the press

The Von Trapp family singers met Haight Ashbury in head-on collision - Spitting Blood 1977
 

Vi Subversa versus the forces of ageism, sexism anti-opossumism and Harper Valley hypocrisy - NME 25.2.84
 

Vi Subversa and James Brown are approximately the same age. The difference is her brain still functions and she's more beautiful than Madonna where it counts: the soul -Sounds 15.6.85
 

Poison Girls as a way of living, is about LIVING. A celebration of sensuality. Of sexuality. Morever, they are concerned with the total emancipation of desire. A heady, intoxicating and at times almost too intense, synthesis of Wilheim Reich..... - NME 26.2.84
 

... of raw, direct and pungent commentary from the most intelligent, literate and powerful political band around. In comparison, Joe Strummer works for Saatchi & Saatchi - Time Out - Time Out 16.2.84
 

Vi Subversa (Poison Girls): I have been told that I'm in my second childhood, but I think the threat of middle-aged people chucking up the system is really exciting. You don't have to give in when you're over 20 and we want to exhibit that fact - NME 24.11.79
 

The last great punk record! - Sounds 27.11.82
 

In the cynical 1980's, when the winners are bastards and the losers are the caring, a band like Poison Girls are a blessing, a pop equivalent of, if not Orwell, then at least the late lamented James Cameron. No futile, ranting too-late punks - let alone middle class Henry Cows, protest folkies or constipated Gang of Four - they defy musical classifaction and have no truck with political dogma.They range around sophisticated-production funk - 'Voodoo Poppadollar pub singalong, the pumping Real Woman, ballad, "Desperate Days", punk, funk skank, disco and then some. Their politics, be it about personal relationships or international politics, are hard hitting but human, hard lines curved by feeling, humour, anger. A heart in their chest, a tongue in their cheek and a brick in their handbag, this is my sort of political band - Time Out 6.6.85
 

They crash one of the few rock myths punk left unchallenged (reinforced in fact), the sanctity of 'my generation' - Sounds 16.11.80
 

While other bands couch their point in a delicate swathe of literary analogy that's employed more to convince us of their intellectual merit than their sincerity, The Poison Girls get straight down to brass tacks and say what they mean in plain English which should in no way invalidate their point of view. Songs about Stonehenge, Foreign Aid policy and brutality in any shape or form, are far more relevant to most people than the next Sigue Sigue Sputnik video. Concern is far more laudable than cheap trick hustling, but then of course for some people, recreation is a barrier to reality - Melody Maker 9.11.85
 

Welcome to the Last Great Punk Record!
As a summation, a crowning glory - a justification even - of what 'punk' once was, ever should have been and (in isolated cases) still could be. 'Where's the Pleasure' is a near perfect statement of intent, an artistic creation that satisfies political, emotional and intellectual desires. Along with a handful of others (Banshees, Clash, Nightingales) Poison Girls are redefining the sloppy morass into which 'punk' has of late slithered, forcefully blending the prime motivating force of outrage - this record, in its own twisted, subtle way, is an angry as the first Clash LP - and passion, without sacrificing compassion and the vital determination to be bravely creative in the face of apathy, cynicism and technical snobbery - Sounds 27.11.82
 

I fell in love immediately - NME 25.2.84
 

ALL PRICKS ARE SMALL. They are small compared with an average cucumber or a really big carrot. And they are all really small compared with a nuclear warhead. Which is just as well - In the City 1983

About bloody time!

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