Bleed

This London, England indie band created a somewhat manufactured industry ‘buzz’ by publicly taking on the pornography industry in a war of words. In 1994 they sent faxes to various music and mainstream press publications, plus top shelf sex magazines, to promote their anti-pornography 7-inch single ‘It Makes Money’. A fax relating the words: ‘Gang rape, Pair rape, Men On Women rape. Animals On Women Rape. Evisceration. Torture. Penetration. It makes money’, without further details, was received by Forum magazine. They replied with the missive: ‘Desperate Indie Losers. Mixing pop with politics. Being unable to play. Sad attention grabbing gestures. Anonymous faxes, for instance. Not Very Funny.’ The single was released on the group’s own Bleed Records label and included lines such as ‘I read a thing about censorship/Saying we should all be free to speak/But with his hand over my mouth/Where was my freedom of speech?’ The group - Rita Farragher (vocals), Noel Farragher (guitar), Graham Hanks (bass) and Andrew Paresi (drums) - included it on their 1995 debut album, The Good Times Are Killing Me. A collection of pleasantly played feminist-themed songs including ‘No Means No’ and ‘The Art Of Contradiction’, it received lukewarm reviews and failed to sell.