Au Pairs - Set-Up

Another overlooked post-punk band. Au Pairs were a lot like the Gang of Four musically, and shared a similar political outlook; but their lyrical focus was on gender issues, which they approached from a feminist and lesbian perspective. Among the subjects they addressed was the horrific mistreatment of Irish women in Armagh Jail in the early 1980s - another example of British post-punk bands showing more interest in what was happening in their own backyard than a lot of their contemporaries in the more overtly political punk scene did.

Three decades on (yikes), Lesley Woods is still speaking up for marginalised people - now as a human rights barrister who specialises in immigration cases. She's one of my heroes.

This is from their 1980 debut album, Playing with a Different Sex.