Sleeper frontwoman Louise Wener didn’t speak about her alleged sexual harassment experiences because she wanted her band to be in the headlines, rather than just herself.
The 52-year-old singer has said that "lad culture" in the 90s led her into situations with people she’d like to "punch now", but has said she didn’t speak out against the alleged harassment because she didn’t want to "make the story about" herself.
Speaking as she reflected on her past experiences in the wake of the #MeToo movement, Louise said: "There are people I would probably punch now if I were to see them. You know, I was really young. I was outspoken and confident but still, there was this thinking that you had to join in with the ladism, and if you didn’t, it was questioned.
"I feel I should have complained about it more at the time. But also, you didn’t want to make the story about yourself. You wanted it to be more like, ‘I’m in a band, I’m a songwriter, a lyricist’. It was a case of, do I want to make that the story or talk about something someone did to me one time. So you kind of wanted to let it slide and gloss over it."
Louise – whose band are making a comeback over two decades since their 1998 split – also admits that some people have even apologised to her for things they did back in the 90s.
She added: "Some people have come up and apologised to me, and said ‘I’m so sorry for that interview that I did with you."
Sleeper released three albums and were featured on the soundtrack to cult film ‘Trainspotting’ before their split, and Louise said it was her sister’s stage four cancer diagnoses in 2017 that led her to wanting to reunite the group.
She said: "Actually, it was a very sad thing. My sister got ill in 2017, and part of my reaction to that was that I wanted to do something life affirming and out of my comfort zone, and I thought, maybe it’s my last chance to play with my band again. So I had a mad impulse to do it."
And the ‘Sale of the Century’ singer – who is married to Sleeper drummer Andy MacLure – says it was "nerve-wracking" picking up her guitar for the first time in years.
Speaking to Radio X presenter Gordon Smart for the online music TV show ‘Red Stripe Presents: This Feeling TV’, she said: "It was quite nerve wracking. We didn’t know how it was going to be, how it was going to sound. We didn’t know if we could still do it and it took a while for everyone to get their mojo back.
"There was a moment when it was dreadful … I couldn’t play guitar at all, I literally couldn’t bend my fingers to make the chords anymore. But there was a moment that it sounded immense, and everyone was looking at each other saying, this is really good."
Sleeper frontwoman Louise Wener didn’t want to draw attention to herself with harassment stories
