Never Mind the Birth Years, Here's the horMones

There are a lot of things to love about the horMones, an all-women over-50's punk band formed in Oxford, U.K. in 2023.

First and foremost, there is the cheeky name, a play on words that is fitting since one of the bands they cover in their act, along with original compositions, is The Ramones. Then there's the spirit of how the nine female band members, ranging in age from 52 to 80, have fun with the whole proposition.

Lead singer Lisa (top, center) and co.

Filmmakers Helen Sheppard and Christopher Baines were gobsmacked when they first caught the horMones at a small cafe in Oxford and from there, decided to make a 40-minute documentary about the enterprise. The horMones: The Women Are Here premieres Saturday November 7th at the Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford.

Adding to the over-50's reverberations of this event, which will include a live performance by the band, is not just the fact this year marks the 50th anniversary of punk music. It's also the 50th anniversary of the premiere locale, which debuted in 1976 as the Penultimate Picture Palace.

The ladies have just joined TikTok and they've got another couple of gigs upcoming - later this month at the Apothecary Tap in Banford on November 20th and on December 13th at a music festival called “In a Different Place” in Oxford. It's all set up for these gals to take it to the next viral level.

'Deb, the horMones bass player, was inspired by an article about the Unglamorous music project, founded by Ruth Miller and based in Leicester,” the band's website explains. 'The project's aim is to inspire older women to play in bands and create a local punk-garage scene regardless of age, ethnicity or previous experience.'

'One evening in March 2023, Deb met up with a couple of friends in the back room of the local community center, to see if they could make it happen in Oxford. And from that meeting, the horMones was born.'

Time to do the sodding dishes!

The band's first public gig was on International Women's Day in 2024, as part of a fundraiser for a local women's, trans and non-binary organization. In true punk spirit, almost none of the members had played instruments before forming.

The tea towel (a.k.a. dish towel) pictured above is the band's very latest bit of "merch," brand new as of this month. It takes its inspiration from the horMones original song "Sandwiches:"

They said retire at 60 and I said yeah that's alright
But now they've added seven years and I'm too tired to fight
Gen Z have got the right idea I want to quiet-quit
Cos every Monday morning
I say f*ck that sh*t