Before Strawberry Switchblade, Rose had two releases with The Poems. Immediately after Strawberry Switchblade she recorded ten songs, known as the Sunflower Demos.
Since then she’s been prolific, appearing on numerous releases by Spell, Sorrow, Current 93, Psychic TV, Bronski Beat, Lark Blames, Andrew Liles, Nature and Organization, Backworld, Church Of Raism, Ornamental, Resonance, Rosa Mundi, The Angels Of Light and Velocity Star. A complete Rose discography would require its own site, I’m not going to attempt it here!
Jill, conversely, had no releases before Strawberry Switchblade. Like Rose, straight after the split she recorded demos of ten songs. She also did several gigs, and later worked with a band called Drop, but never released anything with them. She’s had a handful of releases since.
So, here’s a selected discography of Rose and Jill before and after.
Rose before
From 1979-1981, Rose was in The Poems with her husband Drew. Often described as a punk band, they weren’t the stereotype of fast thrashing. Listening to them you can already hear elements of the hanging, atmospheric melancholia that has been present throughout her career.
Before the releases mentoned here, The Poems had a track, Posters on the Wall, on a 1979 various artists EP called Spectacular Commodity (Groucho Marxist Record Co:Operative COMMUNIQUE 1). However Rose didn’t play on that as she was busy giving birth!
The Poems
1) Living
2) Life Like
3) Comfort
4) More Emotions
5) The Awakening
6) A Few Copies More
1980
Cassette
self-released
POE1
Recorded February 1980.
Bass, violin – James Kirk
Drums, vocals – Rose McDowall
Piano – Malcolm Fisher
Piano, vocals – Drew McDowall
Artwork – Edwyn Collins
The Poems
A) Achieving Unity
B1) Untitled
B2) Untitled
1981
7 inch
Polka Records
DOT1
Released March 1981.
Includes 16 page booklet.
Rose immediately after
Cut With The Cake Knife
1 Tibet
2 Sunboy
3 Wings Of Heaven
4 Sixty Cowboys
5 On The Sun
6 Cut With The Cake Knife
7 Crystal Nights
8 Soldier
9 So Vicious
2004
CD
Bad Fairy Productions
BFCD01
Previously known as the Sunflower Demos, this collecton of Rose’s songs from 1985-6, either side of the end of Strawberry Switchblade, was released in a limited edition of 500 numbered and signed copies.
A tenth track, Honey Bee, is listed in the packaging but not actually included on the disc.
Honey Bee (aka I Can Feel) had been released as Strawberry Switchblade. Cut With the Cake Knife and Sixty Cowboys had been recorded by Strawberry Switchblade for a February 1985 BBC radio session.
Cut With The Cake Knife
1 Tibet
2 Sunboy
3 Wings Of Heaven
4 Sixty Cowboys
5 On The Sun
6 Cut With The Cake Knife
7 Crystal Nights
8 Soldier
9 So Vicious
10 Don’t Fear The Reaper
11 Crystal Days
2015
LP & CD
UK: Night School LSSN027/LSSN027CD
USA: Sacred Bones SBR3017/SBR3017CD
The 2004 release, reissued with the Crystal Days single as bonus tracks.
Night School LP on clear and black smoke vinyl, limited to 50 copies.
Sacred Bones LP was not limited, though there was a limited edition of 200 copies in deluxe packaging.
This version of the album with the bonus tracks can be found on streaming services and dowloaded at Bandcamp.
Don’t Fear the Reaper
A) Don’t Fear the Reaper
B) Crystal Days
B2) Don’t Fear the Reaper (Instrumental) *
1988
7 inch and 12 inch
Rio Digital
7RDS3/12RDS3
One-off single covering the Blue Oyster Cult classic. In an interview around the time of its release, Rose disowned the single and said she’d sued the people who’d released it.
The 7 inch version of Crystal Days is 30 seconds shorter than the 12 inch.
* The instrumental versoin only appeared an the 12 inch.
Don’t Fear the Reaper
A1) Don’t Fear the Reaper
A2) Crystal Days
B1) Don’t Fear the Reaper (Extended Edit)
B2) Don’t Fear the Reaper (Instrumental)
2015
12 inch
Night School
LSSN030
Limited edition of 500 copies for Record Store Day 2015, featuring all three tracks from the 1988 12 inch plus a new mix. A limited repress was issued in 2023.
All tracks can be downloaded at Bandcamp.
Jill after
Jill’s ten post-Strawberry Switchblade demos include one song, Dark 7, that had been recorded for a Strawberry Switchblade BBC session. The demos remain unreleased, however you can play and/or download them from this site, and play them on our YouTube channel.
After that, she sang backing vocals on two released tracks (and was somewhere in the crowd voices on a third), and that was it until she returned with her new band The Shapists in 2013.
Lucinda Sieger
Sunset Red
1987
7 and 12 inch
Pure Trash Records
PTR3
Jill did vocals on Sunset Red along with Robin Brown, with whom she was writing and performing at the time.
Single reissued on CD in Japan, 2001 (Syft Records SYFT-019CDS / EM Records EM1026CDS).
Lucinda Sieger
Album – Heart in the Sky
Track – Sunset Red
2001
CD
Lucinda Sieger Productions
LS001CD
Lucinda Sieger
Album – I Believe + Sunset Red + 2
Track – Sunset Red
2011
CD
Think! Records
THCD-178
Sunset Red was later reissued in Japan on this compilation featuring the I Believe album, the tracks from the Sunset Red single, and two demo versions.
Julian Cope
Album – Autogeddon
Track – Ain’t No Gettin’ Round Gettin’ Round
1994
CD, LP and cassette
Echo Records
ECHCD1/ ECHLP1/ ECHMC1
Jill’s husband Richard ‘Frog’ Frost, formerly of The Farmer’s Boys – played bass in Julian Cope’s band of the early-mid 1990s under the name KR Frost. This connection led to Jill doing vocals on Ain’t No Gettin’ Round Gettin’ Round on Cope’s album Autogeddon (credited as Jill Frost).
She also featured on the cover of Cope’s subsequent album 20 Mothers.
Julian Cope
Paranormal In The West Country (Avebury)
1994
CD
Echo Records
ECSCD4
Jill makes an uncredited appearance as one of the crowd of people in Avebury henge singing on Paranormal In The West Country (Avebury) from Julian Cope’s Paranormal In The West Country EP.
The Shapists
The Warning / Dust Index
2015
7 inch
Mystic Moon Records
MMR6
Limited to 500 copies.
Jill formed The Shapists with her daughter Jessie, and Craig Hood. They released eight tracks on Bandcamp in 2013 and 2014, then issued one 7 inch single. Tracks include a version of Trees and Flowers, and two songs of Jill’s from immediately after Strawberry Switchblade, Dust Index and Daddy I’ll Drown.
Craig Hood has a ‘music with Jill’ page on his site giving details about his involvemen and some great insight into the song creation process.