Shampoo (band)

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Shampoo
Origin Plumstead, United Kingdom
Genres Pop, Glam rock
Years active 1993–2000
Labels Icerink Records
Parlophone
EMI[1]

Shampoo were a British all-girl band in the 1990s, formed by Jacqui Blake and Caroline "Carrie" Askew. They were most famous for their hit song, "Trouble".

Contents

[edit] History

Jacqui Blake and Carrie Askew were best friends at a secondary school for girls in Plumstead, United Kingdom called Plumstead Manor. In the early nineties they started writing Last Exit, a fanzine for the Manic Street Preachers, and later appeared in the video for "Little Baby Nothing". They also wrote a fanzine for Fabulous.

During this time they formed Shampoo (derived from their schoolyard nickname of 'the shampoo girls', for using the old 'washing their hair' excuse whenever turning down a date request).

Their first single 'Blisters and Bruises' with the b-sides "Paydirt" and "I Love Little Pussy" was released by Icerink records (a short-lived label created by Saint Etienne Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs) 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 were largely ignored by the general public.

Whilst their first two singles were typical of the Riot Grrl bands then coming to notice, 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, but still with much of their previous abrasiveness: "Dirty Old Love Song" panned Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston (whose "I Will Always Love You" had been the previous year's biggest selling single in the UK). "Shiny Black Taxi Cab" about a night on the town gone wrong (ending with a spoken section by the 'taxi driver' complaining to a new passenger about two drunken girls who had thrown up all over his cab the previous week).

"Trouble" crashed up the charts to No. 11 and landed the girls on Top Of The Pops and the cover of Smash Hits magazine. For the remainder of 1994 Shampoo did well, finding fans in both the mainstream and alternative music scenes - boosted in part by their links to Manic Street Preachers fanscene; however they also drew scathing comment from those within the small UK Riot Grrrl scene who saw the band as a repeat of We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It's "sellout" to commercialism - future artist Lucy McKenzie (then in the short lived Riot Grrrl band 'Batfink') wrote scathingly in her schoolgirl fanzine Poppy/Violet that "Shampoo = Miss June And July Of The Paedophile Calendar".

The band became moderately successful in Japan. "Trouble" became famous for its inclusion in the soundtrack to the film, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie. The hit "Delicious" is heard in the movie Casper: A Spirited Beginning. The song "Don't Call Me Babe" was included in the soundtrack of the 1996 movie Barb Wire.

However, by the time they released their next album Girl Power in 1995 (the phrase coming from a 1993 Helen Love record and much used by Riot Grrrl devotees - later used as a marketing slogan by the Spice Girls), they were already in decline, and the third Shampoo album Absolute Shampoo was released solely on the internet in 2000, due to an inability to acquire a recording contract. The duo disbanded shortly afterwards.

Shampoo combined a poppy girlishness and a love of all things plastic, kitsch, and pink (the album artwork for We Are Shampoo featured a collage of Barbie dolls and sweet wrappers) with a punk sensibility. They often cited their main influences as being the Sex Pistols, Gary Numan and the Beastie Boys, whilst also claiming to be huge fans of East 17 and Take That.

In May 2007 the album We Are Shampoo was re-issued in the UK with bonus tracks of the B-Sides.[2]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

Title UK Singles Chart[3]
"Blisters and Bruises" N/A
"Bouffant Headbutt" N/A
"Trouble" #11 (#81 Japan)
"Viva La Megababes" #27
"Delicious" #21 (#76 Japan)
"Trouble" (re-release) #36
"Girl Power" #25 (#22 Japan)
"I Know What Boys Like" #42
"War Paint" (Japan only)
"Yea Yea Yea (Tell Me Baby)" (Japan only - #95)

All Japanese figures are from the Oricon Singles Chart.

[edit] Albums

Title Additional Info
We Are Shampoo (1994) UK Albums Chart #45[3] #8 (Japan)
Delicious (1994) Japanese Only: B-Sides/Rare Tracks #6 (Japan)
Shampoo Or Nothing (1995) Japanese Release of 'Girl Power'
Girl Power (1996) UK Release of 'Shampoo Or Nothing'
The Greatest (1998) Japan Only 'Greatest Hits'
Absolute Shampoo (2000) Internet Only
We Are Shampoo (2007) Re-Issued album + 6 B-Sides

Japanese placings again taken from Oricon charts.

[edit] List of songs

[edit] We Are Shampoo

  1. Trouble
  2. Delicious
  3. Viva La Megababes
  4. Dirty Old Love Song
  5. Skinny White Thing
  6. Glimmer Globe
  7. Shiny Black Taxi Cab
  8. Me Hostage
  9. Game Boy
  10. House of Love
  11. Shampoo You
  12. Saddo

[edit] Girl Power/Shampoo Or Nothing

  1. Girl power
  2. News Flash
  3. I Know What Boys Like
  4. Bare Knuckle Girl
  5. Zap Pow
  6. War Paint
  7. You Love It
  8. Boys Are Us
  9. We Play Dumb
  10. I'm Gonna Scream
  11. Don't Call Me Babe
  12. Girl Power (Extended Version) (Bonus Track On 'Shampoo Or Nothing')
  13. War Paint (Extended Version) (Bonus Track On 'Shampoo Or Nothing')
  14. I know What Boys Like (Extended Version) (Bonus Track On 'Shampoo Or Nothing')

[edit] Absolute Shampoo

  1. Shampoo's Cupboard
  2. Inspector Gadget
  3. Sod The Neighbours
  4. Take A Break
  5. Don't Remember
  6. Terrorist TV
  7. First Class
  8. Star Of The Show
  9. Jet Lag
  10. Love Hate Baby
  11. Sid

[edit] Singles/B-sides

  • Blisters & Bruises [included on the 1995 Japan single of Delicious]
  • Paydirt [included on the 1995 Japan single of Delicious]
  • I Love Little Pussy [included on the 1995 Japan single of Delicious]
  • Bouffant Headbutt [included on the 1995 Japan single of Delicious]
  • Excellent [included on the 2007 re-release of We Are Shampoo]
  • Monster [included on the 1993 UK single of Bouffant Headbutt]
  • We Don't Care [included on the 2007 re-release of We Are Shampoo]
  • School is Boring [included on the 2007 re-release of We Are Shampoo]
  • Girls 'Round Here [included on the 2007 re-release of We Are Shampoo]
  • Kinky Ken [included on the 2007 re-release of We Are Shampoo]
  • Out of Control [included on the 2007 re-release of We Are Shampoo]
  • Cars [included on the 1995 Japan single of Girl Power]
  • Top of The Pops [included on the 1995 Japan single of War Paint]
  • Yea Yea Yea (Tell Me Baby) [only available on the 1996 Japan single of Yea Yea Yea (Tell Me Baby)]

[edit] Mixes/live/etc.

  • Trouble - Now Ex Mix
  • Trouble - Detention Mix
  • Trouble - Karaoke Version
  • Viva La Megababes - Extended Mix aka 'US Extended Mix'
  • Viva La Megababes - Karaoke Version
  • Delicious - Karaoke Version
  • Excellent - Live, Recorded at The Grand April 95
  • Girl Power - Extended Version
  • I Know What Boys Like - Extended Version
  • I Know What Boys Like - Hed Boys Seka Mix
  • I Know What Boys Like - Hed Boys Party Dub Mix
  • War Paint - Extended Version
  • War Paint - Karaoke
  • Yea Yea Yea (Tell Me Baby) - Karaoke Mix

[edit] Video

  • 1995: Released a Japanese video collection entitled 'We Are Shampoo', containing videos for "Trouble", "Viva La Megababes", "Delicious" & "Bouffant Headbutt".
  • There are two different videos for "Trouble". The original features the girls trying to get home from central London after a night out. The re-make features new footage of the girls singing to the camera, intercut with film footage from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.

[edit] Books

  • 1995: Released a Japanese book entitled 'Delicious'.

[edit] Use of audio in other media

Question book-new.svg
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[edit] Covers by other bands

"Trouble" was covered by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, and can be found as a B-side on their "The Young Offenders Mum" single.[4] It was also sung by the cast of the 2007 film St Trinian's and featured on the soundtrack.[5] In 2009, Japanese rock band Vamps included a cover of the song as a B-side to their single "I Gotta Kick Start Now". In the same year, Zebrahead also included a version on their 2009 cover album, Panty Raid.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Sky Songs | Download We Are Shampoo by Shampoo". Songs.sky.com. http://songs.sky.com/artists/Shampoo/We+Are+Shampoo/d367ceca5f794ffaa1c34d749314951d. Retrieved 2010-05-27. 
  2. ^ "Shampoo Biography - Page 2". Absolute Radio. 2009-03-13. http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/artists/Shampoo/biography/page2.html. Retrieved 2010-05-27. 
  3. ^ a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 493. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
  4. ^ Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN 1-84195-335-0, p. 662
  5. ^ Long, Chris (2007) "Various Artists St Trinian's: The Soundtrack Review", BBC, 14 December 2007, retrieved 2011-02-02

[edit] External links

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