Salvation Jane: the Beginning

A Q&A session with Salvation Jane founding members Cascade Leggett and Maureen Cummuskey. 40 years later….

Q: It’s been over 4 decades since Salvation Jane said farewell to the Canberra pub scene, concerts for women’s rights and social justice causes and even a collaboration with Canberra’s women’s theatre troupe. That was a lot to pack into the 5 years you were on the scene from 1980 to 1985. Maybe it’s best to start from the beginning. Why did you call your band Salvation Jane?

A: There’s a plant called Salvation Jane which is also known as Paterson’s Curse and it’s regarded by some people in Australia as a real pest. It’s got a beautiful purple flower which is the colour of the women’s movement and being known as a nuisance fitted with our feminist intentions and subversive humour aesthetic.

Q: Why did you decide to form a women’s rock band?

A: We had done a few acoustic numbers together with other Canberra women musicians in 1979 and early 1980. But we were keen to form a women’s electronic band as it was glaringly obvious that Canberra had no women rock bands. We both liked a mix of music that suited a rock band and we wanted to put feminist activism into performance. We were intentionally a feminist rock band. This included connecting the dots to intersectional issues that impacted on our lives as well. We wanted to tell stories through songs and music that celebrated women’s lives as well as being able to address serious issues that were ignored and marginalised in mainstream rock music.

Q: You performed a combination of rock, folk and punk?

A: Mostly. We developed our setlists based on showcasing and interpreting songs that had a message from a feminist perspective. Then we used a blend of styles to fit the gig. So you could say we used a mashup of genres. We called it ‘ewe-wave music’ as a cheeky response to mainstream media questions.

Q: What was your first gig?

A: A concert in 1980 headlined by Robyn Archer at the Canberra Theatre Centre. We jumped from doing a few acoustic gigs together in small venues straight into what was Canberra’s major performance centre at that time.

Q: How did that gig happen?

A: An opportunity came along when we were approached to perform at The Labor ’80 Show. Doing a concert with iconic Robyn Archer in this prestigious performing arts centre was scary, exciting and an absolute ‘Yes’! In 2 months we collected a 5-piece band together, purchased or borrowed electronic gear, created a setlist of 7 songs and Salvation Jane emerged.

Q: What was your band set-up for this first gig?

A: Drums, keyboards, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, vocalist. One band member played flute, others added ukulele, xylophone, mandolin and banjo and all band members performed vocals on some of the songs.

Q: That first gig. You performed in a 1200 seater performing arts venue, opened for an prestigious Australian performer and the concert was sold out. How did your debut go?

A: We arrived backstage to be greeted with our own dressing room, a big sign with our name on the door, a huge in-house sound system and professional sound engineers taking us through the sound check. The 7 songs we did were really well received and we were called back for an encore. We had no more songs in our repertoire so we went back out on the stage, apologised for this omission, did a quick bow to the audience and went back to our glamorous backstage dressing room to celebrate.

Q: What happened next?

A: After that we started getting offers to perform at other events. So we found a regular practice space and frantically began rehearsing a lot more songs! By early 1981 we were planning how to break into the Canberra pub circuit and had done our first media interview.

Find out more about the formation of Salvation Jane

Read more about how Salvation Jane began.