The five-piece all-girl act were formed from a group of pals and became a trailblazing mainstay in the early 1980s Glasgow music scene.
McArthur found herself working in a community centre in the Gorbals performing puppet shows after her application to attend drama school had come to nothing.
[3] It was at the community centre that McArthur also met Tricia Reid who was in the exact same position, but could play the guitar.
The band performed regularly at, and lived above, the Hellfire Club, a rehearsal space and recording basement studio that Jacquie Bradley ran with David Henderson in the St George's Cross area of central Glasgow.
[3]Despite this, virtually every band that got a record deal did their demos in this tiny studio with Jacquie Bradley and David Henderson.
[3] The girls would also sneak downstairs to use other bands' kit, namely Aztec Camera and Altered Images.
[4]"We'd be rushing in as all these bands were coming out – Simple Minds, Aztec Camera, The Bluebells, Shakin' Pyramids – and The Dreamboys, of course – Peter Capaldi, Craig Ferguson, Temple Clark... anybody who was anybody.
[1] The band also appeared on the Channel Four music show, The Tube, and supported gigs with Echo and The Bunnymen.
Sophisticated Boom Boom reformed to play at Leith Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of tribute night (named after Strawberry Switchblade's number one hit, Since Yesterday) to the unsung women pioneers of Scottish pop during the 2018 International Edinburgh Festival.
[2][8][3] Other artists appearing at the night included Jeanette Gallagher (The McKinleys), Louise Rutkowski (Sunset Gun/This Mortal Coil) and Hen Hoose.
[8] The point of the documentary for me, is that it restores to the historical record a sense that some sort of genealogy of girl bands in Scotland actually did exist.