26 Years Ago, L7 Raffled a One-Night Stand With Drummer Dee Plakas: ‘Rock and Roll Is Prostitution’
· Vice
In the year 2000, infamously raunchy riot grrrl punks L7 were touring in support of their album Slap-Happy. While the tour would end with their indefinite hiatus, they still made their mark with stops in the U.S., Europe, and the U.K. They were never shy about making a scene, even as the years wore on and the music industry changed. So it should come as no surprise that they once raffled off a one-night stand with their drummer, Dee Plakas.
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On April 14, 2000, L7 were scheduled to play The Garage in London. To generate attention for the show, or maybe just because they felt like it, the band created a lottery. The prize? A chance to “meet intimately” with their drummer.
According to a review in The Guardian at the time, they did the same stunt at a show in Manchester a couple of days earlier. Vocalist Donita Sparks announced the raffle during the show, telling the audience, “Rock and roll is prostitution, we want to give our fans more bang for their buck!”
L7 Stir Up Publicity for U.K. Shows By Raffling a Night With Their Drummer
It seems L7 was spreading the word throughout their U.K. tour, including a show in Sheffield. The raffle concluded in London, but there may be some gaps in the historical accounts. For example, it’s unclear whether someone actually won the raffle. And, if they did, whether they actually got to “meet intimately” with Plakas. Some accounts recall the prize as a one-night stand with Plakas on her birthday, which is in November. Others describe it as a night on the tour bus.
Whatever the case, there’s likely only a handful of people who know the true results of the raffle. Additionally, it successfully stirred up publicity for their shows. Imagine not knowing L7, but hearing about a band holding a lottery for the chance to sleep with the drummer? In the year 2000, that’s a rare and beautiful opportunity to see good-natured deviance in action.
That was L7’s shtick for years, after all. They were the most riotous of the riot grrrls, showing off and causing scenes wherever they went. Stripping naked on TV, or throwing a used tampon into the Reading Festival crowd. Raffling a one-night stand with their drummer is tame in comparison, but it also wasn’t the 90s anymore.
Still, the point of the raffle wasn’t just publicity, or to be raunchy for raunchiness’ sake. L7 typically didn’t do anything without a reason, and the raffle was them acknowledging the industry’s exploitative nature.
“We’re not being hypocritical about rock and roll anymore,” they said in a statement at the time. The core of the stunt came down to what Sparks told the crowd in London: “Rock and roll is prostitution.”
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