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The Slits' Viv Albertine: "They'd never seen a girl play guitar"

Musician, actress and new author Viv Albertine reflects on her brutally honest memoir about being a female trailblazer in the 1970s punk scene.
Viv Albertine takes us back to the days she spent hanging out with Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten, dating Mick Jones of The Clash, and shredding guitar and social barriers with her all-female punk-reggae band. (vivalbertine.com)

How does a girl stand with a guitar? It may seem like a silly question today, but as female trailblazers in the 1970s punk scene, Viv Albertine and her band The Slits had to choose their stances carefully.

No, they didn't want to just copy the boys, so in mini skirts and sometimes mud, they lashed out against the definition of a "typical girl". 

Today Albertine joins guest host Piya Chattopadhyay to discuss the band's successes, their set-backs and why she says the first one through the wall gets bloody. The musician has captured the transitional and often tense spirit of the times in her new memoir, Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys.