Glasgow World

24 April 2023

Strawberry Switchblade: Where are they now? The goth Glasgow band who disappeared after their big hit

Liam Smillie

Whatever happened to Strawberry Switchblade?

Strawberry Switchblade were an 80’s Glasgow New Wave pop band that defined a generation of goths in Glasgow.

Inspired heavily by the Glasgow scene (and the wider burgeoning UK goth scene stemming from The Cure) at the time – Jilly Bryson and Rose McDowall formed the pop group, Strawberry Switchblade in 1981.

Jill and Rose were massive parts of the New Romantic bohemian art scene in Glasgow throughout the 80s – they were close with the Scottish punk band the Nu-Sonics (who would later become Orange Juice) throughout their respective careers – and Rose played with the Paisley punk band The Poems.

When forming their own band, McDowall was given the name ‘Strawberry Switchblade’ from James Kirk of Orange Juice – who originally planned to use the name for a fanzine he planned to create for his own band, but never materialised.

They spent their early years touring pubs and clubs around Glasgow and further afield across Scotland while Jilly Bryson was undertaking her degree in mixed media at the Glasgow School of Art.

The band’s very first incarnation was an all-female 4 piece, joined by their friends and fellow Glasgow art scene alumni, Janis Goodlet and Carole McGowan, who completed the line up on bass and drums respectively.

Together they recorded their first demo at the Hellfire Club and played a handful of gigs, building up quite the reputation for themselves – people were speaking about them so much that when John Peel came to put on a gig in Scotland, he invited them to play on the line-up.

Afterwards he would invite the band to record a session for his BBC Radio 1 show in October 1982. Three days later they would record a session for David Jensen‘s Radio.

On both radio sessions the band were augmented by James Kirk from Orange Juice on bass and Shahid Sarwar from The Recognitions on drums.

Strawberry Switchblade had gotten enough attention at this point to sign with signed to Zoo Music in collaboration with Warner Bros Music, who released early work from The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & the Bunnymen.

The first single Strawberry Switchblade would release, ‘Trees and Flowers’ would see the band perform as a two-piece, as they would go on until the band disbanded later in the 80s.

Released in July 1983, Bryson would write ‘Trees and Flowers’ about her anxiety disorder and agoraphobia – far ahead of its time in subject matter. The single was released in July 1983 through an independent record label run by Will Sergeant from Echo & The Bunnymen, it sold over 10,000 copies.

Trees and Flowers featured at number 47 in John Peel’s 1983 Festive 50. The track featured Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera on guitar and was produced by Bill Drummond, who would later become known for his work with The KLF.

It wasn’t until they released their second single, ‘Since Yesterday’, that Strawberry Switchblade would see major success in the charts.

Released in late 1984, Since Yesterday became a UK top ten hit in early 1985, peaking at number 5, and also met with success in Europe, but saw massive stardom Japan. Thousands of youths across Glasgow and beyond would try and replicate the bands New Romantic ‘Gothic Lolita’ style featured by Strawberry Switchblade in the song’s music video.

They featured on the front page of the UK magazine Smash Hits, which solidified their style and celebrity going into 1985.

Thanks to the success of the single, their self-titled album reached number 25 in the charts when it was released in April of 1985.

Unfortunately for the band, their success didn’t keep up throughout the rest of 1985, despite the release of their next single ‘Let Her Go’ just a month after the release of their eponymous album.

Their commercial success in the UK had fallen drastically throughout the rest of 1985, although they remained well-respected in their hometown and in the hearts of young goths up and down the country.

They remained popular in Japan, releasing two more singles in later 1985 and early 1986 – “Ecstasy (Apple of My Eye)” and “I Can Feel”, which were only issued to a Japanese audience. I Can Feel featured only McDowall, as by this time the partnership had irreparably fractured.

By early 1986, the group had disbanded – but their stories were far from over, what are the duo up to today?

Rose McDowall

Rose’s first foray into the world of music was through the Paisley art-punk trio, they formed in 1978 with her then-husband Drew McDowall, three years before Rose would form Strawberry Switchblade.

McDowall continued in music post-Strawberry break-up, playing with many neofolk bands and performing in and around Glasgow, alongside old and new friends associated with her current representation, Night School Records – such as Michael Kasparis, proficient cellist Jo Quail, and her son, Bobi Lee.

In more recent years, McDowall has performed a rare show at Elektrowerkz in London. In 2020, ‘Under The Yew Possessed’ was re-released from a 1993 album made with Robert Lee, and released under the name Sorrow.

Rose once spoke about working with a large record label and moving to London during the height of their fame became isolating, leading the duo to drift apart.

Rose said: “You are a commodity when you’re signed to a large record company. They want their return. They want you to make them money and there’s not an awful lot of nurturing.

“So, if you’re not getting on with the person you’re supposed to be in a creative partnership – and we weren’t really getting on – it’s not comfortable in any way. You really do need to have a united front as a band just to protect yourselves so if you’re not it’s not good.”

Jill Bryson

Jill Bryson has since become an artist, sculptor, and designed and made her own range of clothing. In 2013, she returned to music after nearly 30 years – writing songs for the band The Shapists, which featured her daughter Jessie Frost.

Bryson revealed that she once spent a night with Prince at the Brit Awards in 1985, a time when he was up for Best International Artist at the Savoy Hotel, telling The Herald: “He was on the other side of this big round table with his bodyguards. And they were crawling around on the floor. I don’t know if they thought there was a suspicious package or something.

“I think he kept his dark glasses on as well. And he was so tiny. We just sat giggling on the other side of the table.

“It was great fun. I remember Neil Tennant was there and at that point I’m not sure if he was a Pet Shop Boy. He was still writing for Smash Hits. And I remember running about with him in the Savoy going into the kitchens and being ridiculous.”

“But yes, Prince in his dark glasses and his bodyguards. It was surreal.”

A reissue of all Strawberry Switchblade’s work was released in 2005 called “The Platinum Collection”. An upcoming documentary, ‘Since Yesterday: Unsung Pioneers of Scottish Pop’, is set to be released this year – which will detail the rise and fall of the band that blazed the trail of the New Romantic scene in Glasgow.