Recently I got into Strawberry Switchblade, who were a new wave duo from Scotland in the '80s. I wanted to get their eponymous debut album from 1985 (their only one, actually) and so I looked at their Discogs page. The thing that surprised me was that Strawberry Switchblade NEVER got a CD reissue in the UK and Europe, and didn't get released in the US. However, the album got reissued on CD many times in Japan, where Strawberry Switchblade got more popular there. So on Amazon I bought the CD (used, but in very good condition) and it came all the way from Japan. What's really cool is that in the booklet there's a introduction written in Japanese (probably a biography about Strawberry Switchblade), and has the lyrics in both English and Japanese. I paid $61 for the CD, but it was totally worth it. It's the 1997 reissue with some bonus tracks added.
I know you're probably thinking, "what does this have to do with The Psychedelic Furs?", but the music videos for Strawberry Switchblade's singles "Since Yesterday" (the group's only UK top 5 hit), "Let Her Go", and "Who Knows What Love Is?" were all directed by Tim Pope, who did The Psychedelic Furs' iconic videos for "Love My Way", "Heaven", "The Ghost In You", "Here Come Cowboys", and "Angels Don't Cry". The "Since Yesterday" video kind of reminds me of "The Ghost In You" in a way, and what's interesting is I read that "Since Yesterday" is about nuclear war. That song came out in 1984, the same year as "Heaven", which is also about nuclear war!
It's sad that Strawberry Switchblade never got the recognition they truly deserved and I definitely recommend listening to their self-titled LP. My favorite song on the album is "Deep Water".
