's the pity.
posted by RylandDotNet at 7:56 AM on August 8, 2002

(Just figures that my first post would contain some glaring typographical error. Hiya folks, nicetameetcha...)
posted by atavistech at 7:56 AM on August 8, 2002

... not to mention crab-infested hippie chicks . I can just picture the T-shirt
posted by ElvisJesus at 8:06 AM on August 8, 2002

this may help with the keeping hedonism alive thing.
posted by aiq at 8:57 AM on August 8, 2002

Man, if you call the Genitorturers hedonists, I don't wanna live in your paradise. Too many long needles, clothespins, spiky dildos and dripping wax for my taste.
posted by Fabulon7 at 9:34 AM on August 8, 2002

it's not as though [insert favorite bard here] is getting bumped off their tour dates by extreme performance art.

I think the point was not so much that other bands were being forgotten about. Seems to me that musicianship and songwriting should be how we measure a band's skill rather than their ability to piss in someones mouth.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 10:10 AM on August 8, 2002

Seems to me that musicianship and songwriting should be how we measure a band's skill rather than their ability to piss in someones mouth.

In an entertainment environment where boxing on TV causes one to yearn for the pristine days of Don King? As for me, thank God for my Springsteen CDs...
posted by ElvisJesus at 10:22 AM on August 8, 2002

There's always the watered down American version. It's been described as half-a-dozen people in a knock-off punk band with a dozen more people dancing naked on the stage. (At least where that's legal.)
posted by dhartung at 10:57 AM on August 8, 2002

I remember a fuss in the local paper after Rockbitch got "mistakenly" invited to perform and talk to a group of children at a local school. Obviously they didn't go in for their usual show but it still got built up into a major "just what is the world coming to" thing.
posted by kerplunk at 12:45 PM on August 8, 2002

Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt...probably 15-20 years ago now. Anyone remember Wendy-O Williams, ex-porn queen turned rock star?
posted by entrustNoOne at 1:15 PM on August 8, 2002

french rock and roll....lol.
posted by billybob at 1:44 PM on August 8, 2002

Nikki is a depraved nymphomaniac who craves pleasure as the only appropriate display cabinet and completely decadent companion to her classical music training in piano and flute.

I do hope the person who wrote that has an advanced sense of irony. I fear not.
posted by Grangousier at 1:50 PM on August 8, 2002

Anyone remember Wendy-O Williams

Yup. The Plasmatics, Throbbing Gristle, G.G. Allin... performance art designed to shock, in conjunction with music, isn't really a new idea.
posted by nath at 2:17 PM on August 8, 2002

safe sex is so boring.

If I cared about being safe I never would have put that DVD player in my car.
posted by delmoi at 3:00 PM on August 8, 2002

Seems to me that musicianship and songwriting should be how we measure a band's skill rather than their ability to piss in someones mouth.
agreed kev, but i suspect we're both old farts? at some point, rock accomodated spectacle. spectacle took its own place in the rockuverse and its all good. it's just that reviewers and fans that can discern the difference are few and far between these days. we got a schmoe named serba who writes for the local rag - a twenty-something hard core headbanger who, when seeing a rock BAND, often completely misses the whole point. he's a spectacle-head who, not knowing any better, thinks all rock is spectacle. so great chops and sublime licks arent even on his radar. guitar-god postures and stage antics and chicks flashing in the crowd are what he writes about incessantly. and that ain't music.
posted by quonsar at 3:15 PM on August 8, 2002

What's a 'sex commune'?
posted by stbalbach at 4:38 PM on August 8, 2002

stbalbach: It's taking a sophisticated view of sex... and putting it on a commune.
posted by kindall at 7:01 PM on August 8, 2002

kindall: I see, so they twisted it?
posted by dhacker at 7:26 PM on August 8, 2002