The Featherz

Centric, then known as Cox, arrived in London in October 2010 to pursue a career as a professional musician.[13] In January 2011, she was recruited to Georgie Girl And Her Poussez Posse as guitarist and backing vocalist. The band also included Baillie, Molly Spiers-MacLeod (the daughter of Spizz) on bass and backing vocals, drummer Rachael Smith[13] and additional guitarist Fiona Bevan.[14] This lineup supported Ant on several tour dates in early 2011 and recorded tracks for a planned single plus EP. Footage from early 2011 of a Poussez Posse band meeting at Ant's home is included in The Blueblack Hussar, a documentary about Ant directed by Jack Bond.[15] Unhappy with the general direction of the band and Ant's style of mentoring, Cox, Spiers-MacLeod and Smith all left the group[13][2] (to be replaced by a new lineup, still fronted by Baillie and including future Curse of Lono bassist Charis Anderson, which continued to support Ant on tour until the end of 2012.)[16] The trio formed their own band The Feathers, making their debut guerilla gig appearance at the Occupy London camp outside St Paul's Cathedral on 23 October 2011.[2]

The band's track "Life Stranger" reached the quarter finals of the YouBloom online talent contest and was released on the compilation Hipsters 3.[17] Cox and Spiers-MacLeod also performed an acoustic set on Garry Bushell's Rancid Sounds radio show on TotalRock in April 2012.[18] Two years later in April 2014, they performed a second acoustic set for Bushell's show - by now transferred to online literary community Litopia's podcast section.[19] At around the time of the first session, Smith left the group to be replaced by Alex Gold, also of The Boys. Gold in turn would be replaced by Monroe in January 2013.

In April 2013, Cox befriended Boy George after they met at the launch party of an exhibition of stage costumes of their mutual hero David Bowie at the Victoria and Albert Museum at which George was a guest speaker. Impressed with the appearance and demeanour of the glammed-up Cox, George invited her to show herself on stage.[20] Subsequently, Cox appeared in three videos for singles by George: "I'm Coming Home" (also featuring a cameo by Monroe), "King of Everything" and "My God" directed by Dean Stockings. The band also supported George on his November 2013 solo UK tour to promote his album This Is What I Do.[1][2][9][21]

In early 2013, the band undertook a photo session for fashion designer Mark Charles and his Charles of London fashion label. From then until mid 2016, all band members regularly wore Charles' designs as stagewear[2] (as Cox did frequently for some time thereafter, resuming the practice with her Slady bandmates in 2019.) Charles also released the band's debut single "RNR★" on his Charles Of London Records label. The A-side was later included on the compilation CD Teenage Rampage, cover-mounted on issue 16 of Vive Le Rock magazine. The magazine's track guide described Cox as a "rising star" and the band as "injected with glam rock attitude" which "will give you glitter-covered goose bumps and get your feet stomping."[9] The single also received airplay on BBC Radio Wales[22] and Radio Caroline.

The Ipswich Star gave a headline preview to the band's 25 January 2014 gig at the Steamboat Tavern in Monroe's native Ipswich, alongside a photo of the band, noting how "The London trio, fresh from suporting (sic) Boy George on his recent UK tour, led by Danie Cox, are getting rave reviews for their brand of punk-pop."[1] Wales On Sunday extensively interviewed Cox in the 9 February 2014 edition about the band, their associations with Ant, Baillie, George and Charles, and her life in general. Commenting on Cox and her band, the newspaper noted "With her electrifying red hair, extravagant make-up and outrageous dress sense, 23-year-old Danie Cox and her band The Featherz look every inch pop stars."[2]

Spiers-MacLeod left the band in May 2014[23] and Alice Atkinson was announced as replacement bass player in early June. She made her debut on 28 June 2014 at the 100 Club alongside new additional guitarist Lily Marlene[24][25] (the daughter of Bond's partner and credited on The Blueblack Hussar as Assistant to the Director[26]). The gig also marked Cox's return to the stage following a severe knee injury days after Spiers McLeod's departure.[23] Due to Marlene's commitments outside the band, she left amicably and an ongoing vacancy for additional guitarist existed for 14 months until Daniel Jones' spell with the band.

In the meantime Cox, Atkinson and Monroe continued to gig in the three-piece format,[5] occasionally joined by various guest guitarists, including David Donley,[27] his student Zoe Keeling,[28] Vera Wild of the band Jelly[29] and Polly Hedges of the band Seek Destroy.[30] In late 2014, they recorded fresh material at Broadoak Studios, Sussex with producer/guitarist Kevin Armstrong. Their 14 February 2015 headline gig at the Irish Centre in Basingstoke received praise from the Basingstoke Gazette "The headline band were The Featherz ... who continued the general theme of girls showing just how well they can rock it up ... Not quite as heavy as (second on the bill act) Petrol Girls, they still had a real fast punky set. They had also picked up a posse of new followers who were now ready to worship every bead and every bit of glitter - as well as dance along to their songs." [3]

The band also played the Pavilion Stage of the 2015 Rebellion Festival.[5][31] Their set received an enthusiastic review from Martin Haslam of Louder Than War: "Bringing their brand of self-styled ‘Flock Rock’ to the masses, I’m pleased that the venue is filling up. Glam anthems (Glamthems?) get the crowd onside, ‘When Was The Last Time You Had Sex?’ and other ear worms. I’ve seen them before, but this line up has added Alice Atkinson, which is a very good thing; the three-piece with Danie Cox and Dazzle Monroe are now tighter and born to entertain. Championed by Boy George and dressed by Charles Of London, they deserve your attention. Now!"[5] The band appeared again at the 2017 and 2018 festivals, both times on the Opera House stage.[32][33]

A second single for Charles Of London Records, You, was released from the sessions with Armstrong on download in early September 2015 followed by a CD release two months later.[34] A video was filmed back in April 2015 in Brighton, directed by Stockings. Interviewed by Haslam at Rebellion for Louder Than War, Cox announced that the band's next release would be their debut album. Cox also commented on her philosophy as a performer and bandleader: "I’d always had a dream, to write my own songs, to express myself through my clothes and how I present myself. Luckily, I found that in The Featherz, in London ... We are The Featherz, there is nothing else for me. I’d rather die than give up. Our songs are statements. It really is all I can do"[4]

Around the time of the single's download release, the additional guitarist role was briefly filled when Jones joined. He left amicably three months later due to musical differences, shortly before the band played three high profile support slots in Sheffield, Liverpool and London, for The Damned.[10][12] Following the death of her hero David Bowie in January 2016, Cox was filmed by Italian television show Studio Aperto performing Bowie's songs at his shrine at the Heddon Street telephone box[35] while the Featherz performed at a Bowie memorial concert at the Union Chapel, Islington with Mick Ronson's sister Maggi guesting with the band on vocals for Ziggy Stardust[36] Cox and Mike Garson's biographer Clifford Slapper also performed a vocal/piano version of We Are the Dead.[37]

Also in early 2016 the band, plus Donley again on additional guitar, recorded new material at Quadra Studios in Walthamstow with producer John "Lucifer" Pridige.[27][38] A new additional guitarist, Chris Shepherd, joined the band in April. In June a video, featuring the new lineup, was filmed in Southend for Atkinson composition Forget All You Know.[27] In early September, the video was posted to YouTube[27] and this track and a cover of Moonage Daydream (featuring Slapper on piano), both from the Quadra session, were uploaded to the group's Bandcamp account and iTunes store. Prior to this, a trailer video featuring a clip from a third track from Quadra, a cover of "The Ballroom Blitz" had been posted to YouTube.[39] Cox and Slapper recorded another version of Moonage Daydream for the latter's planned album Bowiesongs 2,[40] while Cox also collaborated with The Lurkers[41] on their track High Velocity, which was released as a single 24 November 2017.[42] Louder Than War's Ged Babey praised Cox's contribution: "Dani (sic) has a likeable Honey Bane meets Beki Bondage singing style and is perfect on the song."[43] The track received airplay on Steve Lamacq's show on BBC Radio 6music[44] and Cox recorded further material with the Lurkers in December 2017, February 2018 and May 2018.

Atkinson and Shepherd left the band in late 2016. Guitarist Holly Henderson of the band Dorja and bassist Jenny Lane of the band Planet Of The Capes, both of whom previously deputised in these roles in The Featherz,[45] served as temporary live members until the arrival of permanent replacements, Swedish bassist Gerda Lucy Rankka aka Lucy Lawbreaker and Italian additional guitarist Aryanne Maudit.[46] In the meantime, the band produced new music videos of the tracks Chelsea, Takes One To Know One and Moonage Daydream and recorded further material in Quadra Studios with Pridige and Faebhean Kwest.

Appearing on internet radio station K2K Radio's show FlipsideLondon Radio hosted by Aidan McManus, on 28 March 2017, Cox confirmed that the band's imminent debut album was entitled Five-Year-Itch and would be 17 tracks long.[47] The album was released on 13 April 2017 and was compiled by Pridige (who also funded the release) from content from various sessions since 2012 (hence the album title) including material from his own sessions with the band at Quadra Studios as well as the Broadoak Studios sessions with Armstrong, both sides of the RNR★ single recorded in 2013 and the band's earliest attempt at making an album at Perry Vale Studios in 2012, as well as Pridige's own live recordings of the band.[48][49] Vive Le Rock's Alison Bateman rated the album 7/10. Although lukewarm about the choices of covers included, she nevertheless enthused, "(The band) have already built a buzz with their energetic live shows, centred on flame-haired attitude-oozing young frontwoman Danie Cox. Their cheeky punked-up glitter rock risks being a tough act to translate to the studio, but Five-Year-Itch mostly manages with charismatic flair... They're neither short on musical chops, nor shy of buckling down to serious business of writing infuriatingly immovable hooks."[11]

The band's next single, Ordinary Girl? recorded late 2016 at Quadra with Atkinson and Shepherd (shortly before their departures) and produced by Pridige, was released on Bandcamp on 1 May 2017.[50] The single cover featured Cox's friend, the late Imogen Goldie[51] whose mother Diane had previously designed and provided the costumes worn by the band in the Forget All You Know video[27] and again in the video for this single, in which she herself appeared.[51] In September, the band announced their intention to recruit a keyboard player. Successful applicant Catherine Robertson from Wales made her debut with the band on 26 October at the O2 Islington when they supported Penetration (whose song Don't Dictate previously appeared on Five-Year-Itch.) In late November Maudit left and was replaced by Lawbreaker's partner and fellow Swede John Jönsson, who had already substituted for Maudit at two of the four dates of the band's November 2017 UK tour.

The CD edition of Ordinary Girl? was released on 3 January 2018, also including the last remaining tracks from the first Quadra studios session from early 2016. Ged Babey, reviewing the EP for Louder Than War, was suitably impressed, describing the band as "brash, flash, glam, blam-blam wiggy, Ziggy, rockin rollin’, into Bolan… just a great old-skool party band," the lead track as having "the feel of a fab 1979 Noo Wave single -sprinkled with glitter and all over Radio Wun - not arf!" with "that staccato Lene Lovich feel that Hazel O'Connor nicked and lovely thick slices of guitar," the video as "beautifully lo-fi and am-dram and captures a band who take their music but not themselves too seriously," and the cover image of Imogen Goldie cover as "proving if nothing else that behind the glitter there are some tears and there is more ‘depth’ to the band than there might initially seem."[8]

The band recorded a session in January 2018 with Centric (as Cox was now known) self-producing. Around this time it was announced that Centric was now permanent vocalist for The Lurkers, while also continuing with The Featherz. In February 2018 Maudit returned to the band after only three months away, to form a new six piece lineup, with Centric no longer playing guitar. Further work on the January recording was carried out in mid March; shortly afterwards however, Maudit, Lawbreaker, Jönsson and Robertson all left. In April, with Pridige once again producing, Centric and Monroe recorded another session, with lead guitarist Calle Englemarc of The Members and, together with Lane on bass, they filmed an official live video at the Dublin Castle[52] Bassist Emily Condon (of Southend band The Fleas) joined the band in July, making her debut in August at the Rebellion Festival, but was fired in September after pulling out of several gigs, the last of which, in Ipswich, went ahead regardless as a duo performance, which has since remained the band format. Centric, Monroe and Pridige also recorded yet further tracks at QRS Studios at the end of 2018.

Centric's second single with The Lurkers, Electrical Guitar, came out in January 2019[53] and topped the UK Vinyl Singles chart.[54] Parent album Sex Crazy was released in October 2020 featuring the two A-sides recorded with Centric (although This Is Your Revolution was rerecorded for the release in 2019.)[55]

Centric also formed all-female Slade tribute band Slady, with drummer Fi Nancy Dulake and bassist Wendy Solomon (aka Angel Melodyhorn), who made their debut in Southend in November 2018.[56] They were later joined by guitarist Annie Needham and drummer Sophie Reed who replaced Dulake. Respectively, Centric, Soloman, Reed and Needham use the aliases Gobby Holder, Jem Lea. Donna Powell and Davina Hill in the band. Since February 2019, this project has been Centric's main focus and they played at Slade's main fan convention in Wolverhampton in October.[57] and were listed in Metro as one of three "Acts To Catch This Christmas" in their 'Going Out' section. [58]

• Five-Year-Itch (Flockrock Records, FRO1, 2017 - CD album only)[47][48][49]

• RNR★ (Charles Of London Records, COLRecords1, 2013, 7" vinyl only)

1. "RNR★"
2. "When Was The Last Time You Had Sex?"

• You (Charles Of London Records, COLR002, 2015, mp3s on Bandcamp plus CD single)

1. "You"
2. "Bad Girl"

• Forget All You Know (2016, mp3s on Bandcamp and iTunes. A CD single edition was planned, but did not materialize - instead the tracks were included on the Five-Year-Itch album.)[48]

1. "Forget All You Know"
2. "Moonage Daydream"

• Ordinary Girl? EP (Flockrock Records, FRO2, 2017, Track 1 only mp3 single on Bandcamp and iTunes. 2018 CD EP of full release)[50][51]

1. "Ordinary Girl?"
2. "Do You Wanna Feel Free?"
3. "20th Century Boy"
4. "When Was The Last Time You Had Sex?" (Live)
5. "Ordinary Girl?" (original mix)
6. "Bad Girl" (Live - Acoustic - bonus hidden track)

• Hipsters 3 (Acid Jazz Records, AJX287, 2012, CD[17])

1. "Life Stranger" (also released as standalone mp3 on iTunes. Reissued on Bandcamp 18 December 2014)

• Teenage Rampage (Vive Le Rock, VIVE016, 2013, CD[9])

1. "RNR★"

• Redrock Festival 2016: All Day Rock Fest - National and International Bands 2nd Oct 2016 (Redwire, RED002, 2016 CD [59])

1. "Bad Girl"

• The Punk Lounge Presents.. Songs From The Sofa Volume 1 (The Punk Lounge, download on Bandcamp, 2018)

1. "You"

See also The Lurkers discography

• High Velocity EP (Human Punk/Damaged Goods, DAMGOOD491-HP002, 2017, limited edition 500 copies on 7 inch pink vinyl)

1. "High Velocity" (single A side - two non-Centric tracks on B side)[42]

• Electrical Guitar (Human Punk/Damaged Goods, 2019, limited edition 750 copies on 7 inch split black/clear vinyl) - UK Vinyl Singles chart no.1[54]

1. Electrical Guitar
2. That Was Julia[53]

• Sex Crazy (studio album, two Centric tracks) Damaged Goods DAMGOOD541 2020

7. High Velocity

11. Electrical Guitar

(Track 10 This is Your Revolution had also previously been recorded with Centric and performed live by The Featherz.)

• November 2017 UK tour - four dates including London 100 Club support slot for The Members

• Boy George This Is What I Do UK tour, first leg - all seven dates (November 2013)[2][21]
• The Damned December 2015 UK tour - three dates plus afterparty for London date and headline show in Camden one night before opening date [12]
• Healthy Junkies Box Of Chaos UK tour - four dates plus headline show in Southend two nights before opening date (June–July 2016)

In addition, as sidewomen in the Poussez Posse, the founding line-up of Cox, Smith and Spiers-MacLeod toured supporting Adam Ant's The Good The Mad and the Lovely UK tour - three dates including preview show (May 2011)