McCallum was at Brighton Art College when fellow-squatters told her she would be playing bass in their punk band Joby and the Hooligans, though they never made any records, but she later formed The Chefs. After working as a community musician she entered academia, as Helen Reddington, publishing The Lost Women of Rock Music: Female Musicians Of The Punk Era (Equinox) and lecturing at University of East London. She still tours as a solo artist under the name Helen McCookerybook.