#first timers

I can't believe it's been five years since doing screamy vocals and playing bass with the incomparable General Jinjur. The first pic was our gig at The Stag and Hound in Bristol, opening for a line up of queer punk bands from across the world!! The week after Bent Fest at the DIY Space in London (RIP!) Not only was performing and songwriting super cathartic for me, but playing in a band is like nothing else. The comradery! The laughs! The jam sessions!

We met through a Bristol-based project called Eat Up For Starters which basically took the model of First Timers in London (birthplace of Big Joanie!) Super affordable workshops where queer and other marginalised folk (people underrepresented on the DIY scene!) had the opportunity to try out all of the instruments and then pick one and find themselves band mates from other people involved with the courses. We met around Autumn 2018, I think? And then there was a big gig in March 2019 where all of the new bands played and it was so wholesome - everyone was screaming and cheering the whole time, even amidst the inevitable fuck ups that came as people grappled with their instruments for the first time! It was so fucking cool. Off the back of that, we got booked for a few really sick local gigs, including our last and best gig at Cafe Kino, the vegan co-op in Bristol. It was a relatively short lived stint as life and COVID eventually got in the way, but I'll treasure the mems forever! As you can see BBC Bristol used an ancient pic of us in an article a few months ago about DIY stuff happening for Pride!

MICHAEL BOSTON

me: Yep, that’s the usual reaction.

him: like I feel like I shouldn’t say a female character deserves to get bitch-slapped.  I feel like she could have been a dude, and that would be better?