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Shampoo were an English female pop-punk music duo in the 1990s, formed by Jacqueline "Jacqui" Blake (born 23 November 1974 in Woolwich) and Caroline "Carrie" Askew (born 4 May 1976 in Plumstead). Their 1994 song "Trouble" from the debut album We Are Shampoo reached No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart and was featured in 1995's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.

History

Jacqui Blake and Carrie Askew were best friends at Plumstead Manor School, a secondary school for girls in Plumstead, London. 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, taking the name from their schoolyard nickname of 'the shampoo girls', for claiming to be 'washing their hair' when turning down date requests.

Their first single, "Blisters and Bruises" (co-written by Lawrence of the bands Felt and Denim) with the B-sides "Paydirt" and "I Love Little Pussy", was released by Icerink Records (a short-lived label created by Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs) on 7-inch 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 sold few copies.

Whilst their first two singles were typical of the riot grrrl bands coming to notice, the following year saw the release of "Trouble" and the album We Are Shampoo, which displayed a 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" 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.

"Trouble" reached No. 11 on the UK charts, landing the group 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 the Manic Street Preachers fanscene. Shampoo became moderately successful in Japan. "Trouble" was included in the 1995 film Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and also appeared on the film's soundtrack. It also appeared in the 1996 film Foxfire and the 1997 film Trojan War. The Britpop single "Delicious" reached No. 21 in the UK in February 1995. It is also played in the 1997 film Casper: A Spirited Beginning. The song "Don't Call Me Babe" was included in the soundtrack of the 1996 film Barb Wire.

In July 1996, a week before the Spice 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). 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 called Girl Power, their sales were in decline. In September 1996, they released a cover of the Waitresses' "I Know What Boys Like", which became their last chart entry, peaking at No. 42. After the Girl 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 the Sex Pistols, Gary Numan and the Beastie Boys, whilst also claiming to be huge fans of East 17 and Take 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 album We Are Shampoo was re-issued in the UK with their B-sides as bonus tracks.

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."

Discography

The discography of Shampoo consists of four studio albums, two compilation albums and ten singles.

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles

• All Japanese figures are from the Oricon Singles Chart.

Video

• We Are Shampoo (1995) – Japanese video collection 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.

Books

• Delicious (1995, Japanese book)

Use of audio in other media

• "Trouble" appears on the soundtracks to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), Foxfire (1996) and Jawbreaker (1999). The song is sung by characters in the film Blackrock (1997). It is featured in the closing credits of the seventh episode of Zapped, and is also featured in the film Trojan War (1997).
• "Don't Call Me Babe" appears in the film Barb Wire (1996) and on its soundtrack, and also appears in Jawbreaker (1999).
• "Delicious" appears on the Casper: A Spirited Beginning (1997) soundtrack.
• Shampoo provided voices for the PlayStation puzzle game Spin Jam  (2000).
• "Girl Power" and "News Flash" are featured in the film Sugar & Spice (2001).

Covers by other acts

"Trouble" was covered by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, and can be found as a B-side on their "The Young Offenders Mum" single. It was also sung by the cast of the 2007 film St Trinian's and featured on the film's soundtrack. In 2009, Japanese rock band Vamps 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. In 2021, Miley Cyrus recorded a cover of the song "Delicious" for use in a Gucci commercial.

References

1. "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 5 August 1995 – via Google Books.
2. "Sky Songs | Download We Are Shampoo by Shampoo". Songs.sky.com. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
3. Pride, Dominic (20 September 1997). "EMI Still Hungry for Food". Billboard. p. 44. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
4. ^ "Official Charts > Shampoo". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
5. "Shampoo Are So Much More than a 90s One-Hit Wonder". Vice. 27 September 2017.
6. "SHAMPOO | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Official Charts.
7. "Spice Girls | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Official Charts.
8. "Shampoo Biography – Page 2". Absolute Radio. 13 March 2009. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
9. Doherty, Niall (September 2019). "Shampoo". Q.
10. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 493. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
11. ^ Australian (ARIA) peaks:
    • Top 50 peaks: "australian-charts.com > Shampoo [UK] in Australian Charts". Hung Medien. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
    • Top 100 peaks: Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (pdf ed.). Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 250.
    • "Viva La Megababes": "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles Chart – Week Ending 19 Feb 1995". Imgur.com (original document published by ARIA). Retrieved 28 September 2016.
    • "Delicious": "Response from ARIA re: Shampoo chart history, received 20 August 2019". Imgur.com. Retrieved 20 August 2019. N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.
    • We Are Shampoo and Girl Power (album): "Response from ARIA re: chart inquiry, received 13 September 2016". Imgur.com. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
    • "Girl Power" (single) and "I Know What Boys Like": "Response from ARIA re: chart inquiry, received 15 July 2015". Imgur.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
12. "Ultratop > Shampoo [UK] in Ultratop Vlaanderen" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
13. "The Irish Charts – All there is to know > Search results for 'Shampoo' (from irishcharts.ie)". Imgur.com (original source published by Fireball Media). Retrieved 28 September 2016.
14. "dutchcharts.nl > Shampoo [UK] in Dutch Charts" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
15. "Pop/Punk Princesses". Billboard. 5 August 1995. p. 18. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
16. Stone, Doug. "Jawbreaker [Original Soundtrack]". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
17. Blackrock (Motion picture). 1996. Event occurs at 14:13. Note: Song's use is confirmed in the credits at 1:25:09
18. Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN 1-84195-335-0, p. 662
19. Long, Chris (2007). "Various Artists St Trinian's: The Soundtrack Review". BBC. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
20. Kenneally, Cerys (29 July 2021). "Miley Cyrus reveals she's recording her next album "back home in Tennessee"". The Line of Best Fit. Archived from the original on 29 July 2021.

• All-female punk bands
• Musical groups established in 1993
• Musical groups disestablished in 2000
• 1993 establishments in England
• 2000 disestablishments in England
• 20th-century English women singers
• 20th-century English singers
• EMI Records artists
• English pop girl groups
• English pop music duos
• English pop punk groups
• Female musical duos
• Musical groups from the Royal Borough of Greenwich
• Parlophone artists
• British rock girl groups
• British rock music duos