Rock music looms large in my novels, as it always has in my life.  Rock bands are central to my vision of the Saltbury Universe and most of the ones I talk about include lesbian or bi-sexual women.  There’s Debbie Stewart’s ‘Xeroed’ and ‘Aleyse’, and Deb has been in a same-sex relationship with Martine for decades.  Their older daughters, Roisin and Hazel have their own band, ‘Fauld’ made up of two lesbian couples.  Hazel often acts as tour drummer for sinister Goth band, ‘Dark Portal’, led by lesbian Mabel Trevithick, who performs as ‘Hex’.  And then, of course, there’s ‘Sboorial’, led by another same-sex couple: Ruth and Aleyse Guptah.

In the past, people might have told me that such a concentration was unrealistic, and ten or fifteen years ago they might have had a point.  Of course, there have always been LGBTQ women in Rock.  But they were far more likely to stay firmly in the closet for fear of public hostility.  We might think of Dusty Springfield, Janis Joplin, or Tanita Tikeram, not to mention every teenage boy’s fantasy in the 1980s: Debbie Harry and Samantha Fox (sorry lads, you weren’t going to get them anyway).  There were doubtless others who never came out, and who can blame them?

Yet that is as nothing compared with the flowering we are seeing at present, and from all over the world.  There are bands such as lesbian couple, ‘Strange Relations’.  There are plain Rock acts, like ‘Muna’, ‘Pale Waves’ or ‘Thunderpussy’.  There are bands that, like ‘Xeroed’, have a single lesbian member, including ‘Girl Ray’, ‘The XX’ and ‘Screaming Females’.  And there are truly glorious synth artists, such as Japanese House, Art School Girlfriend, ‘Goodnight Louisa’ or ‘Hachiku’. 

Above all, there is a stunning wealth of talent that might come under the general umbrella-term of ‘singer/songwriter’.  We might mention Jen Cloher, ‘St. Vincent’, ‘Torres’, ‘Snail Mail’, Courtney Barnett, Alex Lahey, and her partner Gordi.  There’s ‘Girl in Red’, Katie Harkin, Aurora, Julien Baker and Marika Hackman, to name but a few.  And established artists are still coming out, most recently Angel Olsen and ‘Let’s Eat Grandma’s Rosa Walton.  There are also brilliant non-binary and trans-gender artists such as Jemma Freeman, Diavol Strâin and ‘Girlpool’s’ Avery Tucker.

It’s tempting to ask why this is happening, and there are no doubt various reasons.  Firstly, as I say, modern artists are just more likely to feel free to come out, where past generations might have feared for their careers and even their safety if word got out.  My next book, ‘Martine’, a prequel to the ‘Saltbury’ series based in the 1970s, shows something of the horrendous sexism Debbie Stewart endured in those times, not least from her record company and even from within her own band.  But this is followed by a veritable media feeding frenzy of hatred when her newly forged relationship with Martine is leaked to the press.  Life is no bed of roses for a woman in music even now, but hopefully we have made at least a little progress.

Perhaps as a result there has been a positive explosion of great female artists of late and, in particular, so much of the most innovative new music is now coming from women, to the extent that I can’t actually remember when I last bought a new record by an all-male act (and I buy a lot of music).  If there are more women, there are almost bound to be more LGBTQ women, by the simple law of averages.

But even so, the numbers still appear disproportionate, perhaps because of fairly obvious practicalities.  For example, lesbians are a good deal less likely to be tied down by men, be they fathers, husbands or whatever.  And, although many lesbians do have children (Debbie Stewart has four), they are perhaps less likely to do so than straight women, whilst being far more likely to get help from their partners with childcare.

So, we have more, freer women who are more likely to be open about their sexuality.  The result is a thing of glory and some of the best music around, both in this world and in Saltbury’s.