Arts & Culture
Musician and songwriter pays heart-felt tribute to women from First World War

Critically acclaimed musician and singer Louise Jordan performs ‘No Petticoats Here’ to tell the stories of remarkable women from the First World War.

Based on extensive research and combining original live music with recorded sound, this one-woman performance is a theatre concert like no other; a rich visual and auditory experience that truly connects the audience with the past and the words of these inspirational women. This heart-felt performance will be coming to Oxford’s Hollywell Music Rooms June 17 - There Sunday Times reviewed it as “Haunting and unforgettable.”

Following two successful tours Jordan was granted Arts Council England funding to develop the performance working with theatre director Lizzie Crarer (Over The Top, Bronte, we’re here because we’re here) and sound designer Jules Bushell (Platform4, Hoodwink Theatre). Jordan says, “This performance is very different to most concerts: it is enhanced by technology with pre-recorded sound tracks bringing the words of the women and the sounds they experienced to life. This soundscape weaves around the original songs I have written and I also present framed images of the women and perform in costume to help the audience visualise the stories.”

When Jordan’s husband was asked in November 2014, where he would like to go for his birthday, he chose the Somme in France as a way of commemorating one hundred years since the First World War began. Jordan had recently toured in Europe with a song about 18th century New Forest smuggleress ‘Lovey Warne’ and had enjoyed the connection this story from her local area made across cultures. Whilst visiting the battlefields of the Somme she found few images of women in the museums, exhibitions and other places of remembrance. The portrait of Louise de Bettignies, which Jordan had seen in the Basilica of Notre Dame de Lorette, stayed in her mind long after the trip. Louise de Bettignies was a Frenchwoman who worked for the British managing a network of spies around Lille as well as undertaking incredibly dangerous work herself. It was this story and the response to the song about Lovey Warne that inspired No Petticoats Here.

No Petticoats Here tells the real life stories of varied and remarkable women of the Great War and was inspired by the story of Dorothy Lawrence; an orphan whose guardian lived in Salisbury Cathedral Close. Dorothy dressed as a soldier in order to visit the Western Front and pursue her journalistic ambitions. Jordan quickly became fascinated by the stories of female ambulance drivers, scientists, footballers and spies.

“The First World War too often remembers women as the mourners of the fallen, as frugal housewives ‘making do’ or angelic nurses caring patiently for the men who returned from the Front Line. Through No Petticoats Here I remember some of the many women whose stories do not fit conveniently into boxes and whose experiences are both astonishing and relatable one hundred years on.”

In a former life, Jordan worked as a secondary school teacher of history and citizenship. Between teaching and her own experiences as a student, she was often frustrated by the lack of diversity and perspectives presented in text books.

Jordan is now delivering a project funded by HLF ‘Never Had They Ever’ and she is supporting young people aged 13-19 years to write songs (some for the first time) about women’s First World War experiences. This has involved visiting museums and archives to engage with the heritage and support with songwriting. They have recently been recording the tracks. Jordan is working with two groups (in Salisbury and Portsmouth both areas I work as a freelance music teacher and music leader).

For further information, and to purchase tickets, click here.