Fire Party was a band from

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

They were together from the autumn of 1986 to the spring of 1990. The band members were Amy Pickering (vocals), Natalie Avery (guitar), Kate Samworth (bass), and Nicky Thomas (drums).Strong, p. 333

History

Amy Pickering was involved in the D.C. hardcore scene as a high school student at

H-B Woodlawn The H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program, commonly referred to as H-B, or HBW, is a democratic alternative all-county public school located in Arlington County, Virginia, based on the liberal educational movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The school, ...

. She then went on to work at

Dischord Records Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.–based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release '' Minor Disturbance'' by their band the Teen Id ...

. On her first day of work there, she tore down a sign that said "No Skirts Allowed". Oman Emmet, previously known as Tomas Squip of Beefeater, named Pickering as "the mother of the revolution" for her role in what became known as Revolution Summer in 1985, and he credited Pickering with "setting a season into motion." "Revolution Summer" had been a phrase Pickering used in notes she sent out to people in the D.C. punk scene to reflect "a climax, the end of something" and to re-inspire punks in D.C. It led to events like the punk percussion protest which protested

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

in South Africa and President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

. Before Nicky Thomas joined Fire Party, she previously played in bands such as Lebensluste and In Pieces. Pickering joined with Avery, Samworth, and Thomas to form Fire Party which, according to Avery, "grew out of this really tight-knit group of people very much shaped by a very small music scene". The band made their debut on February 1987 at d.c. space and their set was dedicated to the recently deceased Toni Young, a former member of the bands Red C and Dove, as well as one of the few women of color in the D.C. punk scene at the time. Fire Party released a six-song self-titled

mini-LP A mini-LP or mini-album is a short record album or LP, usually retailing at a lower price than an album that would be considered full-length. It is distinct from an EP due to containing more tracks and a slightly longer running length. A mini- ...

, an eight-song album (''New Orleans Opera'') while together. They played some Midwest shows with Scream, and in early 1988, they toured Europe with them and also supported

That Petrol Emotion That Petrol Emotion was a London-based rock band formed in 1984 by musicians from Northern Ireland with an American vocalist. They recorded five albums between 1986 and 1994, exploring an eclectic fusion of indie rock, post-punk, garage rock and ...

. While in Europe, they recorded a session for

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

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show. ''File 13'', a punk fanzine from Massachusetts, referred to Fire Party as "one of the most powerful groups around today" in a review of ''New Orleans Opera'', which the zine also cited as one of its favorite releases of 1989. A self-titled compilation of the tracks from their two albums plus their Peel session and "Pilate" from the ''State of the Union'' compilation was released by Dischord in 1996.Kellman, Andy
Fire Party Biography
,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. Retrieved March 23, 2013 Despite their small discography, Fire Party, along with related "Revolution Summer" bands like Embrace and

Rites of Spring Rites of Spring was an American punk rock band from Washington, D.C., formed in late 1983. Along with Embrace and Beefeater, they were one of the mainstay acts of the 1985 Revolution Summer movement Andersen, Mark; Jenkins, Mark ( Soft Skul ...

, had a lasting influence on the artistic direction of American punk. Apart from being an all-female band, a rarity in punk music at the time, drummer Nicky Thomas was also one of the few

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

women involved in the punk music scene.

Jenny Toomey Jennifer Gillen Toomey (born 1968) is an American indie rock musician and arts activist. Career Toomey was a member of the bands Geek, Tsunami (Virginia band), Tsunami, Liquorice, Grenadine (band), Grenadine, So Low and Choke, among others, a ...

, musician and co-founder of the Simple Machines record label, described Fire Party as "the world's first female-fronted

emo Emo () is a genre of rock music characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and from the Washington, D.C., hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands ...

band."

Discography

*''Fire Party'' mini-LP (May 1988), Dischord *''New Orleans Opera'' mini-LP/cassette (October 1989), Dischord ;Compilations *''Fire Party'' CD (October 1996), Dischord - compiles both albums with five additional tracks

Notes

References

* *Greenwald, Andy. ''Nothing Feels Good : Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo''. 1st ed., St. Martin's Griffin, 2003. *Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate,

External links

Fire Party
page on

Southern Records Founded 1992 by John Loder, Southern Records is an independent record label (Loder also ran the recording facility Southern Studios). It is based in London and until 2008 had offices in the United States, France and Berlin. The label is clos ...

Fire Party
page on

{{Authority control All-female punk bands American emo musical groups Punk rock groups from Washington, D.C. Dischord Records artists First-wave emo bands Musical groups established in 1986 Musical groups disestablished in 1990 1986 establishments in Washington, D.C. Proto-riot grrrl bands