No 1 Summer Special
1985
Strawberry Summer
Wellingtons… Alaska… polka dot slacks… cow dung… what else could it be but the Strawberry Switchblade guide to summer?
Interview by Stuart Husband
SEASONS
Is summer your favourite time of year?
Rose: No, summer always reminds me of Alaska. I like winter cos it’s wet and you can wear your wellies. I like wellie boots.
Jill: I don’t like summer cos you get all hot and sweaty and your ribbons get all tangled up. Springtime is my favourite time of year – everything’s just beginning, it’s all fresh, there’s lovely light, and gorgeous blossoms on the cherry trees! Don’t start me – I’ll go into pure poetry.
Rose: Every time of year is great – I don’t have a favourite. I really like walking in the rain and getting soaking wet.
MEMORIES
What are your most vivid summer memories?
Rose: Mine is of last summer, when we were recording. Sunbathing on the roof of the recording studio!
Jill: Yeah, that was good. The studio had a high wall round it so you could sunbathe in the nude if you wanted.
Rose: (hurriedly) We didn’t though
Have you spent a lot of summers together?
Rose: Not really. Last summer we went out together and things… we didn’t when we were in Glasgow, cos we live on opposite sides of the town and it was too much hassle to get the bus back and forth. We didn’t like each other that much!
So didn’t you go to the cliffs?
Rose: Well, there’s no cliffs in Glasgow…
Jill: Not in Sauchiehall Street!
Rose: Only blocks of flats, and they’re not the same really.
Jill: We never went out of Glasgow that often.
Rose: I’ve been to Fort William a few times.
Jill: Loch Lomond’s nearby and that’s nice.
Rose: I used to love cycling. I’ve got my bike in London but it’s so hilly round where I live that I’m scared to take it out in case I can’t get back!
What else did you get up to?
Rose: I used to go to the park and swim in the mucky ponds.
Jill: I went to the park as well. I got thrown into the pond by some big neds one summer. I got completely soaked!
Rose: I used to swim with my dog. I used to come out full of scratches cos there were all thorns in the water!
Jill: I like graveyards in summer. They’re really good to wander around in. It’s very hard being Strawberry Switchblade in summer cos the bees go for your flowers.
Rose: They don’t really care if they’re real or plastic – they just go for the colour.
Jill: But it’s the same in summer as winter – our hairspray still kills the flowers!
HOLIDAYS
Did you go on holiday with your parents?
Rose: No. We were too poor for any of that stuff.
Jill: I went abroad but we never went in summer. We used to go in spring cos it was cheaper. But I think it’s a positive advantage to go when it’s cold here, cos that usually means it’s warmer abroad. It’s like you’re really going on holiday then!
Rose: I recently went to Spain and that was fantastic. There were amazing storms with forked lightning that literally struck the beach while you were on it. It was great fun.
What are your favourite summer records?
Rose: I always play Orange Juice records in the summer.
Jill: I love The Lovin’ Spoonful.
Would you like to get a double-decker bus and go round the country like Cliff Richard in Summer Holiday?
Jill: I’d like to go round the country in a pair of crimplene polka dot slacks.
With an elasticated waist, of course?
Rose: Oh yeah, definitely. What hipsters we’d be! But I’d really love to travel around in a smaller bus.
CLOTHES AND SMELLS
Do you like to be especially bright in summer, bearing in mind that you’re always bright?
Rose: Yeah, I think so. I like wearing yellow shorts and things like that.
Do you try and get a tan?
Rose: I got one in Spain, but you can’t avoid it there, unless you wear a duffle coat.
Jill: I like getting a tan.
Rose: You told me you never go out! You said you wear a long skirt and things like that!
Jill: I didn’t in Portugal when I went there. I wore a swimsuit. I like the summer smells.
Rose: Oh yeah, they’re fantastic! The cow dung and things! It smells so countrysidey!
SPORTS AND MOORS
How would you spend your ideal summer?
Rose: Mine would be travelling round the Highlands.
Jill: Travelling round Britain. Britain’s a great place.
Rose: I like the sea and stuff, but there’s no point going in the sea in Scotland. It’s freezing. Even in the middle of July it’ll kill you. I’d like to get a pair of roller skates this summer. I love hanging on to the back of someone’s bicycle on skates and being really daft.
Do you play any summer sports?
Rose: I played baseball once, but I bowled so many times without hitting anyone’s bat that I gave up.
Jill: I’m really bad at things like hockey. You’re made to do it at school, so you really go off it. I used to run away from the ball.
Do you prefer deserted holiday spots? You wouldn’t go to Blackpool, for instance?
Rose: No. I’d really love to spend a summer in Rannoch Moor in the Highlands, where there’s absolutely nobody except me. That’d be wonderful – me and my guitar. I love carnivals and things but that’s the only time I like being in crowds. I hate crowded beaches! They’re always dirty.
You wouldn’t go to Ibiza and dance to Black Lace records?
Jill: Ugh! Vileness!
BY THE SEA
What about when you’re both 80 – would you like to be living in a seaside residential home, looking out at the water with a blanket round your knees?
Rose: I’d like to be in the Highlands – there’s loads of lochs there and that’d suit me fine. As long as there’s water.
Jill: I’d like to be in France.
Rose: I worry about the sea cos there’s something about it that always draws me – it’s calling me to walk into it. And I nearly always do it!
Jill: Have you been drinking? ‘The sea calls me’!
Rose: I think I used to be a mermaid in a previous life, that’s what it is. I have dreams about being pulled under the water, but they’re always really brilliant – there’s always someone taking me under.
Jill: I can’t believe this. Hippy-dippy or what?
Rose: Jill doesn’t understand.
Did you lose your virginity in summer?
Rose: I can’t comment on that. I haven’t lost mine yet.