Beth Ditto, self-described fat, feminist and gay icon, has gone from outsider punk to media-loved mainstream act to sneered-at success story - all in the space of a year. What was that like, asks Jim Carroll, on the eve of The Gossip's Oxegen performance
THERE'S a riot going on. Tonight, it's an over-packed club called Stubbs in downtown Austin, Texas which is feeling the fever, but you'll find the same chaos when The Gossip appear in your neck of the woods. It's hot and frenzied and there's enough energy flowing around the room to power a small city for a couple of weeks.
At the centre of the chaos is Beth Ditto. Behind her, guitarist Nathan Howdeshell and drummer Hannah Blilie keep the sharp, buzzy garage racket going, but all eyes are on Ditto. Actually, you can probably just call her Beth - at this stage she's surely joined the first-name-only club.
Beth is the queenpin of this storm, the one whose every twist and turn seems to make everyone else scream louder and go faster. When Beth starts to sing, you can hear about a dozen veteran soul belters clamouring for their turn at the microphone. But then she throws herself into the crowd, scats a couple of lines from Smells Like Teen Spirit and flings off her dress to rock the house in her bra and knickers to Standing in the Way of Control, and it's very clear who's the star of this show.
"I've been loud and obnoxious my whole life and never really understood why I'd get into so much trouble for it when I was younger," Beth says. "When grunge came along, I wanted to sing like Tori Amos, then Mama Cass. Later, when I listened to Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill and Hole, I realised my voice didn't have to sound beautiful."
The Beth Ditto story begins back in rural Arkansas, in a town called Searcy, where the loudest kid in the class was one of seven siblings. Beth has described her trailer-park upbringing so many times that it's easy to make a grab for the backwoods anecdotes and the tabloid-friendly squirrel-eating stories, but make no mistake about the poverty in that town.
Beth realised that Searcy wasn't for her and took the first opportunity to high-tail it out of there. That came when she hooked up with some of the town's other outsiders, including Gossip guitarist Howdeswell.
"When I met those kids, it changed my life," she says. "It was tough in Searcy. There was no mould as to what was cool; you really had to shape everything yourself. I was a total baby dyke, with short hair and big baggy pants. I shaved my body in all kinds of ways, and I would wear tons of eyeliner and dye my hair pink."
Beth joined her friends when they moved north-west to Olympia, Washington, a longtime liberal haven for oddballs and misfits. She felt right at home. "I was 18 when I moved and at first, I was very closeted and very afraid of my sexuality. But Olympia changed everything for me because it allowed me to feel strong about who I was."
She and her friends found a community of like-minded souls among the city's politicised and switched-on underground rock scene, the birthplace of the hugely influential feminist riot grrrl movement.
"I've been attracted to the weirdest things all my life, the more extreme and wild the better, and that's what Olympia and punk rock was to me when I was 18. It seemed like a natural fit."
Gossip signed to local label Kill Rock Stars and their debut album, That's Not What I Heard, was released in 2000. But it was 2003's Movement, fired-up, snarling and stomping like no-one's business, that spread the word beyond the American north-west.
Gossip's music allowed Beth to express herself in ways that would have been impossible in Searcy. "The music and the person making the music became one and the same thing, you know. It's fun to write a song about getting it on, but for me there's always going to be some meaning to it. I'm feminist, fat and gay after all, and that's what the music reflected.
"See, I was a feminist before I was a riot grrrl. I just hated so many things about the world when I was growing up and I thought it was annoying how irresponsible they were. I got sick of that. So I heard the word feminist, I thought: that's what I am."
Standing in the Way of Control burst out of the traps in 2006. It changed everything for the band and, especially, Beth. Indeed, the sudden upward trajectory in their fortunes and profile couldn't have come at a better time. Endless touring had honed their live show to the extent that they could rock any room, while Beth's opinionated quotability and refusal to compromise meant an inevitable media love-in.
"You mean there's no stopping me now, don't you? Yes, sometimes it does feel as if I'm in a position where I can do whatever I want and no one can stop me. I do still get taken aback when people ask me about my opinion on some things, but it's great to have that responsibility.
"The thing is, though, I think and hope all of this attention hasn't changed us. After all, we're still the same people we were before the mainstream came along. It's been my goal in life to not be a pretentious jerk, just to be chilled and nice, so I hope I'm still living up to that."
She's still marvelling at how Standing in the Way of Control, written as a protest against the US government's decision to not recognise gay marriage, has become an anthem for so many different groups.
"To be a part of many facets of music is amazing. It means we've really achieved something other than producing a straight-up dance hit, or a punk hit, or an underground hit. When you're in a punk band, you really get into this niche where you're trying to convert people. But when you're in a mainstream band, which I suppose we've become, it's all about the niche where you have to make the record that's going to sell and appeal to the masses. I think to be in the middle of that is really great. We can appeal to all these people, but still be embraced by the underground."
Still, success and attention has meant that the usual suspects in the punk rock community, even the ones who once championed Gossip, have predictably turned a little sniffy about them.
"Even though I consider myself a punk, the punk scene can be so pretentious and elitist," she says. "Once the mainstream comes into things, you do lose some of your punk rock credibility. But I never wanted to keep playing to the same crowds in small clubs every night. You have to challenge yourself by doing more than just preaching to the converted."
For Beth, mainstream success means she can get across her views on size and sexuality to many more people. "For instance, there's no doubt in my mind that I've been held back by not being thin," she says. "I feel more pressure from the music industry to be more straight-laced or be more thin or to be more toned down than from anywhere else. They don't get it, so the hardest part of what I do is definitely dealing with the pressure to be something I'm not."
The biggest accolade of all, though, is knowing that she and Gossip have become an inspiration for thousands of kids who feel themselves to be outsiders in some shape or form. Maybe even back in Searcy, there's someone listening to Standing in the Way of Control and daydreaming about escaping from it all just like Beth Ditto once did.
"I think the first time it dawned on me was a few months ago, when I realised that people are listening to Gossip records the way I used to listen to Bikini Kill records. That's crazy. I feel uncomfortable with the term idol or icon, but I'll go with it. Those are my people, and it means a lot to me if I mean something to them."
Famous five: the big acts to catch at Oxegen
ARCADE FIRE
(Main Stage, Sunday)
The best live rock'n'roll experience in the world today, folks. People still speak in awed tones about their Electric Picnic set in 2005, and their Olympia shows earlier in the year were mighty. So it's time for Oxegen to feel the fever.
BLOC PARTY
(Main Stage, Sunday)
Fronted by the new "most articulate man in rock", Kele Okereke, and currently hawking their excellent second album (A Weekend in the City), Bloc Party can be counted on to make all the right moves and noises on the big stage.
CSS
(NME Stage, Saturday)
The Brazilian band (right) must love Ireland because this is their third visit here in 2007. (They'll be back later in the year supporting Gwen Stefani.) And Ireland clearly loves Let's Make Love (And Listen to Death From Above).
EDITORS
(Green Room, Saturday)
Time for all those "poor man's Interpol" barbs to be binned. The ambitious second album from the Birmingham band (below) and their well-received Glastonbury turn means they're well on their way to filling bigger stages.
SNOW PATROL
(Main Stage, Saturday)
Every festival needs a band who can provide songs to sway along to, and this best-selling Northern Ireland outfit fit the bill. Expect Gary Lightbody to says he loves you at least three times.
On the up: check these out
ENTER SHIKARI
(Green Room, Saturday)
Making rock and rave come together in ways few thought possible, Enter Shikari were made with festival outings like this in mind.
JUSTICE
(Dance Stage, Saturday)
The new Daft Punk? Dance music's favourite duo of the moment ex-graphic designers from Paris, Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé, now DJs and producers
I'M FROM BARCELONA
(New Band Stage, Saturday)
Swedish mover and shaker Emanuel Lundgren leads this 29-strong collective of singers and musicians. Get ready to swoon to their We're From Barcelona anthem.
THE HOLD STEADY
(Pet Sounds, Saturday)
The Yanks behind one of the year's most pleasurable albums, Boys & Girls in America, have a great song about a racehorse called Chips Ahoy, so they'll fit right in at Punchestown.
MODESELEKTOR
(Dance Stage, Sunday)
For some 10 years, Berlin's Modeselektor (left) have been turning the bass up and stirring a digital jukebox where music for jackin' is what's at the heart of the beast.
