"When I came to the bar [in the 1990s], women couldn't even wear trousers. I used to get men saying: What colour knickers are you wearing today, Lesley?' It's better now, but back then law was way worse than music in how it treated women. Woods who is now 67 still works as a barrister, specialising in immigration law, though in the last 15 years she has dipped her toes back into music, performing occasional solo gigs and self-releasing an EP, In the Fade, in early 2025."
"Next month, she returns to the stage for a UK tour as Au Pairs. Led by Woods, the band now has new members: Estella Adeyeri of the Black feminist punk band Big Joanie, and the Thurston Moore Group's Jem Doulton and Alex Ward. They are all a lot younger than me, but then most people are, she says with a dry laugh. I meet Woods over tea and biscuits at her home in east London where she lives with her small dog, Dusky."
Lesley Woods rose to prominence as singer and guitarist of the Birmingham post-punk band Au Pairs in the early 1980s and faced aggressive misogyny from male audiences. After the band split in 1983 she retrained as a lawyer and experienced pervasive sexism at the bar in the 1990s. She continues to practise as a barrister specialising in immigration law while returning to music over the past 15 years with occasional gigs and a self-released EP, In the Fade, in early 2025. Woods now leads a revived Au Pairs with younger new members and is rehearsing for a UK tour.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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