What Is FEMINAL MUSIC?
FEMINAL MUSIC is part of a growing worldwide movement empowering women over 40 through music.
Our workshops give women at beginner level the chance to learn how to play simple rock music via lessons in guitar, bass, drums, vocals or keyboards, form real bands, and play in a showcase performance.
But it doesn’t end there.
We also offer post-workshop support to ensure our bands continue to develop and thrive through ongoing rehearsal and booking and playing live gigs.
Who Is It For?
If you’re a woman over 40 who missed out on the chance to play music and join a band in your younger years, FEMINAL MUSIC is for you.
Our series of workshops are for total beginners, and those with some experience who’d like to get back into it.
If you’re an intermediate or advanced player who would be interested in joining a band with newbies, you’re welcome too!
Why Do We Need It?
Women have always been marginalised in rock music. Many of us sat like mannequins while our boyfriends jammed, but we were never included or invited to take part. The boys’ club mentality was intimidating, so we may have felt unwelcome and too scared to try. Maybe we let perfectionism hold us back, or, we simply had no other femmes to play with.
FEMINAL MUSIC says, forget all that and let's start where we are!
You’re never too old, or too fat, or too grey, or from the wrong cultural background, or not good enough. FEMINAL MUSIC robustly rejects ageism, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism, and embraces taking up space, making noise, and having a fucking good time.
It’s never, ever too late, and we can prove it. Read on.
Our Inspiration
In 2021, Ruth Miller founded the Unglamorous Music Project in Leicester, UK. The aim was to create a local punk scene for older, all-female bands who write their own music.
Ruth was a skilled guitarist and songwriter long before Unglamorous. In 1984, she formed the punk band Po! who went on to record both a Peel Session and a studio session for BBC Radio 1, and in 1997 were awarded NME’s single of the week. She also formed Ruth's Refrigerator in 1990, and Jody and the Creams in 1992.
When Miller was approaching 60, she decided she wanted to recapture the musical joys of her youth and form a band with other middle-aged women. But she soon realized that many women faced a barrier to getting involved: they couldn’t play an instrument.
As told to Positive News: Miller roped in friends and randomly found her bass player in a restaurant. “She looked so punky, I thought she must be in a band. She wasn’t, but it turned out she’d always wanted to play bass. So I taught her.”
The Verinos took to the stage five months later in a gig which proved to be a pivotal moment, as Miller was surrounded by women hungry to get involved.
She went on to set up a series of workshops under the umbrella of Unglamorous Music which encourages participants to learn and experiment as they go. In 2022, the project birthed seven all-female bands who played their first gig on International Women’s Day that year, a little over two months after forming.
We’ve created a whole new approach to music … we’re actually producing great art rock, and that’s not been done before by ordinary women from our age group. We’re proof that you don’t have to be young to start a band.
Ruth Miller, as told to Positive News
Tragically, Ruth Miller died in October 2023 of breast cancer at the age of 61.
While her loss is immeasurable, her legacy is undoubtable. As of 2024, there are approximately 20 all-female bands, comprised of more than 80 women, gigging across the UK. In their number are women from the town of Folkestone, who read about the project and decided to start their own branch of Unglamorous. The two towns recently collaborated on an International Women’s Day weekend of performances spanning three days.
It’s no stretch to say that Unglamorous Music has changed lives.
Go check out just some of these tremendous women and bands on Instagram and get inspired!
Unglamorous Music, Leicester, Unglamorous Music, Folkestone, The Verinos, Boilers, Virginia's Wolves, Velvet Crisis, Glitch Magnet, Dada Women, The Wonky Portraits, Venus Attax, Miss-Fit Sisters, SHE-BITE, Samphire Hoes, Rogue Notion, Mental Load, MissKicks, Pretty Dirty Rats, Ginkgo Cloud.
(Playing music) frees me from the fact that older women disappear in our culture; that we get looked at as old boilers – which is why our band is called Boilers – who have nothing of interest or importance to say. Punk enables me to refute that – at volume.
Fish, 59, ‘Boilers’, from the Unglamorous Project
Who started FEMINAL MUSIC?
FEMINAL MUSIC was founded in Naarm/Melbourne in March 2024.
We first became aware of the possibility of teaching older women how to play instruments and join bands, when we read an article in The Guardian about the Unglamorous Music Project.
We thought, what if we started a similar project here in Melbourne?
After all, Melbourne is central to live music, not just in Australia, but globally. A 2017 census found that we had more live music venues per capita than any other city in the world.
On any night of the week, Melbourne’s music venues are filled with punters eager to see their favourite bands, or perhaps, to find something new.
Amongst the crowds, you may spot a mature woman who watches, in part, because she never got the chance to play, and never thought she ever would.
Have we got news for her!
As FEMINAL MUSIC grows and develops, we pay tribute to Ruth Miller in everything that we do. Because without her, there would be no us.
