Viv Albertine

Viv Albertine

Viv Albertine (Viviane Katrina Louise Albertine) was born on December 1st, 1954 and is currently 71 years old. Viv Albertine was born in Syndey, New South Wales, Australia. Albertine attended Hornsey School of Art and Chelsea School of Art.

Viv is best known as the guitarist for the punk band that she was with from 1977 until 1982, called the Slits, with whom she recorded two albums.

Viv was a key figure in the 1970s punk scene, and was the Clash’s Mick Jones’ on/off girlfriend. In 1976, she and Sid Vicious formed Flowers of Romance. She joined up with the Slits as their guitarist after Kate Korus (founding member of the band) left. She was reluctant to join an all female band, however changed her mind after she was told to shut up and get on with it by her friend Chrissie Hynde.

After the Slits broke up in 1982, Viv studied filmmaking and subsequently worked for the BBC and British Film Institute as a freelance director. She also made promos and videos for bands, many of which got used on UK MTV during most of the 1980s and 1990s.

After a lengthy break from recording and performing music, she released her only solo studio album in 2012, called The Vermilion Border.

With Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys.: A Memoir, Viv reveals the uncompromising and rocking tale of her life out on the front lines at the birth of the British punk movement and beyond.

Viv is a pioneer. As songwriter and lead guitarist for The Slits, she influenced an entire future generation of artists including Carrie Brownstein and Kurt Cobain. She formed a band with Sid Vicious and was even there the night that he met Nancy Spungeon. She toured America with the Clash, tempted Johnny Thunders, dated Mick Jones, and inspired “Train in Vain” by the Clash. However she was no mere muse. She delivers an unfiltered and unique look at the traditionally male-dominated scene.

Her tale is much more than a music memoir. Her narrative is nothing less than a fierce correspondence from life on the fringes of culture. She recalls rebelling from patriarchal society and conformity ever since her days while still an adolescent girl in the same London suburb of Muswell Well where the Kinks were formed.

She writes with an unforgiving memory and brash honesty about immersing herself in punk culture among the likes of the Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols. About her devastation when the Slits broke up and her reinventing herself as a screenwriter and director. Or marriage, abortion, motherhood, and surviving cancer.

This book is a raw chronicle of fashion, sex, music, love, feminism, and so much more which connects the early days of punk to the Riot Grrl movement and beyond. It is also the tale of one empowered woman remaining true to herself and making it all on her own in the modern world.

Viv Albertine: Lists & Other Mentions

• Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys was a New York Times: The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years Selection in 2019.

Related Authors

Fans of Viv Albertine also enjoy these authors:

1. Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale Series.
2. Ernest Cline, author of the Ready Player One Series.
3. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of: Mexican Gothic.
4. Patti Smith, author of: Just Kids.
5. R.F. Kuang, author of: Babel, or The Necessity of Violence.

Viv Albertine: F.A.Q