Most times the people we do features on fall into one of two categories: mega-star or brand-new big deal. This time we’ve caught someone while they’re pinched between the two extremes, and she’s got a few bruises, know what we mean? Patty Smyth and her band, Scandal, aren’t big enough yet to relax, but they’re not obscure enough anymore to have that nothing-to-lose feeling, either. Success is pushing Patty Smyth around a little bit. It’s blowing everyone else around a little bit, too.

Her first scheduled pow-wow with CREEM got canceled 15 minutes beforehand. Patty was “sick and exhausted.” The second one got lost in her overbooked schedule Of tour dates, photo sessions, TV appearances, rehearsals with a brand new band and meetings about staying in the race with The Warrior’s sudden and stunning success (the LP went gold in the first four weeks and the single of the same name landed in the top ten almost as fast). “Patty’s going nuts,” sighed a publicist. So was the publicist. Finally, our appointment was squeezed into a spare day between touring sprints.