Sonic Resistance: Conversation with Nina Courson

Promoting the Underground & Pushing Boundaries

1. You’ve been promoting underground events since 2010 with Tufnell Rock Tower, what drove you to start your own nights back then, especially with such a strong focus on women?

Back then, it honestly came from frustration as much as passion. I was part of the scene playing gigs, showing up, doing the work but we were fed up to rely on random promoters to book us in London where none of the bands on the bill would support each other and there was no real spirit of community . In these moments you think why don’t we do it ourselves ? I also kept on noticing how rare it was to see women getting real space on the bill. There were always “token spots” or the sense that we had to prove ourselves harder . Tufnell Rock Tower was my way of pushing back. Lets get our own lineups together and let’s create a space where women don’t have to ask permission to take the stage , where we were the norm, not the exception. It was DIY, it was messy, and it definitely wasn’t trendy but it was real. And it became a safe space where people who didn’t feel welcome elsewhere could come and be part of it . That still means everything to me .

2. When you first started, were you aware you were filling a gap in the scene or did it just feel instinctive?

It felt instinctive. I remember when we organised our first ever event in 2010 at The Purple Turtle there were four bands on the bill with women in all of them ( Black Nazarene, Her, Grim Dylan and Healthy Junkies ) and we literally packed the venue out. So I wasn't sitting there thinking "I'm filling a gap in the market". I was thinking "this needs to happen more". I think it did already exist to a certain degree but there definitely wasn't enough of it.

3. How would you describe the energy of those early nights at Tufnell Rock Tower? What made them different from more mainstream events?

After doing the first event at The Purple Turtle, we then had all of our events happening at The Unicorn on Camden Road. What was great about this place is that it was free entry, there was some kind of a budget for the bands and we were getting 10% of the bar takings. That allowed us to do the event monthly which we called Punk n Roll Rendezvous. Our friend Steve Iles who is based in Manchester would bring a band from up north every month and I was booking the rest of the line up. I'm very fond of these years as there was a real feeling of community and it felt like a rendezvous for all the misfits, oppressed and the minorities, not just in term of bands but also in term of audience . We have met many people through it. And it was a real mixture too, older people & younger people. I don't like the whole agist attitude. I think everyone should be welcomed, and this is how it was at The Unicorn. So it was very different indeed from maintream events because it was free, that means it was affordable for everyone, and people had the opportunity to discover bands they wouldn't heard of through the mainstream channels. People came to these nights because they wanted something more than polished and over-rehearsed performances. There was real emotion in the room , joy and solidarity. I remember blood on the mic, tears on stage, people falling in love with bands they'd never heard of before. It felt alive, and it kind of brought everyone together and made the scene stronger.

4. Over 15 years of promoting, have you seen a real shift in how women and femme artists are represented in punk and alternative spaces or do you feel some things haven’t changed as much as people think?

Both. There's more visibility now, which is great. More festivals are booking diverse lineups. Social medias helped a lot of underrepresented artists get a platform. But deeper change is slower. You just have to look at the lineups of all the mainstream festivals to realise that there is still a long way to go and men still have the majority of the slots. Tokenism still exists. People still assume women in punk are the singer or someone's girlfriend. It actually happened to me once, I was hanging around the stage waiting for my band to get ready as there was no backstage room and I heard someone say about me " who is she then, a groupie ?" So I think a lot of femme artists still have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously, especially if they're not fitting into some neat little aesthetic boxes.

5. Do you remember any specific artists or moments early on that made you feel, “Yes, this is why I’m doing this”?

So many. But I remember one night around 2012, we'd booked this band fronted by a trans woman who'd never played London before. The crowd was absolutely locked in. Afterwards she told me it was the first time she'd ever felt safe enough to be herself on stage. That was one of those moments where I just thought "this matters". You can't fake that kind of impact. It stays with you. Also it was a great platform for all the out of town bands to play in front of an actual audience after traveling hundreds of miles, there's nothing worse than to play in front of an empty room and I was happy to provide a good crowd for these bands who sometimes had never played in London before.

✴ The Scene Then & Now

6. The term “underground” gets thrown around a lot, what does it actually mean to you in 2025?

To me underground means doing it on your own terms, without compromise, without waiting for validation from the mainstream. That's where the real innovation happens, and often where the real risk is. It's messy, uncomfortable but honest. Underground isn't a sound, it's a mindset. A refusal to be shaped by the system. Just like punk rock.

7. With platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Bandcamp, artists have more ways to be visible but do you think something has been lost in the physical, gritty energy of DIY scenes?

Definitely. Online visibility is important but it's not the same as being in a room with sweat dripping off the ceiling and someone screaming their truth into a mic five feet from your face. There's a kind of intimacy and danger in DIY shows that you just don't get online, and that danger is where magic happens. Also I find that platforms like TikTok have reduced people's attention's span. After 10 secondes that's it, people move on to the next video. That's probably why singles are more popular than albums these days. People can't be bothered to listen to a whole album any more. Sometimes I feel like platforms like TikTok have shifted the focus away from community and music and more towards ego. It's become this sort of loop of self promotion where it's more about the individual than the collective. I miss the days when scenes were built around shared energy, not just algorithms and selfies .

8. What kind of community were you trying to build through your events? And how did you keep that spirit alive?

I wanted to build a space where outsiders didn't feel like outsiders, where misfits, femmes, queers, survivors, anyone who felt like the scene hadn't made room for them could take up space unapologetically. We kept it alive by flying that flag. And 15 years later Tufnell Rock Tower still exists. We don't do monthly events any more but we run a handful of Punk n Roll Rendezvous events on various Saturdays at The Dublin Castle, another great venue. And we also do our three days festival once a year. It's happening this year at The Water Rats on 19th, 20th and 21st September.

✴ The Struggle & The Fire

9. Promoting events and running underground spaces is intense, emotional labour, often unpaid or underappreciated. What’s kept you going?

The people . The artists who say "that night was the best ever gig we've had" with constant messages from various bands writing to us every single day literally, wanting to be part of the events because they've heard about it and the reputation keeps on growing. Also the youngsters who come up and say they didn't even know this kind of space existed. That's the fuel. And of course stubbornness. I'm not the kind of person who gives up just because it's hard. If I believe in something, I'll bleed for it. That's pretty much the same as being in a band.

10. Have there been moments you felt like giving it up? What pulled you back?

Yes . Absolutely . There were moments of doubts or feeling invisible. Times when I thought is this worth it , does anyone even care ? But then someone would send a message or an artist would absolutely destroy the stage and I'd remember why I started. We even had some mainstream Franco-German TV coming to one of the event ( ARTE TV ) who just heard about it through one of the regular punter who would go to the event every month, that was encouraging. It isn't just nightlife, it's life. For a lot of us it's survival.

11. Do you think the mainstream now “borrows” from underground scenes without giving credit or understanding where it comes from?

All the time. The mainstream loves to hijack the aesthetics and the edge of the underground but it rarely supports the communities that created them . You see it in fashion and pop music amongst other things. It's frustrating but I think the underground will always matters because what we do is real and you can't fake real.

✴ Voice and Moving Forward

12. If you could go back and speak to yourself in 2010, just before launching Tufnell Rock Tower, what would you say?

Trust your guts and stop apologising for taking up space. You're about to build something that matters more than you know. There will be pain but it will be worth it. And get more sleep while you can .

13. What does resistance mean to you today ? Sonically, politically, personally?

To me resistance isn't about how loud you shout or how often you post. It's about where your values live and how you carry them. I channel my beliefs into my songs lyrics, my shows and the spaces I help create . You can make noise without screaming all the time and I don’t think there is just one way in being a fighter . Sometimes resistance is just staying true to yourself and refusing to be shaped by fear, pressure or expectation. We wrote a lot of engaged songs since 2010. Check out our music videos for them on our YouTube channel such as Son and a Daughter , No Control , Resistance and Just a Fool .