Since Yesterday: Looking back on Glasgow's girl bands
- Lola Lea
- Nov 6, 2024
- 3 min read
Fans’ favourite memories of the bands featured in Since Yesterday
The new Carla J Easton and Blair Young documentary, Since Yesterday, has recently been released, chronicling the most important Scottish girl bands since the 60s, their careers, and asking the question of where they’d be now if they were men.
From the 80s to the 90s, the Glasgow’s music scene was at an all time high, with bands such as the Hedrons, Strawberry Switchblade and LungLeg dominating the scene for women.
But before these bands reached the height of their fame, there were many smaller gigs which took place on their path to success. @strawfansite on X recalls how Strawberry Switchblade played at Spaghetti Factory in Glasgow, an Italian restaurant not equipped for gigs, meaning that lead singer, Rose McDowall, was the only person who could fit on stage due to the piano taking up so much room in the cramped space.
@strawfansite - Strawberry Switchblade's 1st gig: Spaghetti Factory, Glasgow 22/3 Dec 1981. It wasn't a cool indie club, it was an Italian restaurant. A stage so tiny the piano took up half of it & left only room for Rose, everyone else was on the floor
The user went on to explain that many people had tickets for this night, which would have been one of the earliest gigs played by the band before their global success, but due to heavy snow in Glasgow that day, many couldn’t make it.
@strawfansite - Apparently there was a very small crowd as it was heavily snowing so the buses weren't running! Sadly we don't know of a recording, though the tape of this gig 6 months later gives some indication
Strawberry Switchblade was perhaps the most famous all-female band to come out of this scene, and the girls from Glasgow became popular all over the country – one user remembers “I remember seeing them in Leeds, the clothes we all wore back then were really something”
“I wish I’d been able to afford a camera at the time, unfortunately I don’t have any photos!”
With many of these bands coming from humble beginnings in Glasgow, they were a regular sight around the city. Crowsaysyo on reddit said: “Me and the Mrs once shared a table with Tippi Hedron from the Hedrons in the Doublet once.”
Another user said: “The Hedrons were very nice when I would run into them some years back. Check out Hen Hoose for current good female artists here.”
And if your favourite artist featured in Since Yesterday is no longer gigging, there is a constant supply of bands in Glasgow, with many artists who have a similar sound to the old favourites, so why not get out there and support someone new.
Here are some recommendations of similar bands from users on Reddit:
“Check out flinch.
“You might like Tibi Lubin if you get a chance to hear their stuff from 2000s”
“Lung Leg absolute legends. A band called Brenda are my favourite band in Glasgow at the moment.”
If you enjoyed Since Yesterday, there’s plenty of opportunities around to go out and live your own stories of seeing bands. With bands such as LungLeg still gigging to this day, and many other bands on the rise in Scotland, there’s nothing stopping you from one day being able to tell people what it used to be like back in the day.
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