Shampoo

Shampoo Bio



Jacqui Blake and Carrie Askew met as teenagers at high school in Plumstead where they became best friends and partners in crime. In the early nineties they started writing 'Last Exit' the first fanzine for the Manic Street Preachers and later appeared in the video for 'Little Baby Nothing'. The track featured vocals from porn star Traci Lords, although she did not appear in the video.



Their first single 'Blisters and Bruises' with the b-sides 'Paydirt' and 'I Love Little Pussy' was released by Icerink records (a shortlived label created by Saint Etienne Bob Stanley and Pete Wigg) on 7' pink vinyl in 1993. This and their following single 'Bouffant Headbutt' received favourable reviews in the music press, such as the NME and Melody Maker but was largely ignored by the general public.



Whilst their first two singles were all-out girl-punk racket the following year saw the release of their most famous song, 'Trouble', and the album 'We Are Shampoo' which displayed a much more radio friendly sound. 'Trouble' crashed up the charts and landed the girls on Top Of The Pops and the cover of Smash Hits. For the remainder of 1994 the Shampoo flag flew high as their infectious pop-with-attitude found fans in both the mainstream and alternative music scenes. The band famously became very successful in Japan.



However, by the time they released their next album 'Girl Power' in 1995 they were already virtually forgotten in Britain and when the Spice Girls appropriated the phrase to great effect its origins went sadly un-noted. Interestingly though it is for this reason that despite using the words 'girl power' constantly in interviews and on merchandise the Spice Girls were never able to have an album with this title.



Whilst their homelands were ignoring them Shampoo were still doing well in Asia and to the astonishment of those who'd never heard of them made it into 1995's 'richest women in Britain' list. The third Shampoo album 'Absolute Shampoo' was released solely on the internet in 2000 and the duo disbanded shortly afterwards.



Credit to 'marilynshampoo' for the Bio.