Coventry Evening Telegraph
11 April 1985
Jim Taylor’s Rock Gossip
Smiles that veiled the wounds of a ‘raw deal’
Power contest
The duo Strawberry Switchblade are quickly finding out that groups who live by record company hype can also die by the inevitable music press backlash.
Last week the twee Glaswegian pair who make up the candyfloss creation popped into Coventry’s HMV record store to sign copies of their just-released debut album.
For over an hour Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall grinned and giggled as young fans queued up, bought their record, said hello and snapped them for posterity with their Instamatics.
But when the grinning had to stop it was a chance for the likeable lasses to lick their wounds after the pasting they had been given in the music press.
The duo hit the headlines at the beginning of the year with their top five hit Since Yesterday. They appeared on virtually every television pop show, often alongside King, and were shining examples of the music industry’s marketing machine in full flow.
The girls’ album has been sitting on their record company’s shelf since last summer but has only now been released after they had clinched the hit single.
The brand of electronic catchy pop songs was given a hard time by the music critics, but the girls claimed they had been given a rough deal.
Rose said: ‘The albums have been reviewed by people who did not like us from the start. They were biased and set out with the prime intention of slagging us off.
‘We are not asking for rave reviews, just someone who is impartial to start off with. Last year we had one of our tracks on a special New Musical Express tape and the writers all said how great it was.
‘Now they are saying it is rubbish and spending most of their time talking about how we look.
‘All we want is the fans to give the music a listen and then decide for themselves. Personally we think it is great.’
To prove their point the girls have given Rock Gossip and autographed copy of their album to give away.
To win the album all you have got to do is to name the group’s current single which is slowly climbing the charts.
Send the answer plus your name, address and telephone number to: The Entertainments Editor, Coventry Evening Telegraph, Corporation Street, Coventry CV1 1FP. Closing date is 10am next Thursday.
We’re grateful to the generous people at Zounds Abound for finding us this article. They do such a brilliant job of trawling vintage newspapers for music articles that people want to read today. They’re raising funds and awareness for Teenage Cancer Trust in memory of their son Noah. You can read about Noah, the care the Trust enabled him to have, and make a donation here.