Sue

Coming from the rough side of Essex and growing up in the late 70s, I grew up with Punk/Ska music. Blondie Parralell lines was the first Album I ever owned (on cassette). My big hero was Suzi Quatro, I saw her on Top of the pops when I was really young, all dressed in leather playing bass singing 48 crash and resolved that I would be like her when I grew up. After living in London and Spain throughout my 20s, I ran off to San Fransisco in 2002 and didnt look back for 5 years. I moved in with a punk rock guitarist and happily went to all his gigs, carry his equipment around and listen to his songs. After we broke up I befriended a guitarist called Sebastian and we formed a band called the twots in one night with my ex on bass and Josh on drums. I made up the name because I thought that was how americans spell twat.

We played a gig that night at an open mic at the Stork Clubin Oakland. We played a cover of Bondage Up Yours and I played the kazoo to replace the sax.

We broke up after the gig and I shagged the drummer. A few months later we reformed and went on tour with my ex boyfriends band The Eddie Haskells. The tour was cut short after I hit my ex boyfriend with a traffic cone in San Diego, I then shagged my guitar player. It was at this point I realised I had shagged my band. We continued the party in Las Vegas and somehow ended up dropping off the drummer in some middle of nowhere town on the way home and leaving him there. It was now down to me and Sebastian. We found a new drummer and a bass player and started kicking some serious ass. We toured and played out right up when I left the u.s in 2007.

Now back in London I resolved to look for likeminded girls to play classic PuNK. (At least I cant shag this lot).

Claire

Hailing from the bright lights of a valley in Wales, it was obvious from a young age that the future was either sheep herding or to play an instrument and move to London. After an internship with the sheep, the latter prevailed.

Inspired by lots of girls with guitars taking no shit, I picked up a guitar at an early age and decided that was the way forward. Following bands in my teens, I knew life on the road was for me, and getting a taste of a proper tour bus did nothing to persuade me otherwise!

Having a female singer being a pre-requisite, the first band that met this criteria managed to get me barred from many establishments, and even played on Radio 1 before we disbanded. I was looking for something heavier anyway so not all was lost!

So deciding to form a band instead of joining a band, it didn't take long to find a willing drummer who turned out to be female as well! Finding a singer would prove more difficult. After a few mishap auditions including one with an alleged drug dealer, hope was deteriorating, especially after a failed night out trying to "pull" potential singers by staring at them in bars. Then a beacon of hope came as I was throwing myself down a mountain on a plank of wood. At first we ignored her. Then we insulted her. Yet still she was keen.

Liz

I got my arse into gear after realising punk and rock n roll was what I was into; I started hanging around local recording studios, with some guy who was kind of a mentor. This being the big bang for me I spent every penny I had on instruments, went to gigs, bought lots of records, read those important books… yada yada. I started what feels like a gazillion bands with boys who just wanted to get laid (don’t we all). The exception being I wanted to play gigs first and get laid after. I spent a few years in that cycle and being in the small Southwest found myself without a drummer pretty often; I figured I should learn to play ‘em myself.

In 2006 soon after the two weeks of self teaching I started playing drums in a hardcore punk band in the Southwest, which looking back was a cruiser weight of dismal, but I had a lot of fun, and I got to support Discharge so it wasn’t all bad. But for those rural punk bands who do nothing all year but then get a night of supporting their punk heroes I found that we’d kind of done it, kind of peaked, and boredom was totally besetting. I decided to fuck off to San Francisco for a bit, within 24 hours I joined a bay area 3 piece on bass, specialising in Hard Skin covers, with a penchant for Billy Bragg and Fugazi. The experience and the people were totally amazing, but I got itchy feet, ran out of money, missed my English lover (pathetically), and flew home, leaving my Ampeg and Fender P to the sweetest Californian, Pete of the Dead Ringers.

On return I started a psychobilly solo project, called Buttercunt, with a Gretsch hollowbody; the songs about rattle snakes, route 66, position 69 and vertigo. Apparently, (and I’m not disgruntled) not many people in the Southwest want to listen to this over a quiet pint of ale, so I fucked off back to London in late 2007. I continued with my solo shit but renamed it Hot Heart and made it a recording project. In the back of my mind I thought it would be totally rad to play in an all girl rock band; playing dive bars and handing it to the world, with fellow chicks that can keep up. In January 2009 I started looking for similar chicks who could do it right.

Libby

Born in Scotland but growing up in Sydney, I'm the youngest member of The Lost Girls. I moved to London last year, and since then I have been haunting arcades, skulking around libraries, and terrorising neighbourhood parks looking for a dog to play with me. I first picked up a bass when I was 14, and I could tell straight away we were going to be friends. The fact that it was and is obviously way too big for me and my tiny girly hands came as a welcome challenge. Unfortunately I don't have any debauched tales of rockstardom like the others, but let's see if we can't work on that.