Shampoo | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Plumstead, London, England |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1993–2000 |
| Labels | |
| Past members |
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Shampoo were a 1990s Englishpop-punk duo consisting of Jacqueline "Jacqui" Blake (born 23 November 1974 inWoolwich) and Caroline "Carrie" Askew (born 4 May 1976 inPlumstead). Their 1994 song "Trouble", from their debut album,We Are Shampoo, reachedNo. 11 in theUK Singles Chart and was featured in 1995'sMighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.
Jacqui Blake and Carrie Askew were best friends atPlumstead Manor School, a secondary school for girls inPlumstead, London. In the early nineties they started writingLast Exit, afanzine for theManic Street Preachers, and later appeared in the video for "Little Baby Nothing". They also wrote a fanzine forFabulous.
During this time they formed Shampoo, taking the name from their schoolyard nickname of 'the shampoo girls', for claiming to be 'washing their hair' when turning down date requests.[citation needed]
Their first single, "Blisters and Bruises" (co-written byLawrence of the bands Felt and Denim) with theB-sides "Paydirt" and "I Love Little Pussy", was released byIcerink Records (a short-lived label created bySaint Etienne's Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs) on 7-inch pinkvinyl in 1993. This and their following single, "Bouffant Headbutt", received favourable reviews in the music press, such as theNME andMelody Maker, but sold few copies.[citation needed]
Whilst their first two singles were typical of theriot grrrl bands coming to notice, the following year saw the release of "Trouble" and the albumWe Are Shampoo, which displayed a more radio-friendly sound, but still with much of their previous abrasiveness: "Dirty Old Love Song" pannedMariah Carey andWhitney Houston (whose "I Will Always Love You" had been the previous year's biggest-selling single in the UK). "Shiny Black Taxi Cab" was 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).We Are Shampoo sold over a million copies, with the majority of sales in Japan and the rest of Asia.[3]
"Trouble" reached No. 11 on the UK charts,[4] landing the group onTop of the Pops and the cover ofSmash Hits magazine. For the remainder of 1994, Shampoo did well, finding fans in both the mainstream andalternative music scenes, boosted in part by their links to theManic Street Preachers fanscene. Shampoo became moderately successful in Japan. "Trouble" was included in the 1995 filmMighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and also appeared on the film's soundtrack. It also appeared in the 1996 filmFoxfire and the 1997 filmTrojan War. TheBritpop[5] single "Delicious" reached No. 21 in the UK in February 1995. It is also played in the 1997 filmCasper: A Spirited Beginning. The song "Don't Call Me Babe" was included in thesoundtrack of the 1996 filmBarb Wire.
In July 1996, a week before theSpice Girls debuted on the UK Singles Chart with "Wannabe", the duo charted with a song called "Girl Power" (a slogan which was popularised by the Spice Girls).[6][7] However, this song peaked at No. 25, and was only on the chart for four weeks, meaning that by the time Shampoo released their second album, also calledGirl Power, their sales were in decline. In September 1996, they released a cover ofthe Waitresses' "I Know What Boys Like", which became their last chart entry, peaking at No. 42. After theGirl Power album failed to reach the UK Albums Chart, the duo separated from Food Records, and the third Shampoo album,Absolute Shampoo, was released solely on the Internet in 2000.
Shampoo often cited their main influences as being theSex Pistols,Gary Numan and theBeastie Boys, whilst also claiming to be huge fans ofEast 17 andTake That. Shampoo covered Numan's song "Cars" on the B-side of their "Girl Power" single, while a cover of East 17's "House of Love" was included on their debut album.
In May 2007, the albumWe Are Shampoo was re-issued in the UK with their B-sides as bonus tracks.[8]
In September 2019,Q magazine published an interview with Shampoo. Regarding the end of the group, Carrie said, "We never said, 'let's split up', we just took some time off. And then that ended up being a bit more time and a bit more and it just fizzed out really. We wanted to settle down and have kids. It just came to a natural end."[9]
| Shampoo discography | |
|---|---|
| Studio albums | 4 |
| Compilation albums | 2 |
| Singles | 10 |
| Video albums | 1 |
| Music videos | 2 |
The discography of Shampoo consists of four studio albums, two compilation albums and ten singles.
| Year | Album | Chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [4][10] | AUS [11] | JPN | ||
| 1994 | We Are Shampoo
| 45 | 137 | 8 |
| 1995 | Shampoo or Nothing
| – | – | 10 |
| 1996 | Girl Power
| – | 192 | – |
| 2000 | Absolute Shampoo
| – | – | – |
| Year | Album | Chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| JPN | ||
| 1995 | Delicious
| 6 |
| 1998 | The Greatest
| – |
| 2024 | Complete Shampoo
| – |
| Year | Single | Chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [4] | AUS [11] | BEL (FLA) [12] | IRE [13] | JPN | NLD [14] | ||
| 1993 | "Blisters and Bruises" | 117 | – | – | – | – | – |
| "Bouffant Headbutt" | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 1994 | "Trouble" | 11 | 17 | 17 | 23 | 81 | 16 |
| "Viva La Megababes" | 27 | 97 | 50 | – | – | – | |
| 1995 | "Delicious" | 21 | 223 | – | – | 76 | – |
| "Trouble"(re-release) | 36 | – | – | – | – | – | |
| "War Paint"(Japan only) | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 1996 | "Girl Power" | 25 | 120 | – | – | 22 | – |
| "I Know What Boys Like" | 42 | 131 | – | – | – | – | |
| "Yea Yea Yea (Tell Me Baby)"(Japan only) | – | – | – | – | 95 | – | |
"Trouble" wascovered byCarter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, and can be found as a B-side on their "The Young Offenders Mum" single.[18] It was also sung by the cast of the 2007 filmSt Trinian's and featured on the film's soundtrack.[19] In 2009, Japanese rock bandVamps included a cover of the song as a B-side to their single "I Gotta Kick Start Now". That same year,Zebrahead also included a version on their cover album,Panty Raid.[citation needed] In 2021,Miley Cyrus recorded a cover of the song "Delicious" for use in aGucci commercial.[20]
