{"product_id":"1982-4-piece-demo","title":"1982 4 Piece Demo","description":"\u003cp\u003e1982 4-Piece Demo is the first official, fully-licensed, and unreleased material to be released under the name \u003cem\u003eStrawberry Switchblade\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTrailblazers 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 \u003cem\u003eStrawberry Switchblade\u003c\/em\u003e was a band pitted against many established norms.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 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 lineup on bass and drums respectively. \u003cem\u003eStrawberry Switchblade\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpanish Song is a previously unreleased song. With Rose McDowall’s instantly recognizable lead vocal dovetailing with Bryson’s harmonies and lead guitar, it’s the first glimpse at an alternative history of \u003cem\u003eStrawberry Switchblade\u003c\/em\u003e. This incarnation could easily have been featured on a Nuggets compilation or a precursor to the indie-pop revolution that would take over British bedrooms a couple of years later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTrees and Flowers is instantly recognizable, a bona fide classic that would earn the band its first record deal. Here it’s given a more forceful rhythm section: Goodlett and McGowan’s playing is in fact accomplished and doesn’t hint at the bands’ youth. Go Away would also surface later on the band’s debut LP but here it is a moody-garage stomper with a psychedelic, haunting refrain. These 3 songs point to a tantalizing future of the band that was never realized.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRemastered and restored by Sean Pennycook from the original cassette, with artwork based on a single photographic contact sheet (the only visual evidence of the band in this form) and with a booklet of photographs and new text from contemporary Stephen Pastel.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Night School","offers":[{"title":"7\" - White","offer_id":50465224556875,"sku":"1008624","price":6.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"7\" - Grape","offer_id":50465224130891,"sku":"1003154","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"7\" - Pink","offer_id":50465224720715,"sku":"1147775","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"7\" - Clear","offer_id":50465225113931,"sku":"1003153","price":6.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"7\" - Coke Bottle Clear","offer_id":51441738678603,"sku":"R7596-2546","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/b510d1c4-9039-4b58-afac-f017a7f4e44c_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727283365","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/products\/1982-4-piece-demo","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}