Penelope Houston (born December 17, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter best known as the singer for the San Francisco-based punk rock band the Avengers. She was raised in Seattle but in 1977, she moved to San Francisco, attended the San Francisco Art Institute,
and shortly after became the lead singer and songwriter for the
Avengers.
Drummer Danny Furious (Danny O'Brien) and guitarist Greg Ingraham decided to start a band, and Furious approached Penelope to be their singer. They finished their lineup with
Jonathon Postal on bass, although he was replaced shortly after by Jimmy
Wilsey. Their first release (and only release while the band was
originally together) was We Are the One, a three-song EP which was
released on Dangerhouse Records in 1977.
The Avengers opened for the Sex Pistols in San Francisco at their final show at Winterland, which led to Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones producing a recording session for the band. In January 1979, Ingraham left the band and was replaced by Brad Kent, although the band only lasted a few more months until June 1979. An EP, titled Avengers, was released on White Noise Records a few months after the band broke up, which included songs from the Steve Jones produced session.
An album called Avengers (referred also as the Pink Album) was released in 1983. It featured tracks recorded through the band's whole time together, and was compiled by drummer Danny Furious.
Following the group's demise in 1979, Houston moved first to Los Angeles to work in film and video with The Screamer and director Rene Daalder, then to England where she collaborated with Howard Devoto
on his post-Magazine projects. In the mid-1980s, she returned to San
Francisco and helped originate the West Coast neo-folk movement. In
1986, she was featured alongside Tomata du Plenty of The Screamers in the punk rock musical Population : 1. By 1996 she had toured Europe extensively, signed with WEA Germany
(Warner Brothers) and earned numerous awards with the dozen albums,
which blended influences of punk, folk, rock, blues and Americana into
her dark unique acoustic sound.
In 1999 Houston recreated the Avengers, adding original guitarist Greg Ingraham, bassist Joel Reader (formerly of The Mr. T. Experience, and The Plus Ones) and drummer Luis Illades (of Pansy Division, formerly also of The Plus Ones) to round out the lineup. Since the spring of 2004 she has toured the U.S. and Europe with this lineup. She continues to play her solo material, mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area.
