Helen McCookerybook (born Helen McCallum, a.k.a. Dr Helen Reddington) is a British musician and singer-songwriter, who was the bass player and co-singer with The Chefs (an acclaimed Brighton based punk band), during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Helen book’s songs cover everything from the social impact of new technology to wry observations about relationships. Now a solo guitarist/vocalist influenced by Linda Lewis, Nick Drake and Jake Thackray, her musical journey started as a bass player in a Brighton punk band in the late 1970s. Helen have run collaborative song writing workshops in various community settings alongside her academic and performing practice for many years, working with elders, primary school children, a group of carers, people with head injuries, undergraduate students and running song writing weekends at The Premises studios in Hackney, London. In short spaces of time, we’ve generated ideas from self-generated text, and developed these ideas into a singable and memorable format.

Keynote Lecture

You can also write political songs

Publications

Reddington, H. (2004) The Forgotten Revolution of Female Punk Musicians in the 1970s. Peace Review, 16, 4, 439-444

Reddington, H. (2007). The Lost Women of Rock Music. Female Musicians of the Punk Era. London: Routledge.

Reddington, H. (2018). Gender Ventriloquism in Studio Production. IASPM Journal, 8, 1, 60-73.