Dublin quartet Girl Band have changed their name to Gilla Band with immediate effect.
Off the back of their blistering set at Pitchfork London on Sunday night, the band released the following statement regarding the decision.
“We are changing our band name,” they said. “We will no longer be performing or releasing records under the name Girl Band. We apologise for choosing a misgendered name in the first place and to anyone who has been hurt or affected by it. When we were starting off it was chosen without much thought, from a place of naivety and ignorance. We had no grasp of the weight of it at the time and in the past few years have found it impossible to justify or explain this choice. Regardless of our intention the effect of the name has been damaging to individuals.”
“To try and negate any unfortunate role we’ve played in propagating a culture of non-inclusivity in music or otherwise, we have decided to change it,” the band added. “Thank you to those who spoke up about it and educated us on this, either directly or indirectly. Moving forward we will be performing and releasing records under the name Gilla Band. Gilla being a given name taken from Old Irish”.
Ahead of supporting IDLES on their February 2022 European tout – and following their NYE show at Dolan’s in Limerick – the Dara Kiely-fronted quartet have also announced a three-date residency at Dublin’s Whelan’s in January.
14th Jan 2022 – Whelans, Dublin
21st Jan 2022 Whelans, Dublin
29th Jan 2022 Whelans, Dublin
Tickets for the shows go on pre-sale to mailing list subscribers on Wednesday, November 17 at 10am and will be on general sale on Thursday, November 18 from 10am.
