“You were in a pub environment, but it was also like being at a friend’s house,” says one musician who used to play at the Weekenders women’s acoustic music night.

Love Her is a homage that night, which was started by singer songwriter Lucy Ray and friends in the late 1990s. It began at the Three Tuns pub in central Bristol. Several venues later it found its final home in the back room of Kearney’s Irish Bar, a lost pub on Sevier Street in the heart of St Werburghs.

The event was conceived to encourage women to play. It became a safe, lesbian-friendly space where women could test their ‘out’ lyrics to an audience of like-minded people. 

Love Her includes interviews with some of the women involved in running and performing at the night and archive recordings from the events themselves. The songs were shaped by the political landscape for LGBTQ+ people at the time and the women’s personal stories. 

You’ll hear love songs, songs of protest, songs about life. They may make you laugh, or they could make you cry. Welcome to the special world of Weekenders.

Your Bristol Life is a new series of podcasts shining a light on underrepresented aspects of Bristol’s history. This BCfm series was made with the Bristol Cable, Bristol History Podcast and In The Dark.