Girl Band have changed their name, and will now perform and release records as Gilla Band.
In a statement announcing the name change, the Dublin band said: "We apologise for choosing a misgendered name in the first place and to anyone who has been hurt or affected by it. 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. 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."
In the wake of the name change, the group have confirmed a residency at Dublin’s Whelans, running across three weekends in January 2022. The shows will see them debut new material, with tickets going on pre-sale to those on the band’s mailing list tomorrow (November 17) at 10am GMT.
As Girl Band, the group have released two studio albums to date via Rough Trade: 2015’s Holding Hands With Jamie and 2019’s The Talkies. In 2020, they released the live album Live At Vicar Street.
