Trivia

Guitarist for the punk band the Slits from 1977 until 1982 with whom she recorded two studio albums.

In March 2010 she released a four-song debut solo EP entitled Flesh on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! label.

Attended Hornsey School of Art before transferring to Chelsea School of Art to study fashion and textile design.

Contributed guitar and vocal work to the 49 Americans' 1980 album E Pluribus Unum.

Her first band was The Flowers Of Romance that she formed with Sid Vicious in 1976.

Wrote two autobiographies,2014's Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys, and 2018 To Throw Away Unopened.

Her debut solo album, The Vermilion Border, was released in 2012 through the Cadiz Music label. In 2013 she opened for Siouxsie Sioux at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Played guitar on Singers & Players' 1982 album Revenge of the Underdog.

Her memoir Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys, was published in 2014. It was a Sunday Times, Mojo, Rough Trade and NME Book of the Year in 2014, as well as being shortlisted for the National Book Awards. In 2019, The New York Times named the memoir among "The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years".

She appeared as a guest guitarist on the Flying Lizards' debut album.

Was part of Adrian Sherwood's dub-influenced collective New Age Steppers, and played on their self-titled 1981 debut album.

In 2009 she began performing as a solo artist. Her debut gig was at the Windmill in Brixton on 20 September 2009. She went on to tour the USA opening for the Raincoats.

Mother, Kathleen Ruth van Bausch, was English of partial Swiss ancestry and her father Lucien (Albert) Allbertine was Corsican and served in the Free French Navy during World War II.

Recorded a cover version of David Bowie's "Letter to Hermione" for the 2010 Bowie tribute album We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie.

Has a younger sister named Pascale.