SamCam and the angry feminist rockers: PM's wife reveals her love of alternative group who describe pregnancy as 'barbaric'

  • Samantha Cameron recently spoke of her love of alternative group Poliça
  • Rock band's latest album is inspired by feminist Shulamith Firestone
  • Mrs Cameron even joined crowd at a recent gig in Shoreditch, East London

By TOM LEONARD AND SAM MARSDEN FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Published: | Updated:

'Cool' credentials: This week Samantha Cameron revealed her love of alternative group Poliça

'Cool' credentials: This week Samantha Cameron revealed her love of alternative group Poliça

She rarely misses a chance to demonstrate her ‘cool’ credentials.

And this week Samantha Cameron was at it again, revealing her love of alternative group Poliça.

But their brand of psychedelic rock conjures up a world a far cry from her life in Downing Street and the Cotswolds.

The American band – whose name roughly translates as ‘policy’ in Polish – are inspired by a radical feminist who described pregnancy as ‘barbaric’, and their songs feature violent imagery.

The video for the first single on the group’s most recent album depicts androgynous-looking singer Channy Leaneagh subjecting her trussed-up alter ego to a violent assault. Blood spurts in all directions as she smashes her hands with a hammer, punches her in the face and finally waterboards her.

Another unsettling song by the four-piece band from Minnesota, entitled Leading To Death, includes the lyric ‘I dream of you, oh my strangler’.

Miss Leaneagh, 33, has described her music as ‘rhythm-driven sex noise’ and says the digital effects she uses to modify her broken-hearted vocals are ‘like taking drugs for your voice’.

Her marriage broke up several years ago after she had a child, and her lyrics have a tendency towards violent, sexual imagery that bemoans ‘boys’ and ‘all the work they require’.

Mrs Cameron, 43, pictured, comes from an aristocratic background and was educated at Marlborough College, whose other alumni include the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Eugenie.

But she has a distinctly bohemian streak and was friends with Bristol trip-hop artist Tricky during her time at university.

She recently name-checked US indie group The War On Drugs, and claims to be a big fan of Radio 6 Music, the BBC’s ‘cutting edge and ground-breaking’ station.

‘I listen to Radio 4 in the morning and the rest of the day I have 6 Music on,’ she said in a rare interview last weekend.

Inspiration: Channy Leaneagh of Polica, a band which specialises in psychedelic rock

Inspiration: Channy Leaneagh of Polica, a band which specialises in psychedelic rock

Displaying her love of Poliça, Mrs Cameron even joined the crowd at a recent gig in Shoreditch, East London, at which the group played songs from their latest album, Shulamith.

The record’s cover is illustrated with a photograph of a naked young woman, her hair and neck caked in blood. The title is a tribute to Canadian-born feminist Shulamith Firestone, whom Miss Leaneagh has described as a ‘mentor and muse from the grave’.

Miss Firestone, who died in 2012 aged 67, painted a radical vision of a ‘liberated’ world without families, childbirth or any real distinctions between men and women. She is best known for her 1970 manifesto The Dialectic Of Sex: The Case For Feminist Revolution, which drew inspiration from Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto.

Miss Firestone argued that pregnancy was ‘barbaric’ and childhood was a ‘supervised nightmare’.

Poliça's record cover is illustrated with a photograph of a naked young woman, her hair and neck caked in blood. The title is a tribute to Canadian-born feminist Shulamith Firestone (above)

Poliça's record cover is illustrated with a photograph of a naked young woman, her hair and neck caked in blood. The title is a tribute to Canadian-born feminist Shulamith Firestone (above)

She looked forward to a new world in which women were to be liberated from men thanks to the scientific breakthroughs which meant that sexual reproduction could happen outside the womb.

The radical feminist was also responsible for stunts including unfurling a ‘Women’s Liberation’ banner at a beauty pageant.

Later in life she became a recluse and spent time in a mental health hospital. She was found dead in her studio flat, apparently after starving herself to death.

 

Most watched News videos

Comments 41

Share what you think

  View all

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

  View all

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.