Echobelly’s Sonya Madan says all the male Britpop stars treated her well in the ’90s.
Lad culture was rife at the time, but the singer and guitarist has insisted she had a “decent experience” as a female in the white male-dominated scene – which included Oasis, Blur and Pulp and Suede – and she didn’t feel personally attacked when she was compared to other female-fronted Britpop groups, such as Sleeper and Elastica.
She told ContactMusic.com: “I think lots of the male bands were lumped in as well, as you know, white male. Britpop acts as well.
“So to tell you the truth, I think it’s a bit of a lazy accusation. To a certain extent, there is some merit in it, but I think that there were more women then fronting and being in bands. And um, there are plenty of us.
“Tell you the truth I don’t think it was an issue. I think people like to think of it as an issue now because it’s so terribly trendy to talk about women’s rights and it wasn’t back then. But at the same time, I don’t personally believe in lifting someone up by putting someone else down.”
Sonya added: “Yeah, and in my experience, the boys in all the bands that I came across were really lovely and supportive and decent.
“If there was difficulty, it tended to come from a music press and supposedly intelligent people who should have known better.
“But as far as camaraderie with other artists, of male artists, yeah, I had a really decent experience.”
On’ 30th anniversary tour.
The group – now comprising Sonya Madanat and Glenn Johansson – achieved a No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart with their second studio album On in 1995, which featured the tracks Great Things and Dark Therapy.
Echobelly will celebrate 30 years of On with a tour later this year.
Echobelly’s On 30th anniversary tour dates :
OCTOBER
02nd Manchester – New Century Hall
03rd Leeds – Project House
04th Sheffield – Leadmill
09th Bath – Komedia
10th Coventry – HMV Empire
11th Oxford – O2 Academy
12th Southampton – Engine Rooms
16th London – Electric Ballroom
17th Brighton – Chalk
18th Swansea – Sin City
NOVEMBER
05th Newcastle – The Cluny
06th Glasgow – Oran Mor
07th Stoke – Sugarmill
08th Nottingham – The Level