Strawberry Switchblade

Strawberry Switchblade

1982 4 Piece Demo

Night School

Originally released in limited formats in 2017 and having since been repressed several times, 2025 sees a new pressing to acknowledge the enduring legacy of this recording. In 2024, the song "Trees & Flowers" became an unexpected hit on Tik Tok and introduced a new generation to these timeless songs. “1982 4-Piece Demo” is the first official, fully-licensed and unreleased material to be released under the name Strawberry Switchblade in 30 years. Since disbanding amid major record label acrimony and personal differences in 1986, the already-cult band have since grown in stature and legend. Trailblazers in many ways, the band’s mythology justifiably centers around the charismatic duo of Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall, but that isn’t a complete picture. Bryson and McDowall’s growing friendship, having met some years earlier on the punk scene, became a creative partnership: Bryson’s art school background and McDowall’s history in avant-punk group The Poets meant Strawberry Switchblade was a band pitted against many established norms. The band’s very first incarnation, an all-female 4 piece, recorded one demo at Glasgow’s Hellfire Club and played a handful of gigs. Friends Janice Goodlett and Carole McGowan completed the line up on bass and drums respectively. Strawberry Switchblade would eventually pair down to a duo and go on to chart success but it’s in these raw, passionate recordings that the songwriting and vocal elements were being hammered out and explored in real time.  “Spanish Song” is a previously unreleased song. With Rose McDowall’s instantly recognizable lead vocal...