Perserverance Works; well, so they say – it is also a photographic studio in east London where I meet The Pipettes: Becki, Rose and Gwenno. The three girls are clad in their trademark polka dot dresses for the photoshoot that has just taken place, and are practically hopping up and down with excitement at the prospect of supporting Brit-winners, the Kaiser Chiefs at the Brixton Academy. Whilst Rose is too hungover to contribute much to the conversation (she has been hanging out with the hard-drinking British Sea Power, again) the other two girls chat animatedly about their inimitable sound.
The Pipettes are proud to call themselves a manufactured band.
Becki: Our guitarist Bobby approached us individually about two years ago and asked us whether we wanted to be in a girl band. We were like FUCK YEAH. That sounds amazing. Of course we were up for it.
Rose: And we all knew Bobby was a good songwriter…
Becki: He had become kind of obsessed with Phil Spector and Jo Meek whilst he was doing his university dissertation on pop music…and he had realised that nowadays there was nothing around that had kind of instanteous appeal of the girl bands from the late 50s and early 60s.
The Bunsen Burners was never a seriously considered name.
Becki: We wanted to manufacture ourselves before anyone else had the chance to, and there wasn’t really anything else that had a scientific feel to it, that ended in – ettes, and yet was still feminine and harking back to an era of reference as well.
The band totals seven members in all.
Becki: But it’s not like Bobby is ‘The Fat Controller.’ He is part of our backing band, The Cassettes. Together we are a slick pop song writing machine. It’s a really exciting way to work because we constantly edit each other and get rid of all the fluff.
They can reel off a long list of obscure girl bands with ridiculous names.
Becki: We’re inspired by a lot of girl bands, most of whom didn’t gain the commercial popularity of bands like The Supremes, The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las. Such as The Honeyz, The Exciters…
Rose: I really love the cover of Baby It’s You that the Shirelles did. There is a beautiful dynamic to that song and there is a brilliant keyboard solo in the middle.
Becki: I love Mama Said by numerous people. It was covered by Dusty Springfield.
Most of their songs are about boys.
Becki: But thay doesn’t make us feminists. Our mission is simply to bring back a more innocent kind of pop music.
Gwenno: We’ve struggled to gain respect on the indie scene because of our appearance and the nature of the music we make. But because there are three of us we are a bit of a gang and that makes it a hell of a lot easier to cope with any negativity.
Now everyone wants to dress in polka dots.
Gwenno: We have a really big female following and we love it, especially when fans get so excited about telling us where they found their polks dot dresses.
Becki: Although we are a little annoyed that there are polka dot dresses all over the shops now – we don’t really need to get them specially made for us anymore!
Gwenno is the newest recruit. She is Welsh.
Gwenno: But I used to be an Irish dancer and I also once appeared in a Bollywood film, singing in Hindi! I was a fan when I first saw The Pipettes in Cardiff supporting The Go! Team. They looked like they were having an utter blast on stage in an un self-conscious sort of way. They asked me to take over when Julia left and I didn’t hesitate.
Anyone can be a Pipette.
Rose: We write songs for girls like us.
Gwenno: We have enough attitude but we aren’t threatening. As a fan of The Pipettes I was like ‘Yeah, I want to do that’ when I saw them, and I say that as the biggest compliment. We hope all girls feel the same way when they see us. We are like everyone.
Becki: It would be lovely to have a hundred Pipettes one day. It’s great to see a whole row of girls at the front of the stage. I think when girls say that they like us, it means so more than when a bloke says the same thing.
Rose: It’s so boring to be asked out by a fan!
Their biggest gig to date was in Sweden.
Gwenno: They like their pop music over there.
Becki: We sold out a 550 capacity venue in a place we had never played before, and it was just amazing. People were wearing polka dot dresses and dancing along with us; they were far more in-your-face than any other crowd we’ve played for. To get a reaction like that in a country that’s not your own, well, it was just insanely mind-blowing. Sweden was very good to us.
They have just found out that they will be supporting the Kaiser Chiefs.
Becki: I’m going to be hitting that cowbell along with Ricky. No one is going to be able to stop me.
Rose: I always wanted to play the cowbell with The Pipettes, but no one would ever let me…
They want a white limo and a cocktail bar in their dressing room soon.
Becki: We’ve done 200 to 300 gigs and we’re sick of roughing it….
Rose: I want a make up artist to travel with us – I can’t do my make up at all.
Gwenno: We’re pretty ambitious when it comes to pop stardom – glamour, glitz and tackiness – that’s what we want.
Amelias magazine Issue 5/May 2006