Petrol Girls formed and played their first show in 2012, after just two practises, at a house party hosted by founding member Ren Aldridge (vocals) to celebrate International Women’s Day. Retaining original bassist Liepa Kuraitė, who had never played before Aldridge invited her to join, they eventually recruited Joe York (guitar) and Zock Astpai (drums) to complete a sustainable lineup. Aldridge took the name from a group of 19th century French revolutionaries,
les Pétroleuses, after hearing them mentioned by
Laurie Penny. In April 2018 the band released single "Survivor" and announced they had signed to
Hassle Records for their next release - EP
The Future Is Dark released on 14 September. Their second full length album
Cut & Stitch was released on 24 May 2019. It received positive reviews from
NPR,
The Skinny, and
Kerrang! - who in June also called it 'one of the best albums of the year so far'. In July 2019 it emerged that Aldridge was one of several musicians being sued by singer/rapper
Jonny "Itch" Fox, seeking aggravated damages and an injunction for alleged libel. On 6 November 2019 Kuraitė posted a statement on Facebook stating she was going to leave the band by the end of the year. On 8 March 2022 (
International Women's Day) Petrol Girls released the single
Fight For Our Lives featuring Janey Starling. Starling, formerly lead singer of the London band
Dream Nails, works for the British feminist organisation Level Up. Ren Aldridge said of the song; "I directly referenced Janey’s Dignity for Dead Women Level Up campaign in the lyrics to this track. Through this campaign, she introduced media guidelines for reporting on femicide and fatal domestic abuse in the UK – this is huge, because media narratives that place blame on the victims of femicide and abuse and treat these murders as isolated incidents are part of the problem". On 31 March 2022 the band announced their third album,
Baby, would be released on 24 June that year. It was recorded with new bassist Robin Gatt, also of
Personal Best. ==Discography==