Carole Pope hasn't lost capacity to shock -- or create

CAROLE POPE

When: Friday night at 7:30

Where: Festival Place, Sherwood Park

Tickets: $28 to $32 plus service charges

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EDMONTON - Shock is Carole Pope's middle name.

As the leather-clad singer of Toronto's Rough Trade, she scared listeners in the '80s with her manly voice and lyrics about a lesbian crush on High School Confidential.

She followed it up with her jaw-dropping memoirs, Anti Diva, revealing her love affair with the late British soul singer Dusty Springfield.

What is even more shocking is the fact that Pope is one of the most overlooked pioneers of Canuck pop, reduced to asking for money to finance her next solo record.

She paid for -- and self-released -- her latest effort, Transcend, in 2005, and only recently managed to find a label, True North, to distribute the disc in Canada.

"I'm looking for an album sugar daddy," laughs Pope, then realizes it's not such a funny predicament. "I know, it's sad. I need some investors. I don't even need that much money."

At 57, she deserves so much better than this. While the Scarborough-via-Manchester native is rightfully celebrated as a gay icon -- headlining the occasional queer festival -- she doesn't want to live off her 20-year-old hits.

She grudgingly performs them -- All Touch, Crimes of Passion and High School Confidential, which now makes her "feel like a perv" -- but like any artist, she needs to write new ones.

If Transcend is any indication, Pope is more than capable of crafting electro-pop songs worthy of taking up gigabytes on our iPods.

Americana documents her affection for the U.S. (She now lives in Los Angeles.) All Touch/No Contact is a squelchy reinterpretation of Rough Trade's '80s hit.

Transcend and Love Strikes Hard are naughty tracks about sex, while dream6 is a fuzzy, ethereal number written after one of Pope's nocturnal transmissions. She thinks it was inspired by her brother, Howie, who died of AIDS in the '90s.

"I miss him," she says. "He was my best friend. I don't think I believe in God, but I kind of feel Howie at times. I imagine him nagging me. He's just advising me about my career."

Yet the album's piece de resistance is Johnny Marr, a clangy, new-wave track inspired by the former guitarist of The Smiths, one of Britain's best and moodiest bands of the '80s.

"I was actually getting nostalgic, which I never really do, about living on a certain street in Toronto in the '80s. The Smiths were the soundtrack of that time. I love (the group's singer) Morrissey, but I know he's trouble. The hysterical thing is it's the first song I wrote on (music software) GarageBand."

In a perfect world, The Smiths would reunite -- Morrissey recently turned down a $75-million US offer -- and Pope would earn the respect she deserves. Heck, if it wasn't for her strong, sex-obsessed persona, we wouldn't have artists such as electro-rocker Peaches.

"I just want my new work to get recognition," says Pope. "I want Johnny Marr to be a huge hit and I don't see why it shouldn't be. I want radio (to play it). Who do I have to club to death? Because I will. Do I have to give you money or hire a hooker for you ...? I'll do it."

Good ol' shocking Pope.

ssperounes@thejournal.canwest.com

POPE-OURRI

- Formed Rough Trade in 1974 with guitarist Kevan Staples.

- Released six records, including Avoid Freud (1980), For Those Who Think Young (1981), and Shaking The Foundations (1982), which was turned into a cabaret-pop musical in 1999.

- The duo broke up in 1986, but reunite every so often.