Girl Band change name to Gilla Band: “We apologise for choosing a misgendered name”
The Dublin four-piece will now be known as Gilla Band
Dublin’s Girl Band have announced that they are changing their name – from now on, they will be known as Gilla Band.
The band, who formed in 2011, have released two full-length albums – 2015 debut ‘Holding Hands With Jamie’ and 2019’s ‘The Talkies’ – via Rough Trade Records.
In a statement posted online today (November 16), they announced the name change and apologised for “choosing a misgendered name”.
“We are changing our band name,” they wrote. “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.
The message added: “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 message concluded: “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.”
Gilla Band have also announced that they’re set to play three hometown shows in Dublin next January, in addition to an already announced and sold out show in Limerick on New Year’s Eve.
See the full list of dates below:
DECEMBER 2021
31 – Limerick, Dolan’s
JANUARY 2022
14 – Dublin, Whelans
21 – Dublin, Whelans
29 – Dublin, Whelans
Following the short run of Dublin shows, Gilla Band are set to support IDLES on their European headline tour in February of next year, behind recent fourth album ‘CRAWLER’.