@strawfansite.bsky.social
The comprehensive online archive of all things #StrawberrySwitchblade since 2003. Posting about the band, nattering about music in general. https://strawberryswitchblade.net
Perfect descriptions!
26.02.2026 20:36 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
⚫️The classic Since Yesterday cover
⚪️The original quartet posing
⚫️The original quarter in the snow (first photo ever taken of the band"!)
Black ones £18, white £20 (about US$27).
Shipping from depots in the UK & USA to simplify things. Order now from Night School's Bandcamp (dispatch end of April)
Strawberry Switchblade official merch, the first in 40 years! Night School Records, who released the 1982 4-Piece Demo, have worked with the band to produce three T shirt designs
night-school.bandcamp.com/merch
They struck like a bolt of lightning. I remember getting XX Sex (on pink vinyl!) and playing it over and over, suspecting that it might be the best thing ever recorded.
26.02.2026 19:29 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
It's one of 50+ Strawberry Switchblade videos & TV appearances on our YouTube channel playlist
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
It was originally recorded for their debut album produced by David Motion, but at the last minute they called in producer Phil Thornalley to make 2 more singles to follow Since Yesterday. He made Let Her Go and this.
21.02.2026 11:43 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Strawberry Switchblade - Who Knows What Love Is on UK kids' TV show Saturday Superstore, 16 March 1985. This was the first time the song had been played anywhere. These days it'd be called dreampop, but back then this gorgeous gossamer music had no named genre.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckaU...
Jill Bryson in 1983. She's looking at the camera, heavy eye make-up, hair backcombed, a headband trails long ribbons.
Jill Bryson, photogra[phed by Paul Cox, 1984. A monochrome photo, she looks at the camera, a hand with Indian finger jewellery is raised and holds ribbons trailing from a headband. The image has a high contrast, her facial features are barely defined.
Jill Bryson as a young child, yet wearing a very Strawberry Switchblade outfit - polka dot pinny and a big matching bow in her hair.
Jill Bryson in 2023, in her painting studio
Happy birthday to Jill Bryson, born this day 1961!
The voice, the melodies, the songs, the style, always inventive in her myriad forms of creative expression.
Further out is Rose McDowall sitting in front of a fire with a plate of sandwiches, & between the 2 of them in the skimpiest Speedos... is that Bob Carolgees with Fidel Castro's beard? At the far left is half of Kim Wilde or maybe Cyndi Lauper. The bigger question is not who is on the cover, but why
10.02.2026 16:57 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Buried in the sand is the tiny face of... John Peel? Phil Collins? It looks more like Wayne Rooney than anyone else, but can't be him as he wasn't even born yet.
The fella with the mullet and glasses is BBC radio and TV presenter Mike Read. Next to him is Jill Bryson.
But who exactly is on the cover? It appears to be Abbot himself holding the boombox, with George Michael next to him and an unidentifiable woman behind him.
On the right there's Elton John, and the one with the Ziggy haircut is Abbot in character as his demeaning Scottish stereotype, CU Jimmy.
Summers in the mid 80s often featured hits by Black Lace and other gratingly perky synthetic cheese Europop, and All Night Holiday was squarely aimed at that goal.
It spent five weeks in the top 40, just grazing the top 20 and earning him a Top Of The Pops appearance.
It was the tag-end of the era where pretty much any actor or entertainer got to make a pop record. Telly Savalas and Windsor Davies both had number one hits!
Having somehow had a huge hit earlier in the 1985 with Atmosphere, Abbot came back with this follow-up in July.
The cover of All Night Holiday by Russ Abbot - a painting of a beach scene with pop stars as descrivbed in the post.
WTF is going on here? Strawberry Switchblade are depicted on the picture sleeve for a 1985 single by comedian Russ Abbot! 🧵
10.02.2026 16:57 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Strawberry Switchblade session for John Peel, 5 February 1985:
Rose McDowall – guitar, vocals
Jill Bryson – guitar, melodica, vocals
David Balfe – synthesiser
Recorded at BBC Maida Vale 5
Produced by Mark Radcliffe
First broadcast 15 April 1985
Similarly, Nothing Changes appeared on Jill's ten post-Switchblade demos. Although these have never been released, you can hear and download them on the fansite.
strawberryswitchblade.net/jill-bryson-...
Two of the songs - Cut With the Cake Knife and Sixty Cowboys - were written solely by Rose and were included on her post-Switchblade demos that were later released as the Cut With The Cake Knife album.
night-school.bandcamp.com/album/cut-wi...
Strawberry Switchblade and Ryuichi Sakamoto sat round a restaurant table, David Balfe squaeezes past behind.
The songs on the session are very electronic-oriented, and it's easy to imagine the depth that Ryuichi Sakamoto would have brought to them if, as was mooted at the time, he'd produced the band's next album. Here they are together in Tokyo later in 1985.
📸©️Peter McArthur, used with permission
On this day in 1985, Strawberry Switchblade recorded their 5th & final BBC radio session. Although Since Yesterday was still in the top 10 & the album was imminent, the band recorded 4 new songs. Here's Nothing Changes, written & sung by Jill Bryson. 🧵
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXnj...
And yeah, such a beautiful piece of writing - it's gratifying to see the recent groundswell of appreciation, a whole new generation have picked up on it and the demo version is the band's most popular track
04.02.2026 16:49 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0It'd really suit Mary Chain treatment, as it is it sits comfortably next to those JAMC Psychocandy era acoustic versions.
04.02.2026 16:47 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Strawberry Switchblade's 1983 debut single Trees and Flowers has never been reissued (though an earlier demo version has been released and is their most streamed track!). Hear it in all its pastoral melancholy beauty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9u...
04.02.2026 15:31 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Strawberry Switchblade photos from the session for the cover of debut single Trees and Flowers, 1983
📸©️Peter McArthur, used with permission
This was a transitional stage for Strawberry Switchblade. They'd just dropped their 3 backing musicians & opted to make the album with electro-oriented producer David Motion.
For more about Strawberry Switchblade's gigs, see the page on the fansite
strawberryswitchblade.net/gigs/
Slightly tatty leaflet listing gigs in March, April and May 1984, including Allen Ginsberg at the Albert Hall, Cocteau Twins at the Royal Festival Hall, and Strawberry Switchblade and Nick Cave at the Electric Ballroom.
Wonderful find from Robin Rimbaud on X - a 1984 flier for gigs promoted by Bliss, inc Strawberry Switchblade supporting Farmers Boys at Camden Electric Ballroom. It also has Nick Cave when the Bad Seeds were The Cavemen, between the recording & release of From Her To Eternity 🧵
27.01.2026 17:03 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0Incredible track! 3/4 time with a flute solo, the airy tune counterpointing Weller's sharp uneasy lyric of urban alienation. Kudos to the others as well, unlike anything they'd done before yet Rick's drumming is superb, absolutely gets it
25.01.2026 22:02 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0And of course you can follow us on here (and other social media platforms) if you'd like a regular dose of Strawberry Switchblade dropped into your timeline ⚫⚪🍓⚪⚫
25.01.2026 21:58 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Excellent taste! In case you haven't already seen, we revamped the Strawberry Switchblade fansite - hear all the music they released (& loads they didn't), vintage press articles, specially done interviews, YouTube channel with videos & TV appearances & more. Enjoy!
strawberryswitchblade.net
Absolutely, it was so fresh & different, it felt like they were speaking for us.
24.01.2026 17:39 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
As it this one - a fortnight later, 41 years ago today, Strawberry Switchblade were in the top ten and back on Top Of The Pops
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCXF...