Rash Treatment

The reinvention of the Poison Girls came with the release of this transitional album from 1984.
They tied up the loose ends of their past by dedicating part one of this release to a retrospective collection of previously unreleased tracks, various single releases and a couple of previous album tracks.
Part two, in contrast, introduced their new sound, with a live performance of songs old and new recorded in Manchester in 1983.

The album begins where the band began, in 1977.
And the almost thrash-like 'Revenge' gets an airing for the first time.
Harsh, vitriolic and full to the brim with anger and energy, Richard Famous gobs the lyric right into the establishment's ears.
He really means it, man; and he did.

Richard's other great song from the early days, 'Dirty Work', is also included, but in the main Frances (Vi Subversa) leads the rallying cry.

She can be totally scary ('Reality Attack'), scathing ('Statement'), tender ('Cry No More') and downright bloody-minded, best exemplified in the venomous Dworkin-like, misandry-fuelled 'Offending Article', accusing the male of the species for all the terrible problems of the world and wonders whether a neutering programme may be of benefit.

Radical feminism meets fascism?
Maybe.
But sometimes it's quite easy to find yourself empathising with her point of view.

The new Line up included a prominent keyboard sound and the addition of an extra female voice, creating a radical change in the band's dynamic and tone.
Much of the harshness and spikiness that can be heard on their earlier material has fallen away, and softer textures are created; sounding almost progy in places.
Well it was the mid-eighties.

Their goal was to achieve a greater audience - after all, they had been preaching to the converted for years; it was time to turn some heads:

'It is now for us to take ideas that can release imagination, out of the ghetto which has raised and inspired us, into the wider world.'

For a while Poison Girls did broaden their appeal, gaining some interest from beyond the regular clique of the anarcho-punk set.
They played at Glastonbury, went down a storm, and no doubt had a boost in sales as a consequence.
They may even have got a review in Sounds.

The last time I saw them, it was just Richard and Frances, playing as a duo under another name (I can't remember if they were called Snakes and Ladders or Oranges and Lemons [!] although it could have been Apples and Pears, but it was something like that...) in the depths of Cornwall at The Elephant Fair (1986?).

They were still doing it. Richard played a mean guitar and Vi, still in wicked voice, told us how it was while pounding out the beat with a club hammer she struck against a scaffold pole.

Where they are now I don't know.
I used to know Frances' kids, Gemma and Dan, but we all lost touch years ago.
But hey; if you've Googled the Poisons, ended up here, and you're in touch with anyone from the Poisons' camp, say hello from me.

And in some way or other, I hope it's still going on, I hope they're still doing it: still banging away.

Hey, some of us will always listen.


Poison Girls - 7 Year Scratch (1984)

Part 1:

Revenge (Mono, Not Previously Released, 1977)
Reality Attack (4 Track Recording, NPR, 78)
Alienation (4 Track Recording, NPR, 78)
Piano Lessons (12" Version, 79)
I Wanted the Moon (NPR, 79)
Jump Mama Jump (From Hex, 79)
Statement (Released as Flexi with Chappaquiddick, 80)
Promenade Immortelle (7" Version, 81)
Dirty Work (7" Version, 81)
Cry No More (From Where's the Pleasure, 82)
Offending Article (NPR, 83)

Part 2:

Live Recording: Gilly's, Manchester, October, 83.

Fear of Freedom
Where's the Pleasure
Too Close for Comfort
Real Woman
Are You Happy now?
Too Proud
Tell the Children
White Cream Dream
State Control and Rock n Roll
Tension
I've Done It All Before

Decent vinyl rip @320kbs

Poison yourself with Part 1 here
Poison yourself with Part 2 here