sarah newsletterSo, Eas ter aga in ; and werve been r ing ing round

the bands to f ind ou t a l l the ju icy news and goss ip -Sad1y, most of them were out - on egg-hunts and such- so wer re go ing to have to improv ise a b i t , sor ry .

number sevenapril 1994

Actual ly, HEAVEIILY were in, or Amelia and Pete were, and the news from themis tha t they hope you a l l had a n ice Eas ter . 0h . And they tve jus t boughtHARVEYTs new LP, and th ink i t rs fab ; and THE I IAKE's , bu t they 've no t had achance to l i s ten to tha t ye t . R igh t . F ine . And theyr re record ing us a ne t . lm in i -LP, in May, fo r August re lease - 6 songs , maybe 7 , and most ly the usua ls o r t o f s t u f f , I ' d i m a g i n e . A c t u a l l y , t h i s i s q u i t e e x c i t i n g , I ' d b e s t a d j u s tmy tone. Weeee, new Heaven ly LP, hunker hunker ! ! ! That ' s be t te r . And on Apr i l29th they play the New Cross Venue, supported by Prolapse, Useda and Spacemaid.Inc identa l l y , I donr t th ink werve ever ment ioned be fore tha t one o f HEAVEI ILY 'sdeepest -he id ambi t ions is to p lay a g ig in Ut toxe ter - I fo rge t why , bu t i fanybody ou t there l i ves in Ut toxe ter , o r maybe has f r iends or re la t i ves ou t tha tway, p lease do ge t in touch - you shou ld a lways keep in touch w i th your f r iendsand re la t i ves . And remember : nobodyts ever too proud fo r a choco la te bunny.

E lsewhere , you 've probab ly jus t missed THE 0RCHIDS a t K ing Tut ' s (as par to f Rad io l rs G lasgow Sound C i ty th ing) AND a new Pee l sess ion , wh ich was a jus treward , I th ink , fo r a f ine LP ( "S t r i v ing For The Lazy Per fec t ion" - SARAH 617)and two exce l len t on-a i r match repor ts ear l ie r in the year f rom Chr is andHackett (Part ick 0 Motherwell 0, Celt ic 0 Dundee 0). The LP seemed to go downespec ia l l y we l l in the The Sta tes , . and in my w i lder moments I d ream o f thembecoming Huge ly In f luent ia l over there and so pu t t ing an end to a l l th is abysmalmidd le -c lass co l lege-k id ind ie -A0R s tu f f tha t cur ren t ly ge ts chucked across theAt lan t ic a t us (Lemonheads, Buf fa lo Tom, Ju l iana B loody Hat f ie ld Po ly , Sugar ,Madder Rose, Breeders , lo ts o f peop le who tu rn ou t no t to be The Brdeders . . . ) -sor ry , no t meant to be an t i -Amer ican, i t rs jus t tha t I ha te the word "coo l , ,andI hate the word "neat" and I hate al l these U.K. low-f i pop-undergrounfl snobswho wonrt even l islql to BLUEB0Y, say, just because BLUEBOY would rather be ThePet Shop Boys ( i f i6Flast LP was soniething akin to being kissed on the toes byange ls bear ing snowdrops . . . ) than b loody Pavement (whose wasnt t ) , and arenr tashamed to be l i v ing in Read ing , jus t mi ld ly pu t ou t . 0h , Pavement a re-OR-T i lp laces , Dather l i ke rea l pavements , I 'd jus t ra ther have Cred i t To The Nat ion -we have more in common; the M5, fo r ins tance. Inc identa l l y , i f your re wonder inghow THE 0RCHIDS are after the Indy Band In Death Crash Horror ( @ The Dumfries &Gal loway Chron ic le ) inc ident l ve repor ted las t t ime - we l l , there Lere no long-te rm e f fec ts , thank fu l l y - except the f lu f fy d ice are a b i t squashed, and thewhole band vomits spontaneously i f you creep up behind thern and go vroom vroom.

Hav ing ment ioned Harvey , I th ink l r l l go in to h im in a b i t more depth , so -this is HARVEY IIILLIAI{S (ex-FIELD IMUSE/AMIHER SUilt{Y DAY, BLUEBOY guitarist,former astronaut etc.) whose "i lebel l ion" (SARAH 406; sponsored by Embassy) cameout in March and was a '15 minu te 7 song gu i ta r less 10" /CD - and to those o f yougrumbl ing tha t 15 minu tes isn ' t an LP we ye l l UPUNK ROCK!" w i th pop-eyedamphetamine-fuel led glee - nuch as we did when Melody Maker told us theywou ldnr t rev iew i t because i t was " too shor t ' , to be an a lbum (or Harvey was " tooshort" to be a popstar, or Life was "too short" and vie were al l going to die andarenr t men bas tards and was poprnus ic rea11y tha t impor tan t , huh? - hones t , theexcuses they come up with.. .) - and remind loi l- th'at 6nce upon a t ime people usedto have their heads shaved and their bodies smeared with goose-fat for writ ingsongs over 2 minu tes 1ong. Ac tua l1y , I 'm th ink ing o f Cross-Channe l sw immers .No matter - i t was st i l l A G00D THING. HARTEY also did a solo sDot at theGarage support ing lHE ORCHIDS - just a man and his keyboard, naked onstage, withf r iend Jane add ing a dab o f v io l in and f lu te where appropr ia te , wh ich I supposeactua l l y made i t a duo, th ink ing about i t , wh ich I know a lo t o f you do , bu tonly because you are 1one1y. And he's nuttering about a summer EP - somethingwe can a l l wave our a rms in the a i r to as we conga a long the prom, I td imag ine .

Back br ie f l y to amphetamine- f i l l e6 ' je l l ies , I guess the b ig news o f thepast quarter has been the second-coming of ACTI0tl PAItftIllG!, now up theresurf ing the crest of THE NE['J WAVE 0F NEl. l WAVE, with "Mustard Gas" (aka SARAH 87)even turning up on the Fierce Panda (aka the NME) t '56unning In The Streets"( l a d s , l a d s . . . ) d o u b l e - 7 " - a n d I s h a l l l o n g t r e a s u r e m e m o r i e s o f A n d y s t u n n i n gan audience of 500 at the Powerhaus launch into si lence with a feedback-drenchedf ive minu te t i rade aga ins t Mike Edwards f rom Jesus Jones , whord seeming ly daredto deny there was any such th ing in popmus ic as au thent ic work ing-c1ass anger . . .(Evere t t T rue 's A .P! p iece in Me lody Maker caught the f lavour - Evere t t evenrang up a f te r i t was pr in ted to ask i f he cou ld hear some o f the i r records - Ik n o w y o u ' 1 1 d i s a g r e e , b u t t h i s i s m u s i c j o u r n a l i s m a s i t s h o u l d b e - c r a s s ,s tup id , exc i tab le . . . ) . Las t week they head l ined Subter ran ia - more- fo l lows. . .

Meanwhi le BLUEBoY, the o ther p ie in wh ich Harvey keeps a f inger , have a news i n g l e c a 1 1 e d " R i v e r " o u t o n A p r i l 1 1 t h , a b i g s w o l l e n t h u n d e r i n g t o r r e n t o f ametaphor , cu t down f rom 7 minu tes to 5 by the modern mi rac le o f d ig i ta l ed i t ing( ra ther than the o ld mi rac le o f speed ing the tape up , wh ich a lways made Ke i thsound a rn i te pa ined, o r cu t t ing the tape, wh ich we 've t r ied to avo id ever s inceBRIGHTER's second s ing le , when we acc identa l l y exc ised Ker is rs in t roduc tory ye lpo f "Wel l i t rs Saturday N igh t and I fee l a l l r igh t " - w i thout wh ' i ch , I rm a f ra id ,the maud l in i rony o f the res t was somewhat los t ) . And, because i t rs A SINGLE,i t i s n ' t i n c l u d e d o n t h e 1 2 s o n g L P " U n i s e x " , w h i c h i s o u t o n M a y 1 6 t h ( S A R A H620) . Inc identa l l y , fo l low ing Ke i th rs confess iona l in t roduc t ion to the migh ty" Imipramine" ons tage a t H ighbury Garage, wetve d iscovered i t to be a huge lypopu lar d rug w i th a good number o f our aud ience. . . a lmost a badge o f a l leg iance,l i ke anoraks , bowl -cu ts and, e r , badges used to be . These An imal Men mightgobb le speed, bu t here a t SARAH ant i -depressants a re the h ip - th ing . I rm sure i tu s e d t o b e l o l l i p o p s , o r m a y b e a 1 l t h a t w a s s y m b o l i c a n d I d i d n t t r e a l i s e .

Anyway, therers an LP launch at Rough Trade Covent Garden on Saturday May14th ( luncht ime) , and a g ig a t the Sausage Mach ine (Russe l l Arms, Camden) on May13th . "R iver " used to be "R iver Phoen ix " , by the way - i f you t re puzz led by the" i f I h a d l i p s l i k e R i v e r " l y r i c - i t w a s c h a n g e d a f t e r h i s u n t i m e l y d e m i s e , a n daf te r Ke i th had abandoned p lans to re -wr i te the song around h is o ther sc reen-hero on the grounds tha t " i f I had legs l i ke Tr igge i " sounded s i lE f In th isweekrs Melody Maker Ke i th rs ac tua l l y quoted as say ing how he wants to be " the

Di rk Bogarde o f Pop" ; odd, because I a lways th ink o f h im as the Humphrey Bogar to f Pop, bu t maybe tha t rs jus t because o f the way he keeps look ing a t me. K id .

One bit of sad news from the BLUEBOY camp (i f I may use the term) is thatdrummer L loyd , hav ing been w i th them r igh t f rom the word "Donr t " , has dec ided tovacate the BLUEBoY drumstool because i t had stopped being fun, though how muchfun a d rumstoo l can be , except fo r o ther d rumstoo ls , I can rea l l y on ly swa l lowhard and imag ine . And wh i le wer re on l ine-ups , one o f the Deans has le f t SECRETSHI I IE on the grounds he d idnr t know wh ich one he was - I ha te a l l th is s tu f f ; wesa id Dean, why no t th ink i t over fo r 24 hours and see i f you s t i l l want to ca l li t a day? And he looked a t us l i ke we were mak ing some lame joke and sa idsorry, did you mean me? A1so, BOYMCER have re-j igged themselves - I know wepromised yor i they 'd sp l i t -up , bu t tha t was rea l l y jus t to make io ts o f pe6 'FTE inShef f ie ld ex t remely happy, and we d id add tan ta l i s ing ly tha t they wou ld no doubtcont inue in some f6 rm - ine on ty m66T po in t rea l l y b6 i i rq whether ' i t wou ld be theform o f a c lass ic c lean-cu t punk-pop t r io o r tha t o f a fa t unshaven g i t and afew o f h is mates and - we l l , i t r s the la t te r , w i th S tewar t jo ined by N ico la onbass /voca ls and Kev and Mat t on drums + gu i ta r . Record-w ise , wer re p lay ing hardto ge t , bu t there 's an CD/LP o f new s tu f f ou t on S lumber land/A Turn tab le Fr iend.SECRET SHIl lE, meanwhile, have a stupendous new 5 track 10"/CD out on May 3rdca ' l led "Greater Than God" (SARAH 89) , and I th ink i t rs fa i r to say tha t theyrvef ina l l y go t where they were go ing - i f I may be mean ing less ' l y g l ib fo r a fewv i ta l seconds. Probab ly won ' t ge t rev iewed as a s ing le because i t ' s too long.

SARAH 89 leads on numer ica l l y to SARAH 90, wh ich is a gorgeous 3 t rack EPby IHE HIT PARADE enti t led "Sixteen l leeks" and re-introducing ex-Factory-starletCath Car ro l l on shared voca l and wr i t ing du t ies . That rs ou t May 31s t , fo l lowed

on June 27lh by a whole HIT PARADE LP - "The Sound 0f The Hit Parade". We didJu l ian 's red jumper las t t ime, so I shanr t ge t bogged down aga in - wer re no t b igfash ion peop le - a l l I w i l l do is apo log ise fo r the presence o f a song about us ;bu t we f igured tha t , s ihFwe 've wr i t ten severa l paragraphs about h im, i t ' s on lyfa i r he shou ld wr i te a few verses about us and bes ides , i t rs n icer thanBRIGHTER's "So You Sa id" , and less ambiguous ly fawn ing than HEAVEI ILYTS "So

L i t t le Deserve" . A l l th is i s l i censed f rom Po lys ta r Records o f Tokyo - wh ich isi r re levant , bu t impress ive , and makes you want to s leep w i th us .

BRIGHTER, o f course , no longer s leep w i th us , hav ing c l imbed in to bed w i thV iny l Japan and changed the i r name to HAL; they have an EP ca l led someth ingappropr ia te ou t somet ime soon ish , w i th d rum- ' loops on , mak ing i t easy to hang-up.In the o ld days songs had hooks - i t ' s con fus ing , i snr t i t? And THE l l0RIHERl {PICTURE LIBRARY (ex-FIELD lt l ICE) also have a new EP due on Vinyl Japan, cal led" B l u e D i s s o l v e " . N o t i c e h o w w e r r e t a k i n g t h i s o p p o r t u n i t y t o m a k e t h i n g s u p t oV iny l Japan fo r any th ing we might have sa id tha t migh t in any way have imp l iedthey were c rap , by g iv ing lo ts o f pub l i c i t y to the i r fo r thcoming schedu le ; a f te ra l l , why change the hab i t o f 6* years? We' l l make the bed, they can p lump upthe p i l lo t . t s , to cont inue my bed metaphor . Er - i t was a metaphor , hones t . . .

Incidental ly, IHE l loRTHERl{ PICTURE LIBRARY, IHE 0RCHIDS and BLUEE0Y are al itour ing France in May. Dates are Nantes ( i8 th ) , Bordeaux (19 th) , Tou louse (20 th- t h a t ' s a l s o w h e n o u r n e x t M 0 T ' s d u e , s o d o n t t i e t u s f o r g e t ) , V a n n e s ( 2 1 s t ) -w i th hopefu l l y Par is and/or Rennes f i t ted in to the 17 th l18 th . Dates are a lsod a r k , o v a 1 , s i n g l e - s t o n e d f r u i t s . B e a r t h a t i n m i n d . T h e w o r l d i s e v e r s oconfus ing . And HARVEY's p lay ing a coup le o f songs l i ve on Bernard Leno i r rs showon France In te r on 19 th Apr i i , fo r those o f you who have French rad ios - and asess ion on h is show fo r BLUEBOY is penc i l led in too . Exc i tement . Formidab le .

I ment ioned ex-Fac tory ta r t le ts ear l ie r , and tha t reminds me tha t THEI IAKE's new LP ( "T ida l t , ' ,ave 0 f Hype" , SARAH 618) d id f ina l i y appear , spor t ing an ice photo o f Inns Cour t , one o f Br is to l rs lesser known no-go areas . 0dd ly , i t sre lease prompted "Record Co l lec to r " magaz ine to r ing us up because they weredoing a Primal Screarn piece and wanted to know which tfAKE records Bobby G.p layed bass on ( i t rs the f i rs t th ree - AND Pr ima l Scream used to SUPPORT them a tear ly g igs [ I 'm say ing th is mere ly to score cheap po in ts l - he was c rap in bedtoo , apparent ly [some o f th is I have no ev idence to r ] ) - they were surpr ised tof ind THE HAKE s t i l l a l i ve - as indeed are we occas iona l l y . Somet imes we c reepup beh ind them and go v room vroom, jus t to check . Anyway, we donr t approve o frecord-co l lec t ing , as i t ' s bas ica l l y jus t another way o f vo t ing Tory , so ra therthan spi l l the beans about how Bobby used to beat his grandrnother up every ggybefore schoo l , I gave them a p iece o f my mind. And they sa id "gor , ta very muchsqu i re - i f we keep th is in an a i r - t igh t bag i t cou ld be wor th f i f t y kn icker inf i ve years" - inc identa l l y , the LP 's ou t in the U.S.A. under the name I IAKE (UK)as therers an LA goth-meta l band or someth ing ca l led THE t ' lAKE - I rm te l l ing youth is because Br is to l HMV has the i r LP ra ther than ours , w i th naked breas ts onthe cover rather than Inns CouFltst-off ice, and l tm worried youtl l be puzzledby the band seeming ly t rad ing in the i r ' love o f l i fe 's poet ic l i t t le dog-ends fo rseedy sex is t s leaze, espec ia l l y s ince tha t rs why Bobby le f t in the f i rs t p lace .

Mov ing across the waters , as I occas iona l 1y do , la rge ly because i tfr ightens the cats, EAST RMR PIPETs new LP 'rPoor Fricky" is now ready, andwi l l be re leased in June - SARAH 621. I t fea tures 10 songs , inc lud ing one abouta dictaphone - and a sleeve-photo of a pony in New Jersey that someoners paintedcandyf loss p ink , because tha t rs how some peop ie a re . Some peop le jo in the ToryPar ty and ge t a we i rd sexua l k ick ou t o f s t rang l ing themse lves w i th e lec t r i ca lf lex o r c los ing down hosp i ta ls , o thers pa in t pon ies candy f losd p ink . Peop le a renot a lways , when taken ind iv idua l l y , wor th keep ing . A lso , "Goodbye Ca l i fo rn ia"is f ina l l y ge t t ing a US re lease, on Bar None, and the band have a new 7" ou t onthe i r own He l l Gate labe l ca l led "Ah D ic taphone" - tha t rs the sarne song aboutd ic taphones a l luded to ear l ie r , inc identa l l y , no t a d i f fe ren t o iET I used toknow an extremely rude joke about dictaphones but, since coming to work forSARAH REC0RDS, I rve comple te ly fo rgo t ten what i t waS.

And wh i ls t wet re e lsewhere - yourve a lso missed a new STfGARGLIDERS s ing le( "Top 40 Scu lp tu re" , SARAH 86) and a compi la t ion LPICD o f the i r f ines t moments( " l ' l e t re A l l T ry ing To Get There" , SARAH 619) , bu t f rank ly you donr t care , doyou? I ' le l1 , sod you, your l l regre t i t when they ' re dead. As I suppose mightthey - i t a1 l depends on the na ture o f the Af te r l i fe , l i ke whether i t rs lo ts o frumbust ious sex and s t i cky cakes or someth ing more l i ke deck quo i ts . Anyway,s inger Josh go t rnar r ied , to a n ice Aus t ra l ian g i r l ca l led Dann i (no , no t tha tone) so I guess in that respect i t was a good year for them, even i f not forthose o f us who regard mar r iage as an ou tda ted pa t r ia rcha l ins t i tu t ion , o r whora ther fanc ied mar ry ing Josh ourse lves , espec ia l l y i f i t meant the chance to bean Aust ra l ian c i t i zen and par t o f a p roud young repub l ic . Inc identa l l y ' wh i lewer re t ip - toe ing th rough the Ant ipodes , you migh t l i ke to know tha t therers avideo out on Season Records of Melbourne starr ing THE SUGARGLIDERS, EAyS,HEAVEI{LY, B0YRACER and lo ts o f s im i la r i l ks - I donr t know what i t rs l i ke aswerve no t go t a v ideo- recorder , bu t I td imag ine i t ' s sor t o f ob long and ra t t lesa bit when you shake i t . l , ' l r i te to Season Records c/o 20 Ralton Ave, GlenWaver ley , 3150 V ic to r ia , Aus t ra i ia fo r rnore in fo . Ask too about the i r exc i t ingr a n g e o f i n d i e - p o p l i n g e r i e ; b e c a u s e i t w i l l s c a r e t h e m .

Now someth ing in te res t ing : a new band. Ca l led IVY, and you might have comeacross thern a l ready because a ra ther wonder fu l th ing ca l led "Wish You l , ,ou ld" wasp layed to death by bo th Pee l and Lamacq/Whi iey when i t f i r s t came out las t yearon a 4-band compilat ion EP from Norwich, and the band then went on to record asess ion fo r the Even ing Show. The i r debut "p roper " re leases w i l l ac tua l l y be apa i r o f 7 "s (SARAHs 91/92 , w i th a jo in t cD fo r the two) , fea tur ing a louder" t ' , i sh You Wou1d" , a new song ca l Ied "Avenge" , and a coup le o f th ings they d idfo r Rad io 1 re - recorded on an indus t r ia l es ta te in Great Yarmouth . I to ldsomeone the o ther day they sounded a l i t t le l i ke Curve meets The Carouse l , andhe looked dec ided ly anx ious - so I wonr t say tha t to anyone e lse .

Bor ing s tu f f ; shops these days don ' t l i ke s tock ing back-ca ta logue re leases :

s a l e s u s e d t o d o t h i s : and now they do th is :

s&'E i a 1.:_-:..iJ-:..,:-

Bri t i shEconomi cPol i cy1979-94

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which means we have to be very wary when re -press ing - espec ia l l y nov i tha t to ta lsa les a re a lso d iv ided be tv ' ,een CD and v iny l , so tha t wet re obv ious ly p ress ing insmal le r ( i .e . less economic) ba tches o f each anyway. A lso , to re -press the CDwhen there 's s t i l l l o ts o f v iny l le f t (o r v ice versa) , and then end up w i th' loads

o f s tu f f on B0TH fo rmats we canr t se l l , i s p la in s tup id .

What th js means in p rac t ice is tha t th ings w i l l be de le ted a lo t morequ ick iy than prev ious ly , and o f ten on one fo r rna t be fore the o ther - so werveamended our ' l i s ts to show what 's ava i lab le re lease-by- re lease. The on ly one tonote a t p resent i s tha t there are no v iny l cop ies le f t o f SARAH 79.

R igh t - tha t rs your ' lo t . Wr i te and

te l l us i f you know any th ing we donr t , o rsend an SAE for the next one of these (orf1 fo r the nex t four ) . Wr i te too i f youwant an up- to -da te mai l -o rder l i s t . Ihope you l i ke the re - in t roduc t ion o f thegaps between paragraphs by the way - weknow you l i ke to read be tween the 1 ines ,and fee l th js g ives you more scope.

Sorch Frgcordspo box 691

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