19

Early 1985

THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL…?

Note: Although the exact date of this article isn’t known, we can narrow it down: Jill refers to ‘both our singles’, so this is between the release of Since Yesterday in October 1984 and Let Her Go in March 1985. The cover model is referred to as ‘the face of 1985’, making it likely to be December 1984 or January 1985.

Thanks to Lucinda Sieger for supplying the photo of this article.

‘He was wearing trousers with knee pads that had been cut out from a quilted anorak. “Look,” he said “there are really good. You can go roller-skating without hurting your knees!”’

Jill Bryson, above left (who’s 23 and one half of Strawberry Switchblade), was impressed, and so began their long romance…

‘Punk was “banned” in Glasgow clubs, so we used to hire a coach and go to this tiny place in Paisley which had no stage and was like someone’s front room, but all the big groups played there. Peter used to go there with his crowd of friends, and Rose (the other half of Strawberry Switchblade) was one of them.

‘But we didn’t meet until we went on after the club to a punk party at someone’s house. Peter thought I was a really good sport because there was a food fight in the kitchen involving margarine and tomato sauce, and I joined in and had margarine rubbed in my hair. I think that really made an impression on him.

‘He was 18 and I was 16; he’s quite small and I’m small. He had this spiky, dark hair. He wasn’t pushy, just dead cool. We got a taxi home and he asked me for my phone number, and I wrote it on a piece of chewing-gum paper using my eyebrow pencil!

‘We talked for two hours on the phone and arranged to meet at the Apollo, where the Clash were playing. He said he’d meet me outside and he’d be wearing white Levi’s Sta-Prest trousers. I don’t think I would have recognised him apart from those white trousers!

‘We hit it off from the start. He had a bedsit and was doing a photography course at college. He used to get me to pose for photographs, and I thought that was absolutely great.

‘We didn’t have a lot of money, so we mostly just met in clubs or we just wandered around. There were no candlelit meals – he’s not at all romantic. He has never, ever sent me a Valentine’s card – he says they’re completely false. I’ve sometimes wanted him to be more romantic, to buy me flowers and things like that. But, then again, I think it’s unnecessary: if somebody really loves you, they don’t need to do all that.

‘We have a good relationship n that he can tell me anything. He doesn’t mince his words: his honesty puts everything in proportion.

‘I think it helps he’s so involved with Strawberry Switchblade: he takes a lot of our photos for publicity, and for the covers of both our singles and the album. He says he doesn’t want fame, that he prefers to be in the background.

‘I’d never had a proper boyfriend before Peter, and never imagined it would last this long. But I don’t know if we’ll ever get married.

‘Three years ago, we got a flat together in Glasgow. I think that cements a relationship. I think everyone should have somewhere secure, a place that’s their own. In the music business, it helps to have someone, too. I’ve never been independent anyway. I’ve wanted to be but I’ve never felt I could. I feel really unsafe unless I’m with someone I can trust.

‘Having a long term relationship probably helps me in more ways than I imagine’.

Singer and designer Lucinda Sieger (above) found herself blindly flying off to Rome in pursuit of love…

‘Stefano was my Humphrey Bogart, just like in the old movies. I’m an old dreamer at heart, and I’ve always loved all the Hollywood films and imagined meeting someone who’d sweep me off my feet. He was over here on holiday from Italy. I met him at a friend’s house and liked him straight away.

‘I found out he felt the same way about me and, for two weeks, we spent every minute together. It was so intense.

‘I’m definitely not the kind of person who needs to have a one-to-one relationship. My goal has always been my work. But when I met Stefano I really let things drop.

‘After just two weeks he asked me to marry him, and go with him to Rome for a holiday and to meet his parents. He asked to meet my family and “ask for my hand”. It was so romantic.

‘I can remember a friend saying, “You don’t have to marry someone just because they ask you!” but I was carried along by this romantic notion: me being an artist, falling in love and going to live in a foreign city.

‘As soon as I arrived in Rome, things weren’t the same between us. Over here he was a man; over there he was a boy under his parents’ wing. He was out of work and depressed, and he started challenging me. Everything I did or said was wrong. In London, he’d seen me as confident, outgoing and ambitious. Over there, I was suddenly a part of his life: I knew no-one else and I felt completely out of my depth.

‘I wanted him to see me as independent. I decided to make a real effort, but it wasn’t easy and I got more and more depressed. At the end of two weeks, I was as low as I’ve ever been.

‘There was none of the affection we’d had before, and it was all very sad. I think it’s all to do with timing: the situation and environment were against us.

‘I decided I had to come back. When I arrived at Gatwick, I was a real wreck. I was unhappy for a long time and just hid away in my room. People couldn’t believe it hadn’t worked out, as we’d got on so well here.

‘Now, I look back and see it as one of those Hollywood-type epics. I have always wanted to star on one of those – and not all of them have happy endings, do they?’

Feature – Jane Dowdeswell

[Read Peter’s account of his time with Strawberry Switchblade in the Writings section]