Soo Catwoman

Soo was born in Harrow London and one of a massive family of 12 children and who from an early age felt different.

Soo Catwoman Prior to meeting Sid, John or anyone else I used to hang around with Marco Pirroni who I’d met some time before at a pub/club in Greenford. I also had a friend called Nancy who was interested in fashion and make up – she and I would buy an outfit on a Saturday afternoon and totally recreate it to wear that night, so I was no stranger even before the advent of ‘punk’ to dressing differently.

I was a big fan of Hammer Horror films and they were my inspiration for outfits a lot of the time. It was the whole tortured freak thing; I felt misunderstood and wanted to show outside, how I felt inside. Toward the end of 1976 (I was 21) and had gone with Marco to the Kings Road. There I was approached by Sharon Hayman (who was the first to call me Catwoman). She was part of the Bromley Contingent and she bought Marco and I coffee and invited us to Louise’s Club, a lesbian club in Poland Street. That night I met Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten (who weren’t famous then) for the first time.Punk77 Interview 2007

The meeting with Sid was done in his own inimitable style.

Sid came up behind me and kicked me up the bum and he said, `Can you play bass?’ and I said, `No, I can’t,’ and he said, `That doesn’t matter, do you want to be in a band. We’re called The Flowers of Romance?’ I said, `I dunno, I’ll have to think about it,’ and he went off. And then at the end of the evening he came over and said, `Oi, you, phone me at Sex or I’ll push your face in,’ and I just thought he was wonderful. None of it was offensive really.Jonathan Dyson, Independent 27.3.99

Johnny Rotten was a big fan of Soo’s.

JR: Sue Catwoman was a very frightening young girl. A lot of people were very terrified of her. She had the most startling image at that time, and I liked her a lot. I probably still would if I ran into her today. Bang-on hard core!! She wouldn’t take shit from no one. And at that time she wasn’t really liked because girls were supposed to be proper. That wasn’t her way at all.Dick Vain Johnny Rotten Interview 2001

When Sid Vicious came out of Ashford remand centre following the glass incident at the 100 Club Punk festival, it was Soo who put him up and looked after him. Johnny very thoughtfully made him a present as Viv Albertine recounts.

I’m at Caroline Coon’s house on Christmas Day…The Heartbreakers are there, so are Sid, Johnny Rotten, Soo Catwoman, Steve Jones and some others. Rotten gives Sid a Christmas present of a doll he’s customised to look like Soo and when you pull down her knickers – which Sid does – John’s written ‘Sid’ with an arrow pointing to her vagina. Clothes Music Boys – Viv Albertine

She was named ‘Auntie Sue’ by Johnny Rotten because of her kindness to Sid Vicious. She was down to earth and lacked the elitism of people like the Bromley Contingent. Maybe because of that, she was one of the most popular people in punk. And God Created Punk – Erica Echenberg & Mark P

While Punk and the Sex Pistols were still in its infancy and still a developing look and sound, Louise’s was a gay club that along with Sex at 430 Kings Road and dominatrix Linda Ashby’s flat for crashing after hours, played a key role in bringing together disparate groups and individuals who looked and thought differently together in a safe space.

Soo Catwoman It was laid out pretty well. It had a seating area upstairs where you could sit around and chat, or if you wanted to hear the music the DJ was playing you’d go downstairs and get the bass vibrating through you (but it was hard to hear what anyone was saying to you most of the time). I also used to go to a gay club in Tottenham Court Road called Bangs with a neighbour of mine and took Sid and John there once or twice.Punk77 Interview 2007

She also meets Bob Gruen the American Photographer at Louise’s’ whom McLaren has asked to photo the emerging punk scene and Sex Pistols and who takes a fair few of Soo.

Like for all the Bromley and suburb lot, gay clubs were a safe haven for those that dared to look different.

Soo Catwoman I had a gay friend who lived right across the street. He lived with an older boyfriend who didn’t like the whole clubbing thing so I’d get invited out a lot. You have to consider that in the early-mid 70’s women going out alone were considered ‘ fair game’ so going to pubs and straight clubs meant you couldn’t just go and dance without being hassled a lot. Dressing differently would mean being ridiculed on trains; buses and even just walking down the street but it seemed worth it at the time. I went to lots of gay clubs prior to the Roxy – or way before ‘punk’ even, because they were much more fun and the people there weren’t obsessed with themselves. Bangs was one of my favourites on a Monday night. I liked the music they played too, but it was mostly the acceptance I guess.

I used to go to Chagaramas [later renamed as the Roxy Club] quite often. Mostly good memories of it; you could meet loads of people and strike up a conversation at the bar quite easily (when you could hear yourself talking). I had a lot of friends who used to go there so we’d dance the night away same as anywhere else, then get the night bus home. Can’t remember but wasn’t that the place where you’d get chicken and chips in a basket in return for your entry ticket? Very welcome as a midnight snack.

On the Bromley Contingent.

Soo Catwoman It was a fallacy that I ever ‘hung out with’ the Bromley Contingent. Siouxsie couldn’t stand the sight of me for some reason, although at that time I had a few friends who got on well with her. I knew Berlin well in the early days and thought we were friends until I read some poison words he wrote about me for whatever reason he may have had.

Sharon [Hayman] was a lovely girl and I regret not taking my friendship with her more seriously as I am no longer in touch with her – or any of them. Simon was a great friend and I put him up once or twice when he couldn’t get home. I’ve seen him a couple of times over the years and he hasn’t changed too much.

Part of the reason Soo Catwoman got associated with the Bromley lot was no doubt because of them all hanging out at Louise’s and then everyone often going back to Linda Ashby’s. The photo shoot by Ray Stevenson in Linda Ashby’s apartments for the ‘Anarchy’ magazine cemented that group of people together in history, but also created arguably of the most striking and iconic Punk images of the impossibly photogenic Soo that heads this feature.

Of the photo itself. It’s pure genius again that the magazine with ‘Anarchy In The UK’ and Sex Pistols is on the cover but no picture of the band. Instead an incredibly striking woman who’s come straight off the street, not a made up model, stares out in a pose (not dissimilar to the Mona Lisa) that’s both provocative and challenging to everything that is the norm for fashion, women and how they should look and act.

Well to be honest I had no clue that I was going to be used as the ‘face of punk’ – no one thought to ask or tell me that was the intention… To this day no one has ever asked me if I mind how the pictures are used, it seems that my face and image, my ‘art’ as some have called it, has been hijacked. I think it would have been polite to be consulted but I am aware that not everyone has manners and consideration.

In some ways I am grateful that pictures were taken simply because they prove I was there. There have been one or two attempts to play down any importance that my image may have had but I think it speaks for itself. I’ve lost count of the amount of things that my face has since been used to publicise over the years, from books to clothing and everything in between, all without any payment, my knowledge or my permission. Stef – We Heart This 2009

Ray Stevenson’s take on the picture is interesting. Follow the link to the full YouTube interview.

Ray Stevenson The session was more like fun. There wasn’t a makeup artist over there… it was just act silly and pull faces – that was more the attitude. She [Soo] turned up knowing it was for photos… later everything that happens to her she feels she’s a victim of and the use of that picture is a victim thing because its all over the world and she’s got nothing for it. The money I do make from that picture I give her half.Nick Knight Interviews Ray Stevenson 11th October 2013

THAT haircut and look!

Nils Stevenson, who worked for McLaren & the Sex Pistols before becoming manager of Siouxsie & The Banshees, says in his diaries.

Sue Catwoman is one of the most extraordinary looking girls around. Ray tells me she has a passion for criminals. Like the Bromley Contingent, she’s from the suburbs. 5th October 1976 Vacant – A Punk Diary – Nils & Ray Stevenson

‘Striking’ is an understatement but she always had a sense of being different.

The catwoman look wasn’t a fashion statement: it came from inside. When I was young I’d always been this little girl in a frilly dress, but I never felt like a little girl, so it was kind of, `Don’t tell me I’ve got to wear a flowery dress: I don’t want to be pigeonholed.’

The look was also very boyish. I think that was because my dad had 12 boys and I was always pushed into the background and told to go and make a cup of tea. I suppose I wanted to be noticed by my dad. Jonathan Dyson Independent 27.3.99

Sue Catwoman was the female face of punk, the sexual opposite of Johnny Rotten. Sue Dressed the way she wanted. Next to Vivienne Westwood she was the most influential woman in punk fashion. If she wore something, others followed. And God Created Punk – Erica Echenberg & Mark P

Soo Catwoman The look didn’t seem important at the time and I couldn’t give a fig for whether anyone thought it was good or not, it was more about expressing oneself. It was nice to find like-minded people and to be treated as a man’s equal – this didn’t happen an awful lot before that. I was more interested in anti-fashion than creating a fashion and felt that what each of us did was an expression of self. It seemed quite odd to me when I saw my first lookalike; I was horrified.Punk77 Interview 2007

Having experimented with a pointed, pink-striped fringe in 1972, Soo Catwoman began to slick up the sides of her hair in homage to the Bride of Frankenstein. Then, in 1976, fed up with having to style her hair every morning, she walked into a barbershop in Ealing and demanded that he shave the middle of her head – and so, her iconic cat-eared skinhead was born.

Once I’d had my hair cut I became much more creative with the outfits I made and wore too, it was like finding a missing piece of a puzzle. The whole look came together at that point. Stef- We Heart This 2009

And so the cat eared skinhead cut was born! The look was appropriated and adapted by Keith Flint of The Prodigy round about 1997 for their seminal Firestarter video as they hit a harder punkier image and sound.

Johnny Rotten It’s sad because, you know that hairdo she had-the catwoman thing, isn’t it disgusting, that arsehole form Prodigy went and copied that. What a bum-hole that makes him don’t you think?Dick Vain Johnny Rotten Interview 2001

Worth mentioning that The Prodigy would become a seminal dance, drum and bass, rock, punk crossover act and that Keith would become a friend of Johnny’s and later tragically commit suicide in 2019.

“My heart is broken for him,” Rotten tearfully told the paparazzo. “[Flint] was a good friend of mine. … But nobody loved him, and he was left alone, and he got destroyed. Loudwire March 2019

Soo Catwoman also appears in the Nationwide documentary at the end of 1976 on national television with Siouxsie, Debbie Juvenile (Wilson) and with her arms round Linda Ashby, both looking clearly wired as the Sex Pistols play Anarchy In The UK.

On 12th November, the group [Sex Pistols] appeared on BBC1’s early evening show Nationwide … Cartoonish fans like Sue Catwoman and Siouxsie fill the screen as the presenter runs down the new style: ‘Punks wear vampire make-up, swastika armbands and leather trousers.’England’s Dreaming – Jon Savage

Fashions collide in London 1976 – Photographer unknown

In the early days the public’s reaction to Punks on the street and on buses and trains was pretty negative.

Soo Catwoman It was dire really, I’d get insulted on a daily basis – even by people I knew a couple of years before who couldn’t understand why I would want to look the way I did after being ‘so attractive’ previously! If I went on a tube the other passengers would leave the seat next to me empty as if I were contagious. People often made stupid comments or had a little giggle at my expense but I’d just smile sweetly and think ‘what a fool – I wouldn’t want to look like you do either!’. Punk77 Interview 2007

In January 1977 Sniffin Glue writer Mark P and Soo become an item

Soo was well known as the cover star to the Sex Pistols ‘Anarchy In The UK’ promo mag. It wasn’t long before our relationship was being mentioned in the NME and other papers. One called it a “Blank generation romance”, aaah! It didn’t last long though and by April it was all over. Months after we’d split I was sitting on a bus going down to Deptford when I noticed two punk girls staring at me and whispering to ach other. I thought to myself, “They know its me, they’ll probably ask for my autograph.” After a while one of them plucked up the courage to ask me, Wasn’t you the bloke who used to go out with Soo Catwoman?” I was most put out. It seemed to some that, Soo’s fame was even greater than mine. Sniffin’ Glue – The Essential Punk Accessory – Mark Perry

Both were regulars at the Roxy Club, set up by Andrew Czezowski and Sue Carrington to put on punk bands.

Soo Catwoman I can’t remember who first told me about the Roxy Club but I heard it on the grapevine that it would be a good place to go and I wasn’t disappointed. I remember the layout, the seating upstairs and the basement reached by a dim staircase – it was great in the early days. Don Letts walking around with a video camera and chatting away as if it weren’t there between you. I saw so many bands there that I couldn’t possibly tell you who was the first offhand. I remember loads of bands playing there, all the Americans who came over after the whole thing started to gain pace – Cherry Vanilla, Wayne (Jayne) County, Johnny Thunders etc. Then there was Eater, the Cortinas, The Adverts, The Damned, The Jam, The Lurkers … I’d be here all day if I had to write them all down as I used to go the Roxy quite a lot. The best nights tended to be the weekend nights. Some people would have to work and couldn’t afford to go out nightly – or lose the sleep. I loved seeing most of the bands.  I don’t remember NOT having a good time there in the early days.

Dee, Rat, Leo (Dreadzone) Debbie, Soo, Captain, & Barry Jones – Photo Eric Debris

I remember the Eater night so well! I stayed right near the back in the hopes that I wouldn’t get covered in blood and gore! (I escaped it). It was a good gig too.

I’m in Don Letts’ Punk Rock Movie and I did look very serious at the gig and I do recall (heaven knows how because it was a very long time ago) not being entirely happy that night – not sure if it was football fans/the sight of that poor pigs head – or if I was just unwell. I remember cutting my hair like that around the time I went into hospital to have surgery and I could well have been keeping right out of harm’s way due to that. Punk77 Interview 2007

By this time Soo had changed hairstyle to a more crewcut style. After the romance with Mark P, Soo and Genesis P Orridge became an item. Cosey Fanni Tutti, who was still in some sort of ‘strange’ relationship with GPO while in one with Chris Carter, recounts in her book Art Sex Music.

Contrary to the low opinion of punks he expressed to me, he seemed to like their company and going to gigs with Mark and his then girlfriend (and soon to be Gen’s ) Soo Catwoman…I thought Soo was just another one of his flings…I only knew what Gen had told me about her, but what I surmised from the occasions she was around, and what she told me on the phone, was that she loved Gen and wanted to live with him.

This is how Gen remembers them getting together with an interesting romantic gesture!

Genesis And then Sue Catwoman got really ill with appendicitis. I went to see Sue Catwoman in hospital and I gave her a great, big, giant latex pool of vomit with “Get Well Soon” written on it. And she was quite taken with that and actually ended up being my girlfriend after that. So I ended up, through her and Mark P, going around all the early punk gigs, the Roxy and various places, and seeing The Jam when they first played and Eater, all those early punk bands. The Wire  – Alan Licht interview September 2006

The romance however ends after 2 months when Soo takes a shine to Gen and Cosi’s friend Monte Cazzazza.  Prior to that though Soo appeared in one of COUM’s films After Cease To Exist interspersing Throbbing Gristle industrial music with such delightful teatime viewing as Cosie simulating castrating Chris Carter. Genesis wanted to film Soo as his prisoner tied to a bed, but shot like a police evidence scene. Her wig and clothes are done by Cosi.

After Cease to Exist (1977) by COUM Transmissions

From there the next event is the initially fictional band Moors Murderers with Steve Strange. The  story all starts back in June 1977 when Soo was reported in the T-Zers gossip section of the NME 18.06.77 as:

Reportedly forming a combo who will trade under the name of The Moors Murderers. 

Also in this combo was one Steve Harrington (aka Steve Strange aka Steve Brady) a full on punk from Newbridge Wales. Seeing the Pistols in the Stowaway Club in Newport in September 1976 was a revelation and he became friends with Glen Matlock, Billy Idol and JJ Burnel. In November 1976 he made the move to London and by the summer of 1977 when punk bands were forming left right and centre wanted his own band.

The band idea moves forward when Bravo, a German magazine, offers money for pictures of a punk band.

Soo Catwoman At that time a magazine here and there would grab a bunch of ‘punks’ and do a photo session, for which you’d get paid a small sum, enough to buy dinner or get a cab home from a gig.  Strange got into it much more than I did; he always loved posing.  At one point the German magazine Bravo hired out a studio to take pictures of a fake band.  Strange got into pretending to be in a band despite no crowd and no music being present, but after about thirty seconds I got off the stage saying ‘this is crap, I don’t want to do this’.  I also remember meeting someone (not sure who it was), who told me he had showed Strange a poem he wrote and then found out Strange had used it as lyrics for a Moors Murderers song and claimed to have written it himself, which didn’t surprise me. Punk77 Interview 2007

The feature appeared in August in Bravo as part of a double page spread on the UK Punk Shock and only with Soo Catwoman from the band which isn’t mentioned and to be fair won’t have meant anything to a German. It’s the smallest of insets (see picture below ) with the caption.

They also come from London, like the singer Cat Woman, who is one of the most important figures in the scene there.

So there was a fake band set up in the beginning. But Strange takes it further and tries to form a real band ‘taking’ the idea and lyrics that would become ‘Free Hindley.’

John Harlow (Moors Murderers Bassist) I learnt a lot about what was going on with Steve Strange and Soo Catwoman – it was a big joke – They did a photo session and that was it. Steve tried to carry it forward. She wanted nothing more to do with it.

Soo Catwoman With regard to Steve Strange…The Moors Murderers thing was a big joke to be honest.  I was joking about getting a band together called the Moors Murderers and doing sleazy love songs, I had no idea he would actually go out and do it and it was fitting that he got slated for it.  As for the paper bag over his head on the cover (no I won’t say it) Punk77 Interview 2007

From here Soo turns up at the Stranglers No More Heroes recordings with JJ Burnel mentioning seeing her for a while in his 2023 autobiograhy Strangler In The Light.

Photo taken at JJ Burnels flat 1977 with Dexter Dalwodd (Cortinas), Soo Catwoman & JJ Burnel – Photo Credit – Daniel Swan

No doubt through the Genesis P Orridge/Hull connection, Soo came into contact with the Hull band Dead Fingers Talk who had moved down to London. The band had a theatrical stage show with a charismatic laead singer called Bo Bo Phoenix (Gen had given him this name). Soo even travelled with the band for one of their gigs abroad.

Jeff Parsons (Dead Fingers Talk) We met Adam Ant in his house and Mick Jones and we met Soo Catwoman who became a bit of a fan and she knew everybody and used to bring people to see us. I remember going to see Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers with her at either The Roxy or Vortex. 

From this time it goes quiet for Soo in terms of photos and publicity. She’s still going to gigs and clubs but the increasing popularity of punk and a whole different audience and evolving sound brought people conforming to their own idea of what was punk.

Soo CatwomanI didn’t see it as cliquey myself. There was an influx of people who tried to be ‘punk’ by cutting a hole in an otherwise perfectly good shirt or pair of trousers – you could tell them by their perfectly polished shoes and various David Bowie haircuts. They would get extremely drunk and the floor was awash with cans waiting to trip you up, such a fall from grace for such a good club. These people would leave their safety pins on the floor on the way out – I’d have visions of them throwing the shirts away and buying a new one for work the next day. These people would get totally lashed and bounce around and fall all over everyone else – I was not the only person to be bruised by them or embarrassed for them that they had so little dignity.

Many of them came from obviously privileged backgrounds and I found it a bit insulting that they tried to fit in with us folk who had to scour around for secondhand clothes and give them a new lease of life. Those of us with holes in our jumpers didn’t actually put them there on purpose. I’d come from a large family and for me the whole scene was something I felt I was born to, as I’d pretty much spend my childhood wearing hand-me-downs. I found these new ‘fake punks’ quite irritating and not the least bit amusing or welcome so if that made me part of a clique then so be it! Punk77 Interview 2007

By the time the Pistols has split up, Soo like many other punks, were already moving on. For people like Soo, Marco Pirroni and others early on the scene, the Roxy Club under new manager Kevin St John was indicative of how Punk had changed arguably for the worst.

Soo CatwomanI did go back once or twice, the place went downhill fast and it was as if the lunatics had taken over the asylum. It became a dive, a grotty, dirty, horrible, nasty mess of a place with mostly really shit bands playing (or trying to play) most of the time, hoping to get signed by the overzealous record companies who didn’t want to get left out of the gold rush. The people who went there were then were like feral animals fighting for attention and posing for anyone who had a camera – it was a shambles. From what I remember a lot of the bands that were virtually unknown when playing there in the early days had since gone on to get gigs elsewhere, along with record deals. Some of us rued the day Andy and Sue left.

There were lots of places to go; gigs at the ICA, the Marquee, the 100 Club, Ronnie’s, and there were still the gay clubs where people knew how to enjoy themselves without bouncing around trying to knock you over. Punk77 Interview 2007

Interestingly one of the last pictures of Soo from the Punk times comes from some modelling Vivienne Westwood’s Seditionaries clothes. Tracey O’Keefe and Debbie Juvenile were also models. Again stunningly photogenic.

The Sex Pistols may have split, but before that plans were afoot by McLaren for a film about the band. In mid 1978 footage and scenes were starting being filmed by Julian Temple that would later come out in 1980 as the Great Rock N Roll Swindle. A scene had been written with Soo Catwoman in mind.

Soo Catwoman I was asked to be in Malcolm’s film, but then I wanted to see a script and I never heard anything again. I saw the film eventually, and I have to say I’ve never been naked with Malcolm Maclaren in a bathroom, and midget Ellen didn’t cut my hair. Jonathan Dyson, Independent 27.3.99

Julien Temple In terms of the Swindle – Soo Catwoman had moved on by the time we were preparing to film the scene and didn’t want to replay an earlier incarnation of her self – particularly the hair do.

I seem to remember the young girl who stepped in at late notice was the daughter of some friends of Malcolm. Punk77, August 2022

The scene itself is shocking and meant to be. Judy Kroll was a very young girl who was fully naked and transformed into the likeness of Soo Catwoman in front of McLaren lying in a bath. A still of her naked is also used on the album cover. The result of this is that even now a Google search of Soo Catwoman can bring up the young actress and her nudity and people think it’s her which prompted Soo to be very vocal that it wasn’t her and her reservations at the girls age.

Torpedo the Ark blogspot give another view on this representation

..the Swindle as a provocative work of cinema, a crucial aspect of which is its brutal exposure of the inherently exploitative nature of the music industry which blithely trades in young flesh and talent.

While the above may be true, it’s also true internet searches confuse the real Soo Catwoman and images of her to this day (2022) and always will do.

It’s reported that soon after the Sex Pistols broke up she left the scene and started a family.

I’m not suggesting it should have stayed how it was, but it was sad. It did lose something and it became a bit of a sell-out for some people. It sort of dilutes the message when you have to worry about the bank balance. Jonathan Dyson, Independent 27.3.99

I don’t claim to be knowledgeable about much that happened after the tabloids got a hold of ‘punk’ as I fell out of love with it then. Punk77 Interview 2007

So all the more surprising that she crops up on a couple of singles and an album from the post punk band The Invaders from West Yorkshire led by Sid’ Slavko Sidelnyk round about 1979. The Invaders were signed to the major label Polydor Records and their first two singles were produced by Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69.  Keyboardist Phil Manchester recalls the sudden arrival.

Phil ManchesterSo towards the middle/end of 1979 when we were recording at Polydor Studios, she turned up and instantly took a shine to Sid and they started seeing each other and became an “item”. Punk77 Interview Sep 2022

This then altered the dynamic of the band as Soo became part of the band.

Phil ManchesterIt wasn’t a sudden change – this happened over many months from the day she met Sid – right up until everybody started getting “sacked” from the band. Her intention from day one was to be in the band/ use it as a vehicle for her own “pop” success getting in on the publishing deal (money) and then hoping that “Magic Mirror” or “Backstreet Romeo” would chart and Sid and Soo wouldn’t need the band anymore! Punk77 Interview, Sep 2022

Predominately providing backing vocals, she also sings lead on the second single from their album Test Card called Backstreet Romeo and is featured on the cover of the first single from the album Magic Mirror wearing what appears to be half a disco ball on her head!

The Invaders played at the Brunel Rooms, in the Amphitheatre, a smaller bar area of the venue, made into an amphitheatre, with a smallish stage area. This was on a Tuesday night, when bands were allowed to play.

We, the audience were allowed to approach the bands in the dressing room, which were not far away from the stage. Of which I took advantage of many times, that’s how I came to talk to Soo, and Sid. Peter Murphy, Punk77 2022

The band didn’t last post the album. One by one the band members were sacked by Sid who was forced to ask them back and they refused and that was the end of the band as Polydor dropped them.

Phil ManchesterAfter all this – myself and Howard went to Polydor and told (Dennis Munday – the guy who signed us) what was happening with all the sackings? After a few days Sid was hauled in to Polydor to explain what was happening with the group and told to put the group back together asap. So then, after Sid’s grovelling and apologies we all told him to get lost (or words to that effect!) There you have it; Sid and Soo had the total project to themselves! Punk77 Interview, Sep 2022

That was pretty much it for Soo and Sid music-wise. Sid is alive, but with no public profile or comment on the band he once led. Steve, his brother, read the Punk77 Invaders piece and commented.

All facts correct and Phil is a great guy and great keyboard player. Punk77 Interview, Sep 2022

In 1998 she sang on ex-Generation X and Empire’s guitarist Derwood Andrews’s cover of the O’Jay’s Backstabbers which also features Rat Scabies on drums who she lives fairly close by. It’s actually an excellent track with great vocals by Soo that makes you wonder ‘What if in 1977 she’d really fronted a band?’

Soo Catwoman The only person I am really in touch with from back then is Rat Scabies who lives not far from me.  I sang on a track for Rat and Derwood from Gen X about four years back [1998] and it came out on a CD compilation in the States. No money involved, but it was really fun to do I must say. I hadn’t known Derwood (to talk to) back in the day and he was a really nice guy. Punk77 Interview 2007

Years later in 2013, her children, Dion (the spitting image of her mother) and Shem would also front a band called Good Weather Girl though I’m not sure if it’s still a going concern. The track below is Ocean and co-produced by Soo.

As of 2024 still no sign of a memoir. Her website has most of the content removed bar the homepage and the only official up to date presence (well-ish) is her Facebook page run by her daughter which features pictures of Soo. Her attitude to all the above is refreshing and funnily enough ‘very’ punk in its pushing against the norm.

Soo Catwoman I don’t see myself as anything special, but then no one I knew back then was anyone special either, none of them were famous at that time, a lot of people don’t look at it that way. But the book isn’t going to get done right now…I don’t even really care if I do it in five years time – what’s the hurry? I am not looking to capitalise on anything, just to tell my story. I really don’t want to be a part of the big media circus that so many people I used to know seem to thrive on. Punk77 Interview 2007

Soo herself she has been notoriously low key. I conducted an interview in the mid 2000’s, but when the Roxy Club piece moved from a web feature to a book something changed in our previously friendly relationship so reluctantly removed her words. As I reflect on the emails I can see her view that people have continually traded off her name and image and her persona has been defined by others writing about her and I can understand her being guarded because she can’t control how her words are presented like in the Daily Mail article she did in the late nineties that she hated and felt misrepresented by. But that is life – as a ‘personality’ you are a composite of history, other people’s memories of you and their interpretation PLUS your own view and they are as likely not to match.

Reflecting on the times when she had an active MySpace page.

Soo Catwoman “Way back in 1976 I found myself in the middle of a scene that became known as ‘Punk’ (I never liked the label that much personally, but that’s another story). There were a crowd of people who hung out at the same places and looked rather different to the norm of the time (picture the white suit in Saturday Night Fever, or the feathercut of Farrah Fawcett-Majors)

It still seems strange to me that what happened back then could bring about so many changes, in hair, music, fashion, etc. It seems quite funny that what started out as anti-fashion became fashion in itself.”My Space Post

Fast forward to 2021 and guess what’s back in fashion according to an Observer fashion article?

The devil’s in the detail: hair horns become summer’s hot new trend

Anime inspires bold, edgy look with a nod back to punk and emo styles worn by the Bromley Contingent and the Prodigy’s Keith Flint.

The style is exactly as it sounds: two slanted sprigs of hair sitting on either side of the head that are styled upward with wax paste to look like pointy horns. You can put them up when you go out, or down if you want a more natural vibe.

The look is catching on fast. The #hairhorns hashtag on TikTok has more than 64 million views; Dazed & Confused magazine is calling it the latest beauty obsession; and prominent hair stylists within the fashion industry, such as Guido Palau and Eugene Souleiman, are documenting their own versions on Instagram.

Miranda Remington – Photograph: Bohemians Hair Salon

London-based stylist Luca Spinelli says he does this type of cut at least twice a week. “People are really starting to go for it. For some it’s horns, for others it’s more cat ears. It depends on the style of each person, and you can adapt it to suit their personality.”

Another explanation is that it is a protest against conventional beauty and about creating an otherworldly look. Miranda Remington, 24, got her Dracula-inspired version six months ago. “It was my hairdresser’s suggestion as I’ve got lots of volume on top and my hair always sticks out, so he gave me these horns. When I go out, they go up. It makes me feel less like a human being and more like a cat,” she says. “I get strange looks, but it’s perfect.”Tess Reidy Observer 21.8.21

In 2022 Danny Boyle’s dramatisation of Steve Jones’ autobiography Lonely Boy called Pistol was shown on the Disney Channel. Soo Catwoman’s character features in the show and is played by Iris Law, daughter of Jude Law making her acting debut and shown below with Maisie Williams who plays Jordan.

The hairdo is set to be a very different look for Iris, who usually sports long brunette curls, though she may well wear a wig to emulate Soo’s iconic hairstyle.Roxy Simons Daily Mail 15/4/22

Photo  – Burst Photos

I never wanted to live a rock’n’roll lifestyle. I want to be who I am. I think that is the most important thing for me and that was what punk was all about. It was about self-expression, and if you’re being true to yourself it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.” Jonathan Dyson, Independent 27.3.99

Soo Catwoman – Punk77 salutes you!