women musicians

More gigs for The Verinos

May 24, 2023 — Leave a comment

We played loads of gigs in March with some of the other Unglamorous Music bands and had loads of fun. Our intention was to do less in May and June because there’s a compilation album to release and we want to start recording our own album. But people keep offering us gigs and it’s hard to say no. But are we punk or are we pop? It’s hard to say and we think we’re maybe both …

On Friday 30th June, we’re back at The Big Difference, Leicester which is a super-cool venue to play at. It’s where French/German TV channel ARTE came to film the unglam bands playing recently. Arte Film

On Sunday 20th August, The Verinos have been added to the Leicester Punk Weekender closing party bill, along with Unglamorous bands Glitch Magnet and The Wonky Portraits. There’s some vintage punk bands on and we’re on stage 2 just before Buzzcocks hit stage 1 at the end of the night. We’re grateful to Matt from Firebug Bar who has arranged this second stage which balances out the male-dominated original punk sets with the cool new mainly women bands. It’s refreshing, modern and doesn’t detract from what Chelsea, UK Subs, Buzzcocks etc provide – it just acknowledges that women also love punk and can be part of it! We’re honoured to be asked – especially because we’re a very poppy punk band!

The following week, on Saturday 26th August, The Verinos take a road trip to Sheffield to play at Sidney and Matilda for the Sheffield Pop Weekender. This is a great line-up and again, we’re honoured to be asked … especially as we’re a punky pop band! Tickets here This is what they say: “Don’t go to those hideous massive festivals with sponsors’ logos everywhere and leery lads setting fire to tents!” Sheffield, we’ll see you soon!

Next Gig – a Film Festival!

April 9, 2023 — Leave a comment

Festival season is starting! The Verinos’ second ever gig was an audition to play at a festival called Glastonbudget. We played there last year in a massive marquee to about 30 people.

We made a T-shirt to show how quickly it all happened.

But this year we’re playing at a film festival! The Verinos have been asked to play at Phoenix Arts Leicester as part of the REAL Documentary Festival. The festival has sessions for documentary film makers and industry people as well as showing films to the general public. There’s a big selection of award-winning films, works-in-progress, exhibitions and a few premieres.

Where do The Verinos fit in? We’re playing live on the evening of Thursday 20th April after the film ‘I Am A Cliché‘ is screened. It’s the story of Poly Styrene (real name Marianne Elliot-Said) who grew up in Brixton and formed the band X-Ray Spex after seeing Sex Pistols play on her 19th birthday. Although the boy band punks are usually cited as the important ones, Poly Styrene’s original style, lyrics and presence as a bi-racial young woman fronting a punk band are massively important.

Tickets for the film, a Q&A discussion with director Paul Sng and The Verinos gig in the new bar area of the Phoenix are just £5, but be sure to book early because it’s going to be popular!

March Gigs Coming Up!

February 6, 2023 — Leave a comment

If you want to see The Verinos live, you’re going to have to visit Leicester in the Midlands, UK. And in March 2023, there’s three chances to catch the band.

On Saturday 4th March, The Verinos play the afternoon slot at Leicester Indiepop Alldayer – going onstage at 3.30pm.

Then just four days later, we play again at Firebug Bar as headliners of the Unglamorous gig for International Women’s Day. Since the Verinos formed, a whole scene of other all-women bands of all ages has grown in Leicester. We estimate that a total of 11 bands will be performing, including complete beginner bands playing one song after starting just weeks ago – bands like BOILERS, Pretty Dirty Rats, Peri Peri Women, Ruby River and Funky Feminists.

Then we have bands that have been playing for up to a year – including Velvet Crisis, The Wonky Portraits, Dada Women, Virginia’s Wolves, Glitch Magnet and Venus Attax. We also like to promote Caroline McLavy – a solo songwriter and performer who has been instrumental in the success of all this as one of the directors of Stayfree Music – a local rehearsal space and instrument hire facility.

The gig on the 8th is also a launch party for a forthcoming compilation album on which The Verinos have a track. The Kickstarter appeal will be .. um … kickstarted, and if you’re in Firebug at 5pm, you might even get to hear some of the tracks which will be on the vinyl LP and CD release. We reckon there must be about 50 women playing in the different bands on 8th March and it’s going to be a truly memorable night!

The last gig in March (that we know of so far) for The Verinos is on Sunday 26th – it’s an early show 6pm – 9.30pm. The Verinos are headlining at The Big Difference venue on High Street, with other Unglamorous bands supporting. This is always a really cool gig with a wild audience so we’re looking forward to that!

The media seem to be getting interested in what The Verinos and the other bands Ruth (Vim Verino) has helped to create.

First there was a story in Positive News and then Channel Five News got in touch. There was a bit of confusion about who was in The Verinos when loads of the other band members got on stage – because there are so many all-women bands, but some clips from The Verinos YouTube video made it onto national news!

Meet the band – The Verinos

January 3, 2022 — Leave a comment

We formed in July 2021 and life as a band has been exciting and fun ever since! We asked the band members what they like doing apart from playing in the band …

Volcano Verino has played drums since July 2021.

“Walking in muddy countryside, starry skies, whisky, knocking bits off wood.”

Vi Verino is an ex-choir member, now a punk rock singer!

“Sitting in front of an open fire, cuddling cats and dogs, watching Guy Richie or Tarantino films”

Vee Dee Verino only started playing bass this year.

“Racing pigeons, chasing patterns, making pompoms, colouring in”

Vim Verino started the band to show what older women can do. She was previously in Ruth’s Refrigerator, and is still playing with her band Po!

“Growing vegetables and making a mess”

Vixen Verino plays keyboard and was also in the 1990s band Ruth’s Refrigerator.

“Waving at animals, welding and walking alpacas”

The Verinos will be recording their next song and YouTube video very soon. Look and listen out for it!

The Verinos – No Time to Form a Band?

November 21, 2021 — Leave a comment

The first song of our set is the song ‘No Time to Form a Band‘ which is a 1-chord song written by Vim and Vixen before all the members of the band had been found. The idea was that by having just one chord, it would make the song playable by anyone new to playing guitar or bass.

“What’s the bassline? shouts VeeDee? “It’s E E E E E E E E E E E …”

Em Chord - E Minor Chord - How to Play a Em Guitar Chord | ChordBank
This is a picture representation or chord window showing where you should put your 2nd and 3rd finger on a guitar to form E minor

Here’s a picture of Vim and Vixen on 24th May 2021 – the day we wrote ‘No Time to Form a Band”. In order to be properly creative, we booked a serious artists’ work room in the LCB Depot in Leicester. And, as you can see, we had a lot of fun. It was a room where passers-by could see that a couple of middle-aged women were pratting about planning to form a band.

Here’s the words; it’s a list of excuses why women might not have time to form a band. But of course, at the end of the song, the words change to ‘there’s always time to form a band.’

Got to wash the dishes; Got to feed the cat
Got to learn to Zumba; Got to find a hat

So many things to do … we’ll never have time to form a band
So many things to do … we’ll never have time to form a band

Got to pick a number; Got to go to Greece
Got to get on Tik Tok; Got to buy the cheese

So many things to do … we’ll never have time to form a band
So many things to do … we’ll never have time to form a band

Got to put the bin out; Got to write some code
Got to book the tickets; Got to hit the road

So many things to do, but there’s always time to form a band
So many things to do, but there’s always time to form a band

If you want to hear what the song sounds like, you’ll have to wait until we record it, or, alternatively, come to Duffys Bar in Leicester on Thursday December 9th. Why? Because we’ve just had another gig confirmed – this time supporting act for The DeRellas. We’re really looking forward to it!

The Verinos second gig

November 20, 2021 — 1 Comment

The Verinos played our second gig at The Soundhouse Leicester last month as an audition for the next Glastonbudget Festival in June 2022. The audience really loved it and we’ve now been confirmed for our first festival.

The Soundhouse Leicester - Visit Leicester

The Soundhouse is a cool music pub painted blue that hosts open mic nights, local bands and touring acts from the UK and overseas. Promoter Muz had been so positive about the idea of The Verinos, that we felt we’d be welcomed. We know we’re not as technically skilled as some of the usual bands that play there; our instruments are cheap or borrowed and we haven’t had much live experience.

But what we do have is confidence and energy!

Here we are hanging about before the gig. The other bands that were playing were really friendly and let us use their drum kit. They were interested to hear about what we’re trying to do, and very encouraging – old-fashioned sexist attitudes really do seem to be changing in the world of music!

We had a little soundcheck, which sounded good and there were fabulous stage lights and then it was time to play. The small stage meant that the fun and energy of the band came across even better – several of our songs involve band members shouting out their thoughts or joining in with the singers!

After we finished, there were dozens of great comments from people we don’t even know. Most frequent comment was “Brilliant songs!” followed by “Amazing energy”. So we think it was a great success, and want to go on to do more … especially festivals next summer! And today, apparently we’re featured on the BBC News page. Amazing! Please follow/subscribe to the blog to get news about The Verinos.

The Verinos first rehearsal

September 3, 2021

Playing in a band was not something most of The Verinos had ever thought possible. Guitarist Vim was at a birthday party in Leicester’s Kayal restaurant and got chatting to VD about punk. VD had just decided to start playing bass and was going to take lessons. Next came Vixen, who could play a bit of keyboards, and her friend Vi, who can sing and shout. Volcano had always fancied playing drums and turned up to the first rehearsal having watched one drum lesson on YouTube and was completely brilliant at it.

The experience of going to a rehearsal room, being extremely loud, having fun with no-one watching is really powerful. The other thing that’s great is playing and creating original songs so that we own and define our art. Our music can’t be compared to some well-known artist’s original version; we are the original version. Our songs are about laughing, being invisible older women, being in a band and just about ourselves really. They’re upbeat, singable, interactive, and we have a lot of fun playing them!

Here’s a photo of us on the way to our first rehearsal

L-R: Volcano, Vi, VD Vim and Vixen Verino on the way to the studio.