Newsletter No. 1

Eorohmoslet{cr
0stcterWtz no,l
H u l l o , a n d w e l c o m teo t h e f i r s t - e v e r ( t a r a ! )
SARAH
NEWSLETTER,
hopefully jam-packedfull of
i n t e r e s t i n g n e w s ,g o s s i p a n d s n i p p e t s , t h o u g ha t
the momentI couldnrt say precisely what on account
of this beingonly the first sentence. But I shall
now plunge into SENTENCE
Tl,loand hopefully things
will beginto hot up andbecoma
e little more
purposeful . l.lerI I start wi th sometour-dates . . .
tlell, BRIGHTER
go off this month
and BLUEB0Y
o n a j o i n t - t o p c o - h e a d l i n em u t u a l l y - s u p p o r t i v e
I
t sour-drumer s-bi gger-than-your-drumner-no-he
-not-yes-he-is-BIFF
type tour, calling at:
Saturday october 24th: N0TTINGHAM
Narrow Boat
Sundayoctober 25th: HULLAdelphi
Monday0ctober 26th: S0UTHAMPT0N
Joinerrs Arms
Tuesdayoctober 27th: oXFORD
Jericho Tavern
Wednesday
october 28th: LIVERPo0L
Planet X
Thursdayoctober 29th: SHEFFIELD
HallamshireHotel
Friday 0ctober 30th: LEEDS
Royal Park
Saturday0ctober 31st: MANCHESTER
SwingingSpoffan
(+ support fron Boyracerin Leeds/Manchester
'
i
n
andMrs.Kipling
Sheffield)
And BLUEBOY
do a few without BRIGHTER,
namely:
EUST0N
Rails on 16th october [at the I.IAAAAH!
2nd Birthday Party (together
w i t h T h e H a y w a i n sM
, a r k S p e e d ,S e r i o u s D r i n k i n g ( ? ) a n d C h a n t e l l e . " B a l l o o n s ,
cakes, sweetsand a special guest celebrity comedian"it threatens. Hmmm.)l
(The Chocolate Factory) on Novenber19th - that's
CAMBERIilELL
UNI0NTAVERN
with SECRET
STIIilEand THESUGARGLIDERS.
READING
Rising Sun Cafe on November21st, just with IHE SUGARGLIDERS.
play The Bull & cate in Kentish Town
And BRIGffiR and THE SIJGARGLIDERS
hopefully on December
4th - but we've still to confirm this.
And hopefully someother things too - werre especially looking for nore
gigs for THESUGARGLIDERS,
who fly in from Australia in mid-November
and go back
just before Chrisfiias and vrerd really rather not have them twiddling their
thumbs in our kitchen the whole time
it's distracting, and upsets the cat.
S o , i f a n y b o d yh a s a n y b r i g h t i d e a s , o r r r o u l dl i k e t h e i r t h u n b st w i d d l e d b r i e f l y
instead, please get in touch! They'1l do anything-- you knowwhat Australiani
a r e i i k e . I f n o t , n o w ' sy o u r c h a n c et o f i n d o u t .
Meanwhile,if any of you are going to Germany
in 0ctober, bear in nind that
THE 0RCHIDSare doing a short tour over there, and that everything will be
incredibly expensive. There should be a few French dates too, and hopefully a
Radio Sessionfor BernardLenoir (or "The FrenchJohn Peel,,as he is customarily
known), to be broadcast on France Inter which you can pick up in parts of th6
UK... And HEAVEIILY,
recently returned from supporting Beat Happeningin the
USA,are off to JAPANin 0ctober for gigs'in 0saka (22), Nagoya(23) and Tokyo
(24/25) plus lots of Virgin Megastoreetc. signing sessioni becausethey aie
f i n a l l y M E G A P O P S TwAiR
t hSt,h e i r o w nc a r r i e r - b a g sa n d B A D G E( sSt i l l a v a i l a b l e ) .
0ctober 5th is the release-date for "LondonWeekend",
the compilation LP by
A!{0THER
SUtl{Y DAY, featuring all the songs he/they/it ever released on SARAH
i n c l u d i n g t h e l e g e n d a r y" A n o r a kC i t y ' , f l e x i d i s c . S a d l y n o n e w A S Ds o n g s l o o k
TffiTiEiFas - fo1lowinj the demise oi Tm rtgLo ilICE, whb werF]-revioustitatcjng
g p s o m u c ho f h i s t i m e a n d d r a i n i n g h i s c r e a t i v e j u i c e s t o a d a n g e r o u s l y1 o w level - Harveyhas now joined BLUEB0Y
as 0ther Guitar ANDhas just got back trom
Japan where hers been playing guitar for THE HIT pARlIrE (who are dlso
MEGAP0PSTARS
over there) - he's a basically very busy person. There are no
iffinediate plans for anything nerr on SARAH
by THE HIT PARADE,
incidentally - or
by SI.CHRIST0PIIER,
trho are nott recording a secondLP for the VINYLJAPANlabel,
follow-up to "Man, I Could Scream',which cameout earlier this year, honest.
BLUEBOY
are notvin fact a 6-piece - the original line-up of Keith, Paul and
Lloyd that played on "Clearer" having added(as well as Harvey)llark on bass and
Genma
on ce1lo, vocals and keyboard. And their debut LP'tlf llishes I'lereHorses"
i s o u t n o w , a s i s t h e 7 " " P o p k i s 5 , , - r e c o r d e da s p r e t t y m u c ha l i v e t a k e , a n
approach which should rnake perfect sense to anyone whors seen thern in the
t a r k " w h i c h i s n o wc a l l e d s o m e t h i n g
flesh...
A n e w s i n g l e ( p r o b a b l yi ' P r o s p e c P
else and "Air France") should be recordedafter the tour, and therers a nice new
T - s h i r t t o o . . . A n d i f y o u r r e p l a n n i n g a t r i p t o T h e L a n do f t h e R i s i n g S u n o r
happen to live there, theytre over at the end of February. And apparent'ly
there's somesort of Blueboyfanzine happeningin the NewYear - Keith says.
IHE'$reARGLIDERS
meanwhile fly in from Melbourne on Novenber 17th, and
their new EP - "Seventeen"- is out on October 12th. They should hopefully be
recording a new single l{hile theyrre here, and then an LP whenthey return to
The Land of the Rising l,lombat. l,leanwhile,there are a couple of older songsof
t h e i r s o u t o n t h e M a r i n e v i l l e l a b e l - a n d , i f F a t e s m i l e s k i n d l y u p o ny o u , y o u
might even stili find copies of the 3 singles they did for Surnrnershine
Records
("Sway", "Furlough" and "Butterfly Soup"), though if She just wrinkles her nose
at you and wagglesher ears, you probably won't. (Thoughyou could try writing
to Sumnershine
at P0 BoX13, Prahran, Victoria, Australia 3181). Brothers Josh
and Joel have been joined by a net{ bassist for their UK dates - I vrrote his name
down somewhere
becausethey seemedto want me to but, um, I forget where, sorry.
Wadingdeeper into our release-schedule,Worthingpov{er-trio BRIGHTER
have
a n e t { 5 s o n g E P o u t o n 0 c t o b e r 1 9 t h ( 1 0 ' , v i n y l o r 5 , , C Dc) a l l e d ' t D i s n e y " , w h i c h
"does
is apparently Scottish for
not,r. There's also a fab new Brightei t-shirt
|{hich wili be on sale on the tour.
It's green. And also on october 1gth
Dublinrs IU|RVEST
llll{ISTERSrelease the fo1low-up to,'You Do My ttorld the World
"Six
0f Good" a new 7" called
OtClock Is Rosary", as sneak-previewed
on the
Mark Goodier Show, though that was a slightly different version (the Large,
C r u c i a l a n d E s s e n t i a l l y l , l i c k e dM i x ) s p e c i a l l y t a i l o r e d f o r e a r ' l y e v e n i n gr a d ' i o would YoUtrust the BBCwith your only master-tape? l,leespecially care for the
"I showedto you a copy-book,with all my favourite
drawings, you said you
,l!ne
l i k e d t h e o n e I c a l l e d t T h e E v e n i n go f t h e F i r e w o r k s t , ' - t h o u g h l { e a r e n o t
preparedto say why. Theytre a strange band, more at homewith'l* hour sets and
grand pianos than indie-pop, as anyonewho saw their wondroustileanFiddler gig
this sumnerwill testify... and possibly too anyonel{ho sawthe Uhite Horse gig
wherethey had neither and were um, less wondrous.
F i n a l r e l e a s e t h i s y e a r i s o u r ' l a t e s t l a b e l c o m p i l a t i o n , " F o u n t a i nI s l a n d ' ,
(SARAH
583), covering a randomselection of songs from SARAH
4t to SRnnn53, and
of course it makesan ideal ChristmasPresent. As would a newFord Fiesta. And
one of t,hose squeakytoy-mice things. Also, werve noticed that other'labels
encouragepeople to buy the higher-profit-marg'inedCDformat by including little
extras you just donrt get with the vinyl. lte at SARAH
think this is a fab idea,
a n d s o t h e i n s i d e f l a p o f t h e , ' F o u n t a i n I s l a n d , , C Db o o k l e t c o n t a i n s a p h o t o o f
the SARAH
CAT, completely unavailable elsewhere. l,le think of it as a sort of
cat-flap.
Incidentally, people often ask us why our conpilations have such
bizarre catalogue numbers.
Our other Australians EVEilAs IE SPEAT(
have just added a keyboardist called
- damn, Irm just no good with these Australian names- nope, canrt think, but,
whoever they are, theyrve just finished recording an Lp called "Feral pop
Frenzyrrwhich is tentatively set to comeout on January17th 1993, but probably
wonrt becausethings never do - I personally haventt been out on January 17th
since 1985, even tentatively. It actually breaks our rule of no-singles-oir-Lps,
as 2 of the songs@
been out before - but the 7,,s were never realiy available
i n A u s t r a l i a , w h i c h - T i a b i t s a d g i v e n t h e b a n dl i v e t h e r e s o , u m . . . i h a t ' s w h y !
But therers lots and iots of NE!'lsongs too (including a1l four from their peel
S e s s i o n ) ,a n d i t t l l s t i l l s e l l c h e a p ,s o y o u c a n r t r e a l l y a r g u e . l l e l l , y o u c a n ,
but tYewonrt respect you for it.
And theytre comingover in Februaryto- do T;:oti
J uSl .i a n " , t h a t ' s w h a t h e t s c a l l e d . . .
o f g i g s a n d b e c o mM
e E G A P O P S T A" R
Also recorded is a new single and LP from Bristolrs very ownSECRET
SHll{Epiece last time I looked - a 350%increase on their
now expandedto a SEVEN
debut EP, original nembers Scott and Jamie now having been joined by Dean
( g u i t a r ) , P a u l ( b a s s ) , D e a n( g u i t a r ) , N i c k ( d r u m s )a n d K a t h r y n ( b a c k i n gv o c a l s )
and sounding'rrather different" as a result - as well as being one the few bands
on the label to feature trro guitarists called Dean. Recordedat PIJ in Bristol,
itrs being mixed in Brighton so we havenrt heard the finished product yet, but
a p p a r e n t l yi t r s L o U D . 8 0 0 ! ! ! L o u da s t h a t .
Also in the midst of recording are TllE IfAKE- so hopefully a new LP and
single from them in the netr year...
HEAVEI{LY
meanwhileare resting on their laurels (SARAH
404 nowavailable as
l i m i t e d e d i t i o n b e a n b a g a) f t e r t h e r i g o u r s o f t h i s y e a r , w i t h " L e J a r d i n d e . . . "
o u r b i g g e s t s e l l e r e v e r i t ' s a l s o o u t i n t h e U . S . o n K R e c o r d s( w h os e e mt o b e
suddenlyhip), in Japan on Quattro, and in Franceon Danceteria, though theyrve
just gone bust without paying us for it.
The French for you. Poun vous.
ChannelTunnel mutter mutter. Hopefully somenel'|songs soon - Amelia swore "on
her motherrs begonias"in front of several hundredpeople at the Ner{Cross Venue
recently that next time they played live there would be. Still lots of BADGES
left, incidentally - donrt know if youtve ever consideredwhat wonderful treedecorations they make? Carrier-bags too - they makeideal tokens of affection.
Awayup north, THE0RCHIDS
are busy recording somethingwhich will probably
be a new EP (John has just this minute on the phone promised"3 eight-ninute
classics" but - well, you canrt believe everythingThe 0rchjds say, can you?
Please...) and revelling in the unfamiliar glory of critical press-acclairn
following the release of "Thaumaturgy"- though of course thejr mothers arenrt
speakingto them anymoreon account of the drugs... and everybodyshould by now
o w na c o p y o f t h e i r d o u b l e - L Pc o m p i l a t i o n" E p i c u r e a n " ,t h o u g ha q u i c k s t r a w - p o l l
in East Street this morningconfirmed my suspicion that everybodydoesnrt - or
m a y b ej u s t t h a t n o b o d y w h o l i k e s T h e 0 r c h i d s a l s o l i k e s f r e s h v e g e t a b l e s .
Another ideal Christmaspresent. So many, so nany. IHE SEAURCHII|S
compilatjon
"Stardust'r also seemsto have crept out without anybodyactually noticing - it
includes everythjng they recorded for SARAH,
the two flexidiscs they did for us
prior to SARAH,a couple of things recorded that never actually got released,
and unreadablesieeve-notes. And, for those curious but ignorant, James,Robert
and Patrick Urchin now have a newband in Birmingham
called DELTA,along with a
b a s s i s t c a l l e d M a t t h e w ,w h o r sa v e r y o l d s c h o o l - f r i e n do f m i n e , w h o e v e rI a m .
Across The Severn now to South I'lales where both THESIIEETEST
ACHEand THE
R0SARIES
have gone eerily quiet... probably digging a tunnel
\
or something... elsewhere,GEI{fl-E
DESPITE
are threatening
us with a demoof their version of the themefrom
"The Man llith The Golden Gunrrand TRAilYAY,
nost
recently seen on BedminsterParadeheadingfor
ASDA,have followed the natural progression
of their first tl{o singles and gone
c o u n t r y r n r w e s t e r ny, e e - h a w . . .t h e r e r s a
7'rEP ( 'r!'lest Country Hospital i ty " ) out now on
Spanishlabel Elefant (c/QuevedoNo.13 - 4 IZDA,
24300Bembibre,Leon, Spain), who also seem
intent on releasing stuff by the
pre-TramwayPANDA
P0PS- rtis a
strange world you live in to be sure.
As for TIG SARII CHRISIIIS PARTY- well,
there isnrt one this year, becausewe havenrt
yet found anyonewho can rememberenoughabout
l a s t y e a r r s t o t e l l u s i f i t w a s a n y g o o do r
n o t , s o w e c a n r t p o s s i b l y k n o wi f i t r s w o r t h
doing again. And anyhow,we hate Christnas,
being neo-Paganmoon-children. BUTHEAIIEIILY
are thinking of having a bash in London,maybe
at the Bull & Gate, so keep your crackers at stand-by. Locally, HeavenUp Here
h a v e t h e i r C h r i s t m a sP a r t y a t T h e M a u r e t a n i a( w h i c hh a s a n i c e c e i l i n g ) o n 1 8 t h
DecembF and are hopefully putting on SECRETSHIIIE and Ilfi SUGARGLIDERS
s o m e t i m eb e f o r e , p r o b a b l y a t T h e L o u i s i a n a , w h i c h d o e s n r t h a v e a n i c e c e i l i n g ,
but is still a pleasant enoughplace, right by the harbour and not too far to
w a l k i f , l i k e u s , y o u l i v e h e r e . 0 n t h e s u b j e c t o f o u r i a s t C h r i s t n a sP a r t y ,
a n y o n es t i l l s u l k i n g b e c a u s et h e y d i d n ' t g e t g i v e n a f r e e B r i a n 7 " c a n s t i l 1 g e t
one if theytre preparedto swear on their notherrs begoniasthat theyrve bought
both the mjni-LP "Understand"ANDthe fab new "Planes" EP' both on Setanta...
and this may just sneak out in time to plug the First Ever Brian (namedafter
MTI N I S T E R b
Sa' s s i s t , i n c i d e n t a l l y - - - ) e i g - 1 s t h 0 c t o b e r a t U L Uw i t h
T H EH A R V E S
A House and The Darling Buds, who apparently have gone raunchy. 0r possibly
p a u n c h y ,I c a n ' t q u i t e r e a d w h a t l r v e w r i t t e n . . . m a y b ei f y o u s t a y o v e r a n d s e e
Blueboy next day at Rails we can comparenotes on Andrears belly-button, and
dec'idewhich it was. And what ought to be done about it.
U m , w h a t e l s e ? l l e t v e g i v e n u p d o i n g c a s s e t t e s . B a s i c a l l y b e c a u s em o s t l y
therers been
they were imported from France and, since the demiseof DANCETERIA,
none to import - and the few people here t{ho want them really donrt warrant us
m a k i n gt h e m o u r s e l v e s . I a l w a y st h o u g h t t h e y w e r e n a s t y l i t t l e t h i n g s , a n y w a y .
The cassettes, not the people whovrantedthem - we love all our customers.
l,le're a1so, in the nev{ year, making some changes on what we do with
singles; we did sone surnsrecently to get an idea of the averageloss we've been
m a k i n go n e a c ho n e o f l a t e , a n d - i t ' s n o t n i c e . I t h i n k , m o s t l i k e l y ' i t r l l b e
CD singles on everything, or almosteverything, and a return to 7"s in wrapr o u n d s l e e v e sf o r t h e v i n y l v e r s i o n . P o s s i b l y " g e n e r i c " s l e e v e s , b u t t h e n y o u
have to have nasty great-big die-cut ho'les in the middle' and proper labels so
people can see what the record is. Boring. The point is that, even though we
never put extra tracks on CDs, they outsell vinyl by far, and I guesstherers no
a r g u i n g w i t h C 0 N S U MDEERM A N D .o. .h r u b b i s h , o f c o u r s e t h e r e i s , b u t i f t h e C D
single-is the only way to keep the SPIRITof thfrj-ngle alive - the THRILLof
buying A S0ilG- when it's already disappeared across so much of the world
(everion-eilEiTs for the LP because-thesohgs are always on that...) then so be
it.
Anything's better than the sad old ADULTworld of ALBU!'IS.Noneof this
campaignfor cheaperCDsstuff though; 1'|eneed the moneyto subsidise the 7"s.
D E L E T I O NwSi l l c o n t i n u e , I ' m a f r a i d - j u s t b e c a u s e ,e a c h t i m e a r e c o r d
se1ls out, v|e have to decide whetheror not to tie up another f600 or so for the
next fer,l years in pressing another thousand, and that kind of adds up over a
back-catalogueof 60 or 70 sing1es... Sales on everything really do plurmet
after the first fet'l monthsanywayand, what with the current chancellor' shops
at all un-current. And if itrs a choice
are terrified of ordering ANYTHING
betv{een spending money re-pressing old records and spending it on new
r e c o r d i n g s . . .r r e l l , i t r s n o c h o i c e .
A n dt h a t ' s t h e e n d o f o u r f i r s t n e w s l e t t e r . l ' l e r l l b a s i c a l l y
b e d o i n g s o m e t h i n gs i m i l a r e v e r y 3 m o n t h s ,w i t h p o s s i b l et h i n g s
in betweento keep you posted - werre toying with somemore
flexidiscs too, but - no promises. Thanksto everyone
uho sent an SAEfor this one (and someof you will have
received one anywayjust becausevtethought yourd
l i k e o n e ) . l , l e r v ed e c i d e dt o w o r k t h i n g s s l i g h t l y
differently in future, though, and set-up an
a c t u a l m a i l i n g - l i s t . S o - i f y o u w a n tt o b e o n i t ,
and receive the next four newsletters (and possibly
i n t e r i m t h i n g s t o o ) a u t o m a t i c a l l y ,w e f i g u r e d 5 1
should cover all the costs - does that sound0K?
other than that - anyonel{ho wants an
up-to-date mail-order list please write and
ask, and any other words of criticism/affection
will be gratefully accepted, absorbedand
then fed to the cat, once she gets back from
v i s i t i n g h e r f o l k s i n n e w l y i n d e p e n d e nBt e g o n i a . . .
gqrah fecords,
ls, po pox 671,
bristol
BSql lfc