# Rose McDowall

Rose McDowall (née Porter; born 21 October 1959) is a Scottish musician who formed Strawberry Switchblade with Jill Bryson in 1981.

## History

McDowall was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1959. Her first venture into music was in the Poems, an art-punk trio formed in 1978 with her then-husband Drew McDowall. She then formed Strawberry Switchblade in 1981 with Jill Bryson. After signing with Warner Bros. Records, they enjoyed chart success with their single "Since Yesterday" in 1984; however, later singles and an album did not sell as well as expected. This and internal problems led to an acrimonious split in 1986.
For the next six years, McDowall was primarily a guest vocalist or "floating member" of several different alternative bands, particularly in the neofolk genre. She contributed backing or lead vocals for Coil, Current 93, Death in June, Felt, Alex Fergusson, Into a Circle, Megas, Nature and Organisation, Nurse with Wound, Ornamental, Psychic TV and Boyd Rice on recordings as well as singing or playing guitar for live appearances. In 1993, she collaborated with Boyd Rice under the band name Spell, producing two singles and an album of 1960s pop, country and psychedelia covers for Mute Records.
At the same time, she formed a folk rock band called Sorrow with then-husband Robert Lee. Between 1993 and 2001, they released two albums and one EP through World Serpent Distribution and performed in Europe and the US. During this time, McDowall continued to record and perform with Current 93 and Coil, including the short-lived group Rosa Mundi. Robert Lee left the band in 2002. McDowall and her remaining bandmates continued to perform as Rosa Mundi until 2005 when she began performing under her own name.
McDowall is best known as a vocalist, but also plays guitar, keyboards, melodica, and drums. Her signature instruments are a Washburn 12-string acoustic guitar, a Fender Coronado electric 6-string guitar and an electric harmonium.

## Discography
### Rose McDowall

| Year | Title | Format, notes |
| 1988 | Don't Fear the Reaper | 7" and 12" on Rio Digital (unapproved release) |
| 1994 | Johnny Remember Me | Pic. 7" on Sympathy for the Record Industry (unapproved release) |
| 2004 | Cut with the Cake Knife | CD on Bad Fairy |
| 2005 | Alone | CD EP on Durtro – with John Contreras and Nurse with Wound |

### Spell

| Year | Title | Format, Special Notes |
| 1993 | "Big Red Balloon" | Single on Mute Records |
| 1993 | Seasons in the Sun | CD on Mute Records |

### Sorrow

| Year | Title | Format, Special Notes |
| 1993 | Under the Yew Possessed | CD on Piski Disc |
| 1999 | Sleep Now Forever | CD on Piski Disc |
| 1999 | The Final Solstice (I/II) | CD on Piski Disc |
| 2001 | Let There Be Thorns | Maxi CD on Piski Disc |
| 2001 | Let There Be Thorns | Pic. 7" on Piski Disc |
Track appears on:
* Not Alone

### Current 93

| Year | Title | Format and special notes |
| 1983 | Mi-Mort | cassette split with Nurse with Wound |
| 1984 | LAShTAL | 12" |
| 1984 | Nature Unveiled | LP (reissued on CD,1992) |
| 1984 | No Hiding from the Blackbird | 7" split w/ Nurse With Wound |
| 1984 | Dogs Blood Rising | LP (reissued on CD, 1988 and 1995) |
| 1985 | Live at Bar Maldoror | LP (reissued on CD 1990 and 1994) |
| 1985 | Nightmare Culture | EP split with Sickness of Snakes (Coil/Boyd Rice) |
| 1986 | In Menstrual Night | LP (reissued on CD, 1994) |
| 1986 | NL Centrum-Amsterdam | live cassette split w/ Nurse With Wound |
| 1987 | Happy Birthday | 12" |
| 1987 | Dawn | LP (reissued on CD, 1994) |
| 1987 | Imperium | LP (reissued on CD, 2001) |
| 1987 | Crowleymass (with HÖH) | 12"/CDS (reissued in 1997) |
| 1988 | Christ and the Pale Queens Mighty in Sorrow | 2xLP (reissued on CD, 1994) |
| 1988 | The Red Face of God | 12" (reissued on CD with above, 1994) |
| 1988 | Swastikas for Noddy | LP (reissued on CD as Swastikas for Goddy, 1993) |
| 1988 | Faith's Favourites | 12" split with Nurse with Wound |
| 1988 | Earth Covers Earth | LP (reissued on CD, 1992) (limited LP reissue, 2005) |
| 1989 | Rome/Hourglass for Diana/Fields of Rape | 7" (live) |
| 1989 | She Is Dead and All Fall Down | limited edition 7" |
| 1989 | Crooked Crosses for the Nodding God | CD |
| 1990 | Looney Runes | LP, CD 1992 |
| 1990 | 1888 | split EP with Death in June |
| 1990 | Horse | LP, part of a box set/split with Sol Invictus and Nurse With Wound (reissued on CD as Horsey with extra/reworked tracks, 1997) |
| 1991 | Island (with HÖH) | LP/CD |
| 1991 | As the World Disappears (live) | CD |
| 1992 | Thunder Perfect Mind | 2xLP/CD (reissued, 1994) |
| 1992 | Death in June / Current 93 / Sol Invictus (live) | Recorded in Frankfurt, Germany, 1991. Originally a bootleg called Day of Dawn, officially reissued on CD. |
| 1993 | Emblems: The Menstrual Years | LP, issued as 2xCD retrospective |
| 1993 | Hitler as Kalki | CD |
| 1994 | Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre | LP/CD |
| 1994 | The Fire of the Mind | CD/MiniAlbum |
| 1994 | Lucifer Over London | EP/CD |
| 1994 | Tamlin | 12"/CDS |
| 1995 | Where The Long Shadows Fall | 12"/CDS |
| 1996 | All The Pretty Little Horses: The Inmost Light | LP/CD |
| 1996 | The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home | 12"/CDS |
| 1996 | Untitled, a.k.a. Seven Seals | CD-EP with Tiny Tim, Nurse with Wound and Nature and Organization |
| 1997 | In a Foreign Town, in a Foreign Land | limited CD, accompanied Thomas Ligotti book of same name |
| 1998 | Soft Black Stars | LP/CD/sheet music, (reissued on CD in 2005) |
| 1999 | Calling for Vanished Faces | 2xCD retrospective |
| 1999 | An Introduction to Suffering | Current 93/Michael Cashmore/Christoph Heemann LP/CD |
| 1999 | Misery Farm | CDS |
| 1999 | All Dolled Up Like Christ | 2x Live CD |
| 2000 | I Have a Special Plan for This World | 12"/CD, Thomas Ligotti prose poem read by Tibet, treated by Current 93 |
| 2000 | Sleep Has His House | LP/CD |
| 2000 | Faust | LP/CD |
| 2001 | The Great in the Small | LP/CD |
| 2001 | Cats Drunk on Copper | CD (Live at the Union Chapel, London, 3 May 1997) |
| 2001 | Bright Yellow Moon | 2x12"/CD Current 93/Nurse with Wound |
| 2001 | Purtle | CD Split w/ Nurse with Wound |
| 2001 | This Degenerate Little Town | CD with Thomas Ligotti |
| 2002 | The Seahorse Rears to Oblivion | 12"/CD |
| 2002 | Music for the Horse Hospital | 2xCD Current 93/Nurse with Wound |
| 2003 | A Little Menstrual Night Music | CD containing remixes of tracks from In Menstrual Night |
| 2003 | Calling For Vanished Faces/Virgin Mary | 7" split with Antony and the Johnsons; UK PanDurtro 008 |
| 2003 | Live at St. Olave's | CD EP split with Antony and the Johnsons; UK PanDurtro 007 |
| 2004 | Halo | Live CD |
| 2004 | SixSixSix: SickSickSick | CD compilation of Tamlin, Lucifer over London, Misery Farm, and two pieces from Looney Runes |
| 2005 | How I Devoured Apocalypse Balloon | 2xCD (Live at St. George The Martyr Anglican Church, Toronto, 18–19 June 2004) |
| 2005 | ⲛⲧⲛⲁⲩ ⲛϩⲱⲧⲡ ⲙⲡⲣⲏ ⲁϩⲉⲛⲉϫⲏⲩ ⲉⲩⲕⲏⲙ ⲟⲩⲉⲙ ⲧⲡⲉ | CDS (promo for Black Ships Ate the Sky; the Coptic title reads "At Sunset Black Ships Ate The Sky") |
| 2005 | Judas as Black Moth (Hallucinatory Patripassianist Song) | 2xCD "best of"/introduction to C93's works |
| 2005 | How He Loved The Moon | 2xCD/2xLP (ltd. 1200)/2xLP+7" (ltd. 200), a remixed version of In Menstrual Night |
| 2005 | Hypnagogue/Hypnagogue II | CD |
| 2006 | Black Ships Ate the Sky | CD / 2xLP |
| 2006 | Inerrant Rays of Infallible Sun | Split 10" with Om |
| 2006 | Black Ships Eat the Sky | CD – Alternate mixes |
| 2007 | The Inmost Light | 3xCD/2xLP reissue of Where The Long Shadows Fall, All the Pretty Little Horses, and The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home |
| 2007 | Birdsong in The Empire | Live CD (ltd. 1200) Recorded in Toronto, Canada, 2005 |
| 2008 | Black Ships Heat the Dancefloor | Blue 12" single/DualDisc, remixes by JG Thirlwell and Matmos |
| 2008 | Birth Canal Blues | CD EP April 2008 |
| 2009 | Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain | CD/LP |
| 2010 | Baalstorm, Sing Omega | CD/LP |
| 2010 | Haunted Waves, Moving Graves | Limited-edition CD (999 copies) and 12" picture disc (666 copies). Both editions have different track listings. |
| 2010 | When the May Rain Comes | 12" purple & white vinyl (200 copies). 12" purple vinyl (300 copies). 12" black vinyl (500 copies). CD EP (Deluxe Digipak 6 panel). |
| 2011 | HoneySuckle Æons | Released 24 March 2011 |
| 2012 | When Rome Falls, Falls the World | Live CD |
| 2014 | I Am the Last of All the Field That Fell: A Channel | CD/LP |
| 2015 | The Moons at Your Door | CD/LP |
| 2018 | The Light Is Leaving Us All | CD/LP |
| 2019 | Invocations of Almost | CD/LP (the 12" LP has a slightly shorter version and mix than the 59-minute CD) |
| 2022 | If a City Is Set Upon a Hill | CD/LP |
See: Current 93

### Nature and Organisation

| Year | Title | Format, Special Notes |
| 1994 | A Dozen Summers Against the World | CD on Durtro |
| 1994 | Beauty Reaps the Blood of Solitude | CD on Durtro |

### Backworld

| Year | Title | Format, Special Notes |
| 1999 | Anthems from the Pleasure Park | CD on Harbinger House |
| 2001 | The Fourth Wall | CD on Harbinger House – live recording |