Punk, pop and pioneers: New film looks at Scotland’s female bands

Lesley McLaren can still recall when her band’s management were brutally honest with her.

“I remember being told that we had made it difficult for ourselves because we were all female,” she says.

Now, nearly 20 years later, Lesley’s group The Hedrons – and scores of other all female Scottish bands – are having their stories told in a new documentary.

Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girlbands has received its world premiere as the closing gala at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, ahead of a cinema release in October.

The film bops from 60s pop duo The McKinlays to the arty new wave of Strawberry Switchblade, 90s alternative punks Lung Leg and numerous others along the way – many of whom have been neglected figures in Scotland’s musical history.

“This is not a film that focuses on the mistreatment of women – this film celebrates those women,” explains co-director Carla J Easton.

“It’s about brilliant records, amazing stories, glittering careers, and it asks the question why have they been forgotten? There are Scottish bands who do keep getting remembered even if they didn’t achieve as much as what some of the bands in our film did. So what is the problem with girl bands?”

Carla herself can relate personally, having been in indie-pop group Teen Canteen around a decade ago, before enjoying a successful solo career under her own name.

However the Lanarkshire singer’s interest in the history of Scotland’s pop and rock queens goes back even longer.

“I remember stumbling upon the Ettes and Twinsets when I was doing my undergrad in 2006, and just trying to hoover up as much information about them as I could,” she recalls.

“Then you realise there are a lot more bands like that, and it’s related to the ongoing fight that’s still happening today. It became apparent there was a social worth and a cultural worth in telling the story of these bands.”

For Rose McDowall the “ongoing fight” that Carla mentions stirred memories. She formed Strawberry Switchblade with Jill Bryson in the 1980s amid the aftermath of the punk explosion.

With big hair, Goth make-up and polka-dots aplenty the Glasgow duo cracked the Top 5 in the singles chart with 1984 release Since Yesterday, the synth-pop tune that the film is named after.

A well–received debut album followed but the duo had splintered by 1986 amid personal disagreements.

“By the end of the documentary I noticed that women in music were still having the same problems as 40 years ago,” she reflects.

“That was a bit of an awakening to notice that there are record companies still telling women they’re reluctant to sign them in case they get pregnant.

“It was quite eye-opening, but it was less depressing, and more that we need to crank up the change a bit more.”

The film itself has been brewing since Carla met co-director Blair Young when he was directing music videos for her then-band.

The duo – both self-confessed “vinylheads” – started reaching out to possible interviewees, before a Kickstarter campaign boosted the project by showing “there was a demand to write these women back into history”.

Soon stories and tales started flooding in, from Edinburgh garage rock band Sally Skull confronting sexist hecklers to The Hedrons winding up rock legends during the mid 2000s.

“We played Isle of Wight on the same stage as the Rolling Stones, which was a huge highlight,” recalls Lesley, the group’s drummer.

“Our singer Tippi took great delight mid-performance, in owning Mick Jagger’s runway after we were told not to go near it just before stage time. Supporting the Sex Pistols at the SECC was also a huge deal – we were scared to go on in front of all the hardcore punks throwing cigarette butts onto the stage.

“I remember finishing the first song in the set and sitting with my head down after hitting that last cymbal, waiting for the warm pints to hit us. It felt like an eternity waiting on the reaction and then there was an almighty roar.”

However the band grew tired of struggling to get radio airplay, and split up – only to eventually reunite in 2023.

Whatever decade they come from, and whatever style they played, the groups share a common feeling – that if they had known Scotland’s history of all female bands, they wouldn’t have felt like outsiders quite so much in a male-dominated industry, where sexism was common.

“My first gig was at the Barrowland and it’s only now making this film that I found the very first band onstage after it reopened was a girl band from Glasgow called His Latest Flame,” adds Carla.

“For me, knowing about that as a teenager would have normalised that bands can be all women and still play places like there.”

Yet while the documentary beats the drum for serious issues, both Carla and Blair also wanted to make sure it captured the fun of a band and taking on the world armed only with instruments and your pals.

“Those early Strawberry Switchblade days were just bundles of laughter and joy, singing about things that were really miserable,” recalls Rose.

“But we could release those feelings. All those lyrics on the first album were totally autobiographical. It was a really good way of getting rid of demons – or at least spreading them out a bit.

“It’s so much better than doing it alone because you’ve got constant validation of your bandmates. Punk had made a lot of things possible. Punk opened the gates of hell and let me out!”

The screenings for October include a special Glasgow event featuring a one-off reunion gig by Sophisticated Boom Boom, the John Peel favourites who released several singles during the 1980s.

The event sold out in under 30 minutes.

Whether Since Yesterday inspires any other acts to step onstage again is another matter, but Carla hopes the film will give the trailblazers that preceded her a simple message.

“It’s saying that what you did mattered to all the women making music today.

“You and your music haven’t been forgotten.”