Psychedelic Lunch

Welcome to our “Psychedelic Lunch” series where we find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes and explore psychedelic tunes from the 60’s to today. Weekdays At Noon EST. Enjoy the trip!

Rock Bitch

Rockbitch were an expat, British, mostly female, metal band, who performed nude and incorporated sexual acts and Pagan rituals into their performances.Associated acts.

The band was originally formed (as Red Abyss) by bassist Amanda Smith-Skinner from the members of a free sex commune, where monogamy is outlawed. Musically, Red Abyss drew on jazz, funk and rock influences dominated by singer Julie’s Janis Joplin-influenced vocals. In time Red Abyss’s music became harder edged, drawing on punk and metal influences. As its line-up changed, this led to a name change to Rockbitch. Rockbitch was nearly ready to call it a day due to the apathy of male-dominated rock audiences.

At what was intended to be their last gig (at a biker festival) Rockbitch decided to put the wild sex of their home life into the stage act. They went down a storm and decided to continue touring in order to spread their pro-sex message. The most infamous part of their stage act was “The Golden Condom” contest. This involved throwing the so-called golden condom out into the audience. Whoever caught it (man or woman) was taken backstage for sex with one or more band members. The intention of this was to prove the band were not just an act and were ready to stand by their beliefs.

Rockbitch toured widely from the late ’90s until 2002, meeting increasing resistance from authorities, particularly English town councils who were constantly banning gigs. Large sections of their audience (particularly in England) tended to consist of drunken lads just wanting to see some nudity, with no interest in the message. However Rockbitch also began to attract a small following of men and women who seemingly understood the band’s message and had their lives changed forever. Outside the UK (particularly in Holland) they sometimes played to more sympathetic audiences. However, in Germany they suffered many censorship problems.