As Electrelane prepare to play what might be their last gig at XOYO tonight, Mia Clarke talks to Laura Snapes about their "emotional" return

(excerpt)

I went to a really disappointing talk recently where Louise Wener from Sleeper said, in so many words, that there are next to no great female bands in music at the moment. It took a lot of effort not to stand up and scream. Do you think we're in a good place regarding that at the moment? On one hand, I love seeing a band like Warpaint do incredibly well, but loathe how much of what's written about them comments on their looks, and their famous mates - as if they couldn't have had this success by themselves.

MC: It's very disappointing to hear that Louise said that! I do think that there are a fair amount of female bands doing well compared to ten years ago, which is wonderful, but you're right— looks are always commented on more with female bands compared to male ones. I recently checked out a video about Kate Nash's Rock'N'Roll for Girls After School Music Club and saw the statistic that only 14% of the 75,000 members of the Performing Rights Society are female, so there's still a long way to go.