Typical Girls: A Slits Quiz

Answer: True

The band in question were the short-lived Flowers of Romance. They were formed by Sarah Hall and Jo Faull in 1976, and Viv Albertine, Palmolive, Keith Levene - later of The Clash - and Sid Vicious were also members. The band never recorded any material or played live.

However, one of their songs, 'Belsen Was a Gas', was later recorded by the Sex Pistols, who also recorded a song named after the band, and 'So Tough', a song which Albertine wrote for the Flowers of Romance, ended up on the Slits' debut album 'Cut' instead. Albertine was fired from the band by Vicious, as was Palmolive for not sleeping with Vicious, and Palmolive formed the Slits as she wanted to be in an all-female band. Albertine joined the Slits later on to replace Kate Korus, their original guitarist, on the advice of Chrissie Hynde.

Answer: 1

Tessa Pollitt was the only member born in the UK. Palmolive - real name Paloma Romero - was Spanish, Viv Albertine was born in Australia to an English mother and a Corsican father, and Ari Up was German. Ari Up's real name was Ariane Forster, but she got her stage name from Sham 69's 'Hurry Up Harry', as they dropped their h's and 'hurry up' sounded like 'urry up', or 'ari up' in Ari's strong German accent.

She was just fourteen when she and Palmolive formed the Slits.

Answer: I Heard It Through the Grapevine

'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' is one of the Slits' most well-known songs, along with 'Typical Girls'. They recorded their version as a bonus track for 'Cut'. It was originally intended to be their debut single but ended up as the B-side to 'Typical Girls'. At one point, Ari sings 'I heard it through the bassline.'

Answer: True

The Slits toured with Don Cherry, an American jazz trumpeter and Neneh's stepfather, and he brought her along on tour. She and Ari Up lived in the same squat in London after she moved to the UK as a teenager. Neneh Cherry didn't appear on 'Cut', but she did spend a brief period in the group and was also in the New Age Steppers along with Ari and Albertine, as well as members of the Pop Group, the Raincoats and Rip Rig + Panic (with whom Cherry also sang).

Answer: Budgie

Palmolive claimed that she left the Slits because she disliked Pennie Smith's controversial 'Cut' cover, where Albertine, Pollitt and Ari were all naked and covered in mud, but Albertine stated that Palmolive had been asked to leave the band before the album was recorded.

As the Slits needed a drummer, they eventually found Peter 'Budgie' Clarke - formerly of Big in Japan and later of Siouxsie and the Banshees - to play drums on the album. Producer Dennis Bovell also helped out with percussion on some tracks, such as 'Adventures Close to Home', by using spoons and other implements. Palmolive did, however, play drums on the John Peel sessions in 1977 and 1978 and wrote some of the lyrics, such as 'Shoplifting' and 'Newtown'.

Answer: Train in Vain

Mick Jones and Viv Albertine were a couple for some time, having met at art school. The Clash and the Slits played and toured together, but Jones and Albertine had a volatile, on/off relationship, although Jones also helped her pick her first guitar. Albertine recalled finding Jones in bed with another woman on one tour and him throwing a jug of water at her, narrowly missing her. 'Ping Pong Affair' on 'Cut' is about their relationship.

Although 'Train in Vain' was never confirmed to be about Albertine, some fans believe that the line 'they say you stand by your man' is a response to 'Typical Girls' and the line 'typical girls stand by their man', itself a dig at the Tammy Wynette song 'Stand By Your Man'.

Answer: Ari Up and Tessa Pollitt

Pollitt and Ari reformed the band with a new line-up featuring No (later replaced by Michelle Hill) and Adele Wilson on guitar, Anna Schulte on drums, and Hollie Cook, daughter of Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook, on keyboards and additional vocals. They released an EP, 'Revenge of the Killer Slits', in 2006 and both Paul Cook and Marco Pirroni, formerly of Adam and the Ants, played on it and co-produced it. Albertine declined to rejoin the band as she felt her life had moved on at that point, though she did go to watch them play in the USA and played two gigs with them.

The band also played Ladyfest Manchester in 2008.

Answer: Return of the Giant Slits

'Return of the Giant Slits' was inspired by B-movies and was far more experimental than 'Cut'. At this point, the band were into avant-garde jazz - they would listen to Sun Ra's 'Space is the Place' while touring Europe - and afro-pop, which the album reflected. Pop Group drummer Bruce Smith was the drummer this time around, while Dennis Bovell returned on production duties and Neneh Cherry contributed backing vocals.

The band split up shortly after its release and would not release another album until 2009's 'Trapped Animal', which featured Ari, Pollitt, Hollie Cook, Anna Schulte, Adele Wilson and keyboardist 'Little' Anna Ozawa.

Answer: Ari Up

Ari Up lived in Indonesia and Belize with her husband and twin sons after the Slits split up, before settling in Jamaica. John 'Johnny Rotten' Lydon, her stepfather, and Ari's mother Nora adopted the twins in 2000 as Ari was unable to cope. She released a solo album, 'Dread More Dan Dead', in 2005.

She had had a previous brush with death during the Slits when a man stabbed her in the street, and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. She refused chemotherapy because, according to Lydon, she did not want to lose her dreadlocks, and continued to perform, working with eccentric Jamaican producer Lee 'Scratch' Perry.

She died in 2010, aged 48, and Lydon and Nora adopted Wilton, her third child. After Ari's death, the video for the song 'Lazy Slam' was released in accordance with her wishes. Viv Albertine was also diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1999, but survived.

Answer: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys.

After the Slits split up, Albertine took a course in film-making, played open mic nights and released a solo album, 'The Vermilion Border', in 2012, though she gave up music after the death of her mother. 'Clothes, Clothes, Clothes...' was her first memoir, released in 2014, about her childhood, the British punk scene, her time with the Slits and subsequent projects. She released a second memoir, 'To Throw Away Unopened', in 2016, which focused more on her parents, especially her mother. As for the other members, Palmolive played with the Raincoats, then converted to Christianity and moved to the USA, where she taught Spanish. Pollitt spent a brief period in Africa before the formation of the New Slits.

All the other answers are memoirs by female musicians: 'Paradoxical Undressing' is by Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses, 'Girl in a Band' by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, and 'Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl' by Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney.