Draft:Blue Oil (punk band)

Blue Oil was the first all-female punk band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Their groundbreaking work, and contributions to music history, are only now being recognized with the reissue of their original recordings. They have been featured on Radio-Canada, and in publications across the Anglophone and Francophone worlds, including the Montreal Guardian, Maximum Rocknroll, and Louder Than War.

The band formed in 1977 under the name Darkvision and became Blue Oil in 1978. They played shows at indie venues in Montreal in addition to playing the "bar circuit" outside the city. They wrote and recorded their own music while also playing punk covers by artists like Ramones, Nina Hagen, Lene Lovich, Blondie, and others, introducing top-40 listeners to new sounds emerging from the US and the UK.

Blue Oil released a 7" single Money (1982), and songs from various studio and live recordings have now been reissued on vinyl as Blue Oil (1981–83) by the archival label Supreme Echo.   Evan "Funk" Davies of WFMU introduced more listeners to the band's track "Waiting for the Time" on his annual throwback show in October 2023.

Manon Fatter (drums) and Marie Martine Bédard (guitar), along with Manon Asselin (bass, vocals, from 1978 onwards) were mainstays in the band. Other musicians in various lineups included Christiane Fatter (guitar, 1977–82), Aline Batmanian (vocals, 1978–81), Mario Petrozzi (1978–80) and Gilles Labossière (1980-–81). In the post-1985 era, the lineup also include Marie-Christine Thiboutot (bass, until 1993), Cari B. Jones (keyboards, 1987–91), Mona Laviolette (guitar, 1989–93), and Jason Quirk (live drums, 1992–93).