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strawfansite.bsky.social
Strawberry Switchblade fansite
@strawfansite.bsky.social
420 followers 97 following 1K posts
The comprehensive online archive of all things #StrawberrySwitchblade since 2003. Posting about the band, nattering about music in general.

https://strawberryswitchblade.net
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Strawberry Switchblade in the studio during the recording of their album, mid 1984. As befits a practical, work-focused day they are underdressed by their standards (though still flamboyant by anyone else's).
Four people stand in a room against a wall, smiling for the camera. Rose McDowall and Jill Bryson are in the middle in short dresses and hairbands with plastic flowers and long trailing ribbons. They are flanked by two casually dressed men of a comparable age. The walls have pictures of musicians, it appears to be one of Ringo Starr just behind Jill.
November 26, 2025 at 8:06 AM
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Household names like Altered Images, The Bluebells, and Aztec Camera are mixed in with cult heroes like the Shakin' Pyramids, Sophisticated Boom Boom and the French Impressionists - & Rose McDowall's other band The Poems.
November 22, 2025 at 11:23 AM
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The Hellfire Club’s owner David Henderson still has the studio ledger and has been kind enough to share it with us. It's a who's who of the phenomenally vibrant Glasgow indie scene of the early 1980s.
Front page of the Hellfire Club ledger with its address, owners' names and the founding date, 4 July 1980
November 22, 2025 at 11:23 AM
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44 years ago today, 22 November 1981, an indie quartet called Strawberry Switchblade went to record a demo at the Hellfire Club, a 4-track studio in Glasgow. The 4 young women made a 3 song tape to help them get their first gigs. 🧵
Page from the Hellfire Club ledger dated Sunday 22 November 1981, listing the three songs and which instrument goes on each of the four tracks on the master tape. Page from the Hellfire Club ledger listing the Strawbery Switchblade songs recorded and the instruments used.
November 22, 2025 at 11:23 AM
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Strawberry Switchblade backstage at Reading University, 42 years ago today, 12 Nov 1983.

Jill: ‘That was our dressing room – we had to get ready in the public toilets! There we are with a table of beer & crisps in the toilet. The glamour!’

(📸©️Peter McArthur, used with permission)
Rose and Jill sit wearing black polka dot flamenco dresses and large headbands with colourful plastic flowers. in front of them are numerous open beer bottles on a table, beside and behind them are hand basins.
November 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
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If you were rushing out to buy the new Smash Hits this week in 1984 you'd find future Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant was reviewing the new singles. He declared Strawberry Switchblade's Since Yesterday to be 'one of the few records this week which isn't trying to sound like something else'.
Scan of a section of a page of Smash Hits. It reads: Singles reviewed by Neil Tennant STRAWBERRY SWITCHBLADE Since Yesterday (Korova) This begins, if I’m not mistaken, with a snatch of something famous by the composer Sibelius, and then ventures into a wistful melody, sung in brittle harmonies which touches the heart. One of the few records this week which isn’t trying to sound like something else.
November 9, 2025 at 1:00 PM
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Strawberry Switchblade's Jill Bryson & Stephen McRobbie of @thepastels.bsky.social. Taken by Peter McArthur, Jill's partner & prime photographer of the early 1980s Glasgow indie scene. They look bored as it's just Peter testing camera flashes. Outside Peter & Jill's flat, West End Park St, c.1982.
Two young people outside a doorway in a sandstone building. Stephen is on the left in a duffel coat, Jill on the right in blue jacket, daisy print dress and very thick eyeliner. Neither looks like they're posing for the camera. The same two young people outside the doorway in a sandstone building, but taken from further back. As before, Stephen is on the left in a duffel coat, Jill on the right in blue jacket, daisy print dress and very thick eyeliner. Both have their hands in their pockets. Neither looks like they're posing for the camera.
October 31, 2025 at 12:23 PM
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Happy birthday to the one & only Rose McDowall, 66 today! The talent, the voice, the endless musical exploration of melancholy beauty, the amazing self-definition & an absolute goth style icon too.

📸 Sin Bozkurt 2016, Peter McArthur c.1983, Gilbert Blecken 1989, unknown
October 21, 2025 at 7:27 AM
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Strawberry Switchblade's 1982 4-Piece Demo EP now available on grape coloured vinyl. Pressed for Japan earlier this year, a few copies are now available direct from the label @nightschoolrecords.bsky.social:

night-school.bandcamp.com/album/1982-4...
October 20, 2025 at 3:44 PM
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A year ago today Jill Bryson & Rose McDowall were at Glasgow Film Theatre for a panel discussion after a screening of the documentary Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland's Girl Bands. In this clip they look back on Strawberry Switchblade
October 19, 2025 at 2:58 PM
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Strawberry Switchblade record company promotional photos for the press, 1984.

📸1 - unknown
📸2 - Peter McArthur
📸3 - Paul Cox
Black and white photo. Face to face from the side, turned to the camera. Black and white photo, close up of faces. Rose lies down with eyes closed, Jill leans over her from behind and looks at the camera black and white shot from across the room. High contrast so subtle details are lost. Both wear a lot of white polka dots.
October 14, 2025 at 2:48 PM
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Strawberry Switchblade, September 1985, around the time of their Jolene single.

📸 Mike Prior for No 1 magazine
Close up photo ina studio. Jill has red lipstick, crimped red hair and a hairband with red plastic roses. Rose stands next to her in a black PVC catsuit with black crimped hair and a diamante tiara, with purpley blue lipstick.
October 10, 2025 at 6:35 AM
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Strawberry Switchblade, 1984/5. The person in their 1980s body warmer unintentionally serves to highlight the dramatic pizzazz of the band's aesthetic.
Outdoor photo, unposed, with Jill and Rose smiling at an unknown person. It's a sunny day, on the left is a person turned away from camera with long dark hair, wearing a red body warmer, checked shirt and blue jeans. In the centre is Jill Bryson with red back combed hair and a green strapless dress with black polka dots and black velevet sleeves. On the right is Rose McDowall in a white dress with black polka dots and ra-ra skirt.
October 8, 2025 at 6:47 AM
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Happy birthday to David Balfe, ex-Teardrop Explodes keyboard player & Strawberry Switchblade manager. Balfey produced debut single Trees & Flowers & final single I Can Feel, played keyboards on tracks like Beautiful End, & co-wrote Black Taxi too.

(Pic captions in next post 🧵)
Black and white sepia toned photo of Balfe sat in a chair staring into space next to Jill and Rose. Bright sunny day sat round an outdoor table at a cafe or restaurant. Balfe, Jill and Rose look surprisingly subdued for people who've just bagged a record deal. It has the air of 'we're restlessly waiting for our food, why are you taking a photo?' Rose, Jill and Sakamoto sat at a restaurant table, Balfe stands beside it.
October 2, 2025 at 8:00 AM
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Alan Horne, head honcho of Postcard Records, interviews Viv Albertine of the Slits, while a pre-Strawberry Switchblade Jill Bryson looks on.

Glasgow City Hall, 26 September 1979 - 46 years ago today.

📸©️Peter Anthony McArthur, used with permission
Black and white photo with Alan in the foreground on the left, looking down as if reading notes, Viv in the foreground on the right mid-speech, and Jill in the background in the centre, chin resting on hand, listening.
September 26, 2025 at 8:35 AM
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They might've thought it'd quietly go away but when their album was reissued in Japan, Ecstasy was added as a bonus track. Fast forward to the streaming era & the 1997 reissue has become the standard track listing for the album. Ecstasy is their 4th most streamed track on Spotify
September 25, 2025 at 10:32 AM
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It's not clear what the 'apple of my eye' bit is about, perhaps that was the original title before Rose wrote the new lyrics. Although in retrospect both Rose and Jill are at pains to disown it, they nonetheless closed the set with it on their March 1986 Japanese tour.
Poster for Strawberry Switchblade's 1986 Japanese tour
September 25, 2025 at 10:32 AM
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Jill Bryson aged five & in an outfit presciently embroidered with the initials of Strawberry Switchblade. 'That must be 1966 or thereabouts. It's Sadie Simpson's dance academy, the letters look like Js but it's S's. We had to do tap dancing and ballet & all these stupid things'
Sepia toned black and white photo of a young Jill standing with her arms cruciform as if about to start ballet moves, smiling. She's wearing a black leotard embroidered with two large S letters on the chest.
September 23, 2025 at 3:14 PM
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Neither single became a hit. It would be a year until Erasure's 4th single, Sometimes, was a smash and started their epic success. Sadly, Strawberry Switchblade were headed the other way - Jolene turned out to be their last single in the UK.
The ocver of Strawberry Switchblade's Jolene single. Rose and Jill are in black, wearing big furry black hads, and the photo is surrounded in a wreath of flowers. The word Jolene is written vertically, with lines from the song between each letter.
September 19, 2025 at 5:37 PM
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Both bands were on a promotional tour of personal appearances at night clubs and on this day they went together to two clubs 12 miles apart - Jars in Brechin and Smokeys in Arbroath.
Advert in the Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser for Strawberry Switchblade and Erasure live a Smokey's in Arbroath on Thursday 19 Septmebr 1985 Poster in red ink on pink paper for Strawberry Switchblade and Erasure live at Smokey's in Arbroath on Thursday 19 Septmebr 1985
September 19, 2025 at 5:37 PM
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Strawberry Switchblade had released their electropop cover of Jolene two weeks earlier, the same day as Erasure's debut single Who Needs Love Like That. They were so unknown that they're billed in the advert as 'Vince Clark ex Yazoo and Andy Bell ex Depeche Mode'. 75p a ticket!
Adrvert from the Brechin Advertiser newspaper, 12 September 1985. Jars Discotheque is having a 'Top of the Pops' night. For 75p you can see Strawberry Switchblade and Erasure!
September 19, 2025 at 5:37 PM
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Strawberry Switchblade and Erasure at Jars Discothèque, Brechin, Scotland on 19 September 1985 - 40 years ago today! 🧵
Yellowed photo of Vince Clarke, Andy Bell, Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall sat round a nightclub table. Between Jill and Rose are two young men, one of whom has his arm round Jill and is giving a thumbs up. Jill does not look impressed. Taken a moment before or after the other photo, this has Vince Clarke, Andy Bell, Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall sat round a nightclub table. Between Jill and Rose are two young men, one of whom is talking into Jill's ear..
September 19, 2025 at 5:37 PM
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Strawberry Switchblade on stage, late 1983/early 1984 [📸Kenji Kubo]. After debut single Trees & Flowers was an indie success in summer 1983 they put together a touring band. Simon Booth (aka Emmerson) from Working Week played guitar, with drummer Roy Dodds & bassist John Cook. 🧵
Black and white photo looking up at the stage. Jill Bryson is at the front left, smiling and playing a tambourine. Rose McDowall is at the front right, smiling and playing an acoustic guitar. In the centre further back is a drum kit on a riser played by Simon Dodds, in front of which stands Simon Emmerson playing guitar.
September 18, 2025 at 2:27 PM
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You can download the track and album from the Let's Go's Bandcamp: theletsgos.bandcamp.com/album/tracks...

They're also coming to Europe this week (UK folks - your options are London, Harrow, Birmingham and Glasgow).
The Let's Go's - three young Japanese women - holding a black cloth. Superimposed on it are the band's European tour dates. 18 September Point Ephemere, Paris 19 September Alte Hackerel, Karlsrume 20 September Koln, E D P 21 September Eindhoven, The Jack 23 September Dunkerque, D N D Bar 24 September London, New Cross Inn 24 September Harrow, Trinity 26 September Birmingham, Night Owl 27 September Glasgow, Stereo 29 September Bruxelles, Chaff 1 October Rotterdam, V 11 2 October Utrecht, D B's 3 October Hamburg, Moin Its Hamburg Festival 4 October Munster, Rare Guitar
September 16, 2025 at 6:56 AM
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3 fabulous previously unseen photos of Strawberry Switchblade live at Brockwell Park London, Aug 1984. It was a free gig put on by Greater London Council featuring an ecelectic mix inc the Damned, the Fall, Benjamin Zephaniah & Spear of Destiny. Thanks so much to @kaptkopter.bsky.social for posting!
Rose McDowall on stage. It's daytime, she'd playing her Antigua finish Fender Coronado 2 guitar, wearing a black corset and tutu, smiling and turning towards Jill who is off camera. Jill Bryson and John Cook on stage. It's daytime, Jill plays guitar and John bass. John is in black T shirt and black jeans, Jill in a white polka dot top and black flamenco skirt. Rose McDowall on stage. It's daytime, she'd picking up her Antigua finish Fender Coronado 2 guitar, wearing a black corset and tutu. Poster for the free concert at Brockwell Park. It says: Free, Saturday 4 August, The Damned, Spear of Destiny, The Fall, Benjamin Zephaniah, New Model Army, Joolz, Brilliant, Strawberry Switchblade, Pleasure and the Beast, Hi Jinx, The Opposition, D J Pete Fox. Keep G L C working for London.
September 11, 2025 at 2:41 PM