Call of the Sirens2

by Luisa Mateus

There is an island, high above the reef. The corals glisten, radiant in the opulence of iridescent sunlight. The waves crash softly, against the rocks, lulling you into a mesmerising trance. Looking down at the boats, cruising gently towards the land line, three beautiful women await the arrival of the sailors to shore. Soft supple skin, long flowing hair, luminous eyes, these heavenly creatures sing a sweet sultry song to call the mariners to their untimely demise.

[Left-right: Helen, Regan & Lora (Photo credit: Mark Eilbeck)]

Flash forward, oh ten thousand years or so, and the mythology seems obsolete. How did anyone ever believe a group of scheming sea-nymphs could, or would, lure some unkempt, unwashed drunken sailors’ no-good asses in from the putrid sea, only for said sailors to listen to them sing in a field, until they died? Come on! Even Brothers Grimm could, and have, come up with better fairytales than that!

However, such legends have their legacies….

The Sirens are a three strong group of lusciousness, so named by Motorhead’s Lemmy (uhuh that Lemmy!) after those mythological ladies of yesteryear. They joined together out of the not-quite ashes of the Fuel Girls; and Helen, Lora and Regan bonded in their travelling sexy pants to form a group that make their performances about who they are and what they love. They’re British; they love heavy metal and can be found on stage, fire breathing, angle grinding, champagne jizzing and strip teasing.

We spoke to flame haired temptress, Regan, about the group.

The Sirens have been busy bunnies of late, shooting the show-reel for Halloween, when “The Sirens is really going to take off”. Featuring her own beautiful Vintage Capri V8 (pause for jealous thought!), Regan says the show-reel has become more a mini-film to showcase the girls’ personalities and bring their “mad ideas to life”.

“From day one, this was going to happen. The Sirens isn’t so much of an idea, it’s a statement. This year has been a real roller coaster ride. This is our business so we are spending lots of time at the moment, creating the show and laying the foundations for the strong brand which we are trying to create. We work on everything ourselves. Each of us has a different style, so for solo routines, we tend to chose our own music and create our own choreography. We all have our own set to hold, so yes we clash heads and argue because we all have different ideas but that’s how businesses work.”

The Sirens is an organic project that Lora, Helen and Regan embarked on when they set fuel to fire their bags and headed off into the sunset with big ideas, determined to follow through. Unlike many other girl dance tribes, they were all part of the original troupe that set hearts a blazing; and have enough notches on their Girl Guide patches to knock any man into submission. There’s no jack of all trades, hiding in the shadows, pulling the strings, shafting it up the back door, and pocketing the cash. The Sirens push their own buttons, proving empowerment can often depend on women choosing their own destiny, and not being at he mercy of some nameless male puppeteer.

“We employ someone to handle our management and bookings but The Sirens is our baby and we insist on being in full control! We would never do a show that we didn’t feel was right. We are trying to make the first steps in a very male dominated scene and we should be celebrated for that.”

[Regan in action]

Recently, a performance at a UK Festival (yes, Ghostfest, you!) was cancelled due to a Women’s Liberal group kicking off about their performance, essentially discriminating against them due to the sexualization of their ‘heavenly’ bodies. How did The Sirens feel about other women wanting to disqualify them from performing at a male-dominated festival, simply because of the sexual nature of their performance?

“It was a shame because we were the only female act performing at the festival. I would really like to think of myself as a feminist, and by this I mean, I am passionate about being counted as equal to men and I am proud to have made an impact along with the other Sirens in a male dominated scene. Our biggest fans are women who have taken self-confidence and strength from our performances and we are incredibly proud to be making a positive impact on women who have previously had body confidence issues. To us, feminism should be about looking after your sisters not rallying against them. The more women discriminate against each other, the weaker the feminist movement gets. We want to be treated equally and move forward with our careers. We had as much right to be there as anyone else, and this is just another example of feminists holding back women’s development in the modern world.”

It’s very easy for us, as women, and as “feminists”, to sit and judge others and what they do; to say what is right and wrong, based upon our own set of values and morals. But should so-called “feminists” prevent other women from doing what they want to do, because we take offence to an act which sexualizes the female form?

“To us, performance is art and the female form is incredibly beautiful in whatever shape or size it comes in. We should all celebrate this. Every one of us is passionate about being on stage and the amount of clothes we wear is only a part of the show, and not what it is solely about. On the whole, we do get so much love and support from the girls out there, that it almost feels like these views don’t exist. We don’t expect everyone to love and celebrate what we do; if we were in a band, we would be facing the same thing. If you don’t like a band, don’t listen to them. I believe that as long as women are getting paid and enjoying themselves, other women should not bother about their career path! As long as you make money, enjoy yourself and don’t change for anybody, you are going to be fine. And ff you don’t like, don’t look!”

I don’t need to preach to SG lovers that the female body is beautiful in all its forms. But should we not celebrate women who have the guts and the follow-through, to get up on stage and stand up for every single tattooed or “other” woman out there? When I originally spoke to The Sirens about doing this interview, we talked about how none of these stunning, beautiful, awesome women fitted the cookie-cutter standards of beauty, we see in mainstream magazines. As every one of them is covered in tattoos, with mad (awesome) hair and a variety of piercings – something highly celebrated on this here website.

“We’ve all had tattoos long before it came into fashion. My first tattoo was a blue star on my ribs. I justified it by telling my mum when I was older my boobs would be so saggy, you wouldn’t be able to see it. We feel like the whole Miami ink culture has made everyone feel they need some tragic reason for getting a tattoo; all of us believe that a tattoo doesn’t have to mean anything to you.”

With the exception of SG, there are perhaps far less representations of curvier or tattooed women than anorexic six stone model types (And believe me, I’m not getting at skinny people who actually eat). Surely, it’s nice for those of us who don’t fit that “standard” of beauty to see “other” representations of femininity doing the rounds in our media?

Like a knife that cuts deep through the wound, and pisses blood all over the floor, there is that engaging argument that permeates many “feminist” discourses, regarding the sexualization and objectification of the female form. Some argue that such objectification is more to men’s benefit than to the women who are performing and/or being objectified. Laura Mulvey wrote a very famous essay, that film scholars amongst us will be familiar with, regarding the “male gaze”. Her theory was that women exist in film so the viewer can identify with the male protagonist, and that they are of not of any importance in themselves, apart from as a sexual object to satisfy a (male) wish for “pleasurable (voyeuristic) looking”. How do The Sirens feel about such “feminist” notions?

“We have all done implied nude shoots and some of these have been published. A women’s body has evolved throughout millions of years to attract the opposite sex for mating purposes. Although we would all like to think that we are detached from such primal instincts, the fact still remains that this is a part of everyday life. We do this for our own pleasure, if it brings pleasure to anyone else – male, or female – then that’s great. The nature of our performance means that we command respect from every audience member. We are much more likely to hear someone say they are scared of us than anything crude or disrespectful. We like it that way! As performers, we are able to put a personality to how we look. We are business women, running a company and building a brand as well as performing semi-naked.”

[Left to right: Lora & Helen in action]

The girls recently toured with Steel Panther on the UK leg of their worldwide tour, providing the only support to the band on a tour filled with guys rocking out in 80s hair metal wigs, leopard print leggings and mouths full of crude, sexist jokes about strippers. How did they feel about performing on such a tour?

“Not only are Steel Panther talented musicians they are really amazing actors and comedians too. The show is just a parody of 80s rock stars and the girls that go know exactly what they are going to get. We formed really good friendships on that tour, and we were treated really well. We had so much fun and I can’t think of a more perfect band for us to have performed with. Anyone that feels the show is sexist needs to see it and understand that the wigs come off at the end of it!”

Isn’t that the nature of performance, as a whole? The opportunity to act out your inner desires and bring life to your creative ideas and produce something of value that entertains, or brings pleasure to others and to yourself. I don’t need to tell those of you that frequent SG that women’s bodies are beautiful; I probably don’t even need to tell you that we should celebrate women of all shapes and sizes and discover the awesomeness that often gets overlooked by such a dominating and, often, monolithic media that can, and does, provide the same “ideal” standard of beauty that is acceptable to the masses. That is what I love about SG and about performers such as The Sirens; these women are strong women with ideas and opinions, and their beauty is celebrated as much as their personalities are.

Shouldn’t we as “feminists”, be supporting women to perform in male dominated scenes? Are they not the ones who are going break the cookie-cutter “ideal” mould? Are they not the women, who are going to rip apart this outdated mythology from the inside – out? If they take men on, in male dominated scenes such as motor sport and metal music and command respect from those men objectifying them, are they not doing the rest of us a huge favour? Making it known that their beauty, and “legend”, is also testament to the personalities that drive this lust for success – that drive the ambition to succeed!

Getting their own back then, on the men who sexualize them, are the girls bigger fans of tattooed men, or “virgin blood”?

“Oooh I like the term “virgin blood”. I’m really a personality girl though; tattoos don’t really attract or repel me. It’s very unusual to find “virgin blood” these days, so it’s really quite refreshing.”

FYI boys, Regan is taken. And her boyfriend is probably way cooler than you! Never mind the fact, he could kick yo’ ass.

[Regan]

Oh and Regan, Can I, er…. borrow your car?