‘They’re young, female and they don’t care: they want their 15 minutes and they’re getting it now.’ In 1995, the Observer accompanied Shampoo – ‘two sulky girls from southeast London’ –on tour to Tokyo.
Jacqui (20) and Carrie (18) were big in Japan: they had sold more records that year than the Beatles or Stones, becoming the country’s biggest selling international artists. Their brand of girl-coded, exuberantly pink rebellion had captivated a generation of Japanese girls kicking against the expectation that they would dutifully ‘acquire a good education in order to be a perfect wife and wise mother’. Girls chased Shampoo down the streets of teen hotspot Harajuku, shyly shouted out the girls’ names at gigs and lip-synced lyrics that resonated: ‘Delicious running wild in the city late at night / Delicious powder pink / Don’t you think we’re outta sight?’
