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Brix Smith becomes President of The F-List
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 22 November 2021
The F-List – the online resource that lists UK artists, bands, songwriters and composers who identify as female – has announced a new President for the year ahead in the form of Brix Smith, the songwriter and musician perhaps best known for her time with The Fall, and who is now lead vocalist and guitarist with Brix & The Extricated.
Smith’s appointment comes exactly a year after The F-List – initially a project set up by music industry equality and diversity campaigner Vick Bain – was relaunched as a social enterprise, ramping up its profile and reach. She takes over from composer and musician Anoushka Shankar, the organisation’s first President.
Bain originally set up The F-List in response to festivals and broadcasters claiming that they struggled to find female music-makers to book and commission. Based on her academic work on diversity in the music industry, she began building a database of artists, songwriters and musicians that those festivals and broadcasters could work with.
Looking back at its first year as a formal social enterprise, The F-List says that it has worked with “numerous festivals and event promoters in a variety of ways, from sourcing female musicians and helping to curate line-ups, to supporting and celebrating already female friendly line-ups, including Rave To The Moon, Under The Stars, Primadonna, Brighton 7s Festival, OneFest, Tsitsit Jewish Fringe Festival, Secret Sessions Festival and OnJam online events”.
The organisation has also “officially partnered with seven music industry organisations over the year, including the Association Of Independent Festivals, Independent Venue Week, Skiddle, Scottish Women Inventing Music and the Grassroots Music Network” with whom they have had “a variety of activities and mutual support”.
The organisation adds that it welcomes “every festival promoter and booker to utilise the platform and to be the agents of change as we shift towards a diversified and inclusive music industry”.
Meanwhile, commenting on her appointment as President of The F-List, Smith says: “The F-list is an incredible resource and a highly valuable support system for females within in the UK music industry. At long last there exists a vehicle that collates our talents and skills across multiple facets of the music industry, connecting us, supporting us, and highlighting our assets to the wider world”.
“I have been a female in the music industry for 38 years”, she adds, “[since] I joined The Fall as a guitarist and songwriter. If you look at my hands you will see the scars from punching the glass ceiling. Though at times it’s been daunting, I was lucky enough to have a strong mother who told me: ‘You can be anything you want in this world, don’t let the fact that you are a woman stop you'”.
“Before me, there were only a handful of high-profile female players who I could look to as role models. There were even fewer female music executives or women in positions of power within the industry to rely on as allies or to champion the cause of inclusion. Now at last the tide is turning and it is resources like the F-List that are helping to turn it”.
“The time for inclusivity and diversity, in all aspects of life, is now”, she concludes. “I am proud to be a contributor to this change. I will endeavour to raise as much awareness as possible while continuing to fight the good fight musically and to level the playing field once and for all. I believe that being a woman is my superpower. So, let’s harness all our superpowers and change the landscape”.
