MP3s are for sampling purposes only. Please buy the album if you like what you hear. If you have a complaint about the ownership of a track, picture or text, please contact me (juanribera@telefonica.net) directly and I will be sure to remove it at request as soon as possible. Also, all songs featured here will now be removed within one to two weeks of posting.
Este es probablemente el single de más éxito de The Servants (el seleccionado para el recopilatorio CD86). He colgado una grabación de youtube que refleja muy bien la época. El sonido y la calidad de la imagen es muy deficiente (y el remate del clip lo proporciona los gallos de David Westlake,el cantante...) pero se aprecia lo underground de estos grupos que apenas si llegaban a tocar en salas grandes (sólo cuando hacían de teloneros) y si en clubs diminutos que parecían más bien habitaciones o salas de estar... Eso sí, los fanzines, los programas de radio especializados y determinados djs (esta canción recuerdo haberla escuchado en Barraca Bar), les daban mucha cancha. Por cierto, atención a los créditos: ¡Amanda Brown al violín!
Estos dos páginas están sacadas del libreto que escribió Luke Haines sobre ellos en el recopilatorio que editó hace poco Cherry Red titulado "Reserved". He seleccionado estas dos porque Haines habla sobre la etapa del grupo durante 1986, la mejor para mi gusto ya que tanto la carrera en solitario de David Westlake como la etapa art-rock del grupo con Fire Records (y ya con Luke Haines en la banda), me interesan menos
Definitivamente ella no sabía cantar (ver clip ¡en vivo! en youtube) pero eso era lo de menos porque para eso estaban los estudios de grabación y el equipo que había detrás. Y es que el producto que creó Tot Taylor estuvo muy logrado. "Ha aprendido inglés (en teoría es sueca) viendo películas de Katherine Hepburn y escuchando discos de The Beatles..." decía le texto de "Shiver"... Ella era "La Espía que surgió del frío" y a eso jugaron.
No conocía estas dos formaciones en las que figuró Louis Philippe y me ha gustado mucho "It´s a Mad, mad World" de The Arcadians (reeditado luego bajo el nombre de Louis Philippe - "Let´s Pretend")
Sabrosas también estas declaraciones del francés acerca de aquellos tiempos:
Tell us how you began in music. Legend has it that you were a Philosophy teacher, when and why did you decide to be a musician?
The “legend” is correct. I graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure (philosophy section) in the early eighties, just as I was starting to develop an interest in writing my own songs. Once I was hooked – after briefly playing bass in a band doing Remains covers (!) – there was no turning back. I completed my PhD., and went to Brussels, where Crépuscule had offered me a recording contract.
Did you receive any kind of music lessons? Describe your first contacts with the music world.
I was taught classical flute from 11-14; otherwise, I am entirely self-taught. But I have bathed in music since I was very, very young. One of the earliest pictures of me (1961!, good grief) shows me at the grand piano which occupied much of the sitting-room of my mother’s family house in Vichy. She’d been a keen harpist – and pianist, and played music non-stop at home, mostly classical and, especially, jazz. And Michel Legrand!
Tell us about your first band, the Border Boys, how would you describe that first approach to pop music?
The BB’s were supposed to be a power-pop band, a bit like the Rubinoos, which is why I’d teamed up with a straight r’n’b guitarist, Jean-François Champollion (a direct descendant of the archeologist, by the way). But “pop” was the key word from the very first demo we recorded together – an emphasis on strong tunes, with a tight beat (I loved Paul Collins, then, and still do)…But I was still unsure as to where this would lead me. I now realise that I knew it (as proven by the subsequent albums), but that I lacked the will power to impose my views, my aesthetics if you will, upon my collaborator(s). Breaking up the BB’s, then the Arcadians, was one of the most traumatic things I ever did.
After launching the legendary Border Boys' Tribute EP you worked as a cook in Brussels, where does that liking? What is your specialty dish as a chef?
I cooked a mean “quenelles” at the time…not that easy to achieve the right consistency, let me tell you. For non-French, “quenelles” are a type of dumpling made with poultry or fish (pike, in particular), which are seasoned, folded with beaten eggwhites, and lightly poached in a – not-too-strong – court-bouillon
How were the Arcadians formed? Were they the same components as the Border Boys?
The Arcadians were basically the BB’s Mark II. The musicians – JF Champollion, Philippe David, Jacques Delorenzi, Eric Weil – were the same. The change of name reflected the shift from power-pop to a more “pastoral” approach to the arrangements, which themselves reflected the changes I’d been through as a songwriter – and, more importantly, as a young man.
You have told that Les Disques du Crepuscule did not show much interest in the Arcadians' recordings. How would you describe, in hindsight, your stay in Michel Duval's record label and what is your opinion today of the peculiar Crepuscule style?
Crépuscule did not have a style, but a look, mostly the creation of Benoit Hennebert, an abolute genius of a designer. If you actually listen to all the bands who were on the label during its golden age – the beginning of the eighties – you’ll realise how diverse they were. Contrary to what’s been written about the label, not all of us, far from it in fact, were “arty” musicians. Paul Haig wasn’t, neither were Mikado or Antena, or myself for that matter. But there was very strong sense of community – not surprising in a big village like Brussels – and a feeling that we were doing things that other labels wouldn’t let us do. In some cases, they’d have been right! But yes, Crépuscule was “peculiar” – in the sense that the records were dressed impeccably, elegantly, thanks to – again – the vision of Benoit Hennebert.
What are your best memories of those first years in pop music?
One experience towers above them all: listening to the playback of “Tribute” with Andy Paley in Daylight Studio’s booth. I cried my eyes out, and knew from that moment, that there was nothing, absolutely nothing that I wanted more than to do this forever. The studio is my greatest friend, always wil be.
Me he encontrado un myspace sobre Postcard Records (no oficial-www.myspace.com/postcardrecords) con la discografía completa de Postcard. Las fotos están sacadas del blogspot the sound of Young Scotland
Por cierto, en youtube hay algunos minutos de un documental que se emitió sobre The Sound of Young Scotland:
COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY
DISCOGRAPHY 1980 - 1981
7" - Orange Juice - Falling and laughing/Moscow/Moscow olympics (80-0) 1980 (royal blue labels, early copies came with free I wish I was a postcard flexi and white and blue drumming cat logo postcard)
LP - Josef K - Sorry for laughing (80-1) 1980 unreleased (approximately 20 white label copies in existence less than 10 of which have proof sleeves which are different to The only fun in town sleeve)
7" - Orange Juice - Blueboy/Lovesick (80-2) 1980 (first pressing came with sky blue labels and a wrap around poster sleeve hand coloured by the band, the second pressing featured brown labels and brown cowboy sleeve, there was also a misspressing with yellow and red labels and a white cowboy sleeve)
7" - Josef K - Radio drill time/Crazy to exist (80-3) 1980 (first pressing came with sky blue labels and a wrap around poster sleeve hand coloured by the band, the second pressing featured brown labels and brown cowboy sleeve, there was also a misspressing with yellow and red labels and a white cowboy sleeve)
7" - The Go Betweens - I need two heads/Stop before you say it (80-4) 1980 (brown labels and brown cowboy sleeve, there was also a misspressing with yellow and red labels and a white cowboy sleeve)
7" - Josef K - It's kinda funny/Final request (80-5) 1980 (brown labels and brown cowboy sleeve, initial copies with 7" size colour paper insert)
7" - Orange Juice - Simply thrilled honey/Breakfast time (80-6) 1980 (brown labels and brown cowboy sleeve, initial copies with 7" size colour paper insert)
7" - Orange Juice - Poor old soul/Poor old sould (part 2) (81-2) 1981 (black kilts sleeve, initial copies with lyric postcard)
7" - Aztec Camera - Just like gold/We could send letters(81-3) 1981 (black kilts sleeve, initial copies with lyric postcard)
7" - Josef K - Sorry for laughing/Revelation (TW1 023/81-4) 1981 (Released on the Belgian Crepuscle label under licence from Postcard)
7" - Josef K - Chance meeting/Pictures (81-5) 1981 (lback kilts sleeve, initial copies with lyric postcard)
7" - Orange Juice - Wan light/You old eccentric (81-6) 1981 unreleased
LP - Josef K - The only fun in town (81-7) 1981
7" - Aztec Camera - Mattress of wire/Lost outside the tunnel (81-8) 1981
The following catalogue numbers were allocated for future releases -
7" - The Go Betweens - Your turn my turn (81-9)
LP - Orange Juice - Ostrich churchyard (81-10)
7" - The Secret Goldfish - Hey mister (81-11)
7" - The Bluebells - Everybody's somebody's fool (81-12)
LP - Aztec camera - Green jacket grey (81-13) (still criminally unrleased. Studio demos and live versions exist of the following tracks - Green jacket grey, His spirit shows, Remember the docks, Nothing in the sky and early versions of Pillar to post, Orchid girl, Release and maybe the inclusion of Just like gold/We could send letters (original Postcard version) and Mattress of wire/Lost ouside the tunnel (original Postcard version) could have made the perfect debut album?)
7" - Jazzateers - Wasted (81-14)
LP - Jazzateers - Lee (82 - ?) (A 13 track debut album was recorded in 1981/1982. This particular line up of the band featured the Rutkowski sisters and Paul Quinn and was produced by Alan Horne but was never released - Can it be/Hey mister/Different feeling/I shot the president/Red letter day/Blue moon over Hawaii/Don't let your son grow up to be a cowboy/Different drum/Lee/Apres ski/Two part harmony/Slight return/Natural progression. The sound is somewhat different to the full throttle Orange Juice/Josef K sound on the Jazzateers self titled debut album released on Rough Trade with a much more country/jazz flavour throughout and the vocals are shared between the girls and Paul Quinn)
DISCOGRAPHY 1992 - 1997
LP/CD - Paul Quinn and the independent group - The phantoms and the archetypes (DUBH 921) 1992 (also on cassette)
LP/CD - Orange Juice - Ostrich churchyard (DUBH 922) 1992 (LP came with limited edition 10" irritation disc, a blank piece of vinyl with no playable grooves, also on cassette)
LP/CD - The nectarine no. 9 - A sea with three stars (DUBH 931) 1993
LP/CD - Orange juice - The heather's on fire (DUBH 932) 1993
7"/CDS - Paul Quinn and the independent group - Stupid thing/Passing thought/Superstar (DUBH 933) 1993
7"/CDS - Orange Juice - Blueboy/Lovesick/Poor old soul (French language version)/Poor old soul (Instrumental version) (DUBH934) 1993
LP/CD - Vic Godard - The end of the Surrey people (DUBH 936) 1993
7"/CD - Vic Godard - Won't turn back/The water was bad/ Conscience be your guide/Same mistakes (DUBH 937)1993
CDS - The Nectarine no. 9 - Un-loaded for you EP (DUBH939) 1993
CDS - D'un echantillon de marchandises EP - Punk rock hotel - Paul quinn and the Independent Group/Holes of Corpus Christie - The Nectarine no. 9/Louise louise - Orange Juice/End of the Surrey people - Vic Godard (DUBH 9315) (Released on the Australian label Summershine under licence from Postcard given the catalogue number DUBH 9315) 1993
CD - The Nectarine no. 9 - Guitar thieves (CDNT 004) (released on the Nighttracks label under licence from Postcard given the catalogue number DUBH 941) 1994
7" - The Nectarine no. 9 - This arsehole's been burned too Many times before (DUBH 942) 1994
LP/CD - Paul Quinn and the independent group - Will I ever be inside of you (DUBH 945) 1994 (The CD was also released in the USA on the Thirsty Ear Recordings label under licence from Postcard - thi cd 57024. It featured a completely different sleeve to the UK pressing. The CD was also re-released on Marina Records in 1994 featuring the original UK sleeve - MA7/MACD 93639)
LP/CD - The nectarine no. 9 - Niagara falls (SALD 214) (Released on the Canadian label Shake under licence from Postcard given the catalogue number DUBH 9410) 1994
LP/CD - The nectarine no. 9 - Saint Jack (DUBH 951) 1995
CDS - Pregnant with possibilities EP - Tiger tiger/Will I ever be inside of you - Paul Quinn and the Independent Group Just another fucked up little druggy Jock Scot & the Nectarine no. 9 - Grunge girl groan - Jock Scot (DUBH 952) 1995
CD - Orange juice - The heather's on fire - reissue and repackaged CD in jewel case not gatefold card sleeve like the original 1993 release featuring different sleeve artwork, sleeve notes and CD design (DUBH 955) 1995
CD - Jock Scot - My personal culloden (Samo 1877) (Released on the Samo label under licence from Postcard given the catalogue number DUBH 972)
All remaining DUBH catalogue numbers as far as I know relate to press releases, trade adverts, posters, etc released in extremely limited quantities and usually not actually given catalogue numbers on the items themselves. White label 7"'s and promos also exist from 1980 onwards but only in very limited quantities, I only have just the one myself!!! If anyone has any further info please get in touch......
OTHER POSTCARD RELATED RELEASES
After the initial phase of Postcard came to an end in 1981, Orange Juice had signed a major label deal with Polydor, the band's (first officially released*) debut album You can't hide your love forever and it's two singles Love love and Felicity although pressed on Polydor vinyl and given Polydor catalogue numbers were also given a joint Polydor/Postcard logo on the labels and the sleeves. Infact the drumming cat is as big and bold as ever occupying the whole of the A-side label on the Love love 7" and 12", legend has it that as part of the deal to sign to Polydor that Alan Horne purposely negotiated the Polydor/Postcard logo for the first album and two singles (smart move I say!!!) (*Orange Juice's real debut album was of course Ostrich churchyard, it sounded much rawer and represented the real Orange Juice of 1981, You can't hide your love forever fell foul to a more polished produced sound and the drumming cat logo on the label and sleeve was one of the only things that remained about the sound of young Scotland until the second coming of the label in 1992 when after laying in the vaults for over eleven years Ostrich churchyard was finally released to sensational public acclaim. Sadly the release was strictly limited, in the true tradition of Postcard but is now easily available to purchase on the excellent Glasgow school compilation released on the Domino label two years ago, in addition to the album it features all of the Postcard 7" A and B sides and some radio session tracks)
7"/12" - Orange juice - Love love/Intuition told me (+Moscow on 12") (Polydor/Postcard - POSP357/POSPX357 - 1981) (The 7" featured an orange sleeve and the 12" came in a completey different blue sleeve)
7"/12" - Orange Juice - Felicity/In a nutshell (+You old eccentric on 12") (Polydor/Postcard - POSP386/POSPX386 - 1982)
LP/CASS - Orange Juice - You can't hide your love forever (Polydor/Postcard - POLS 1057 - 1982)
7" - Orange Juice - Rip it up/A sad lament (Polydor - POSP547 - 1983) (Initial copies came with a free 4 track cassette - The Felicity sessions, the formative years, 4 tracks recorded live at Edingburgh Tevoit on 21.04.79. - Simply thrilled honey, Botswana, Time to develop, Blueboy)
7" - Orange Juice - Bridge/Out for the count (Polydor - OJ5 - 1984) (Initial copies came with a free 1 track flexi disc of a live version of Poor old soul)
Recopilado por Jon Savage, con textos de Paul Morley y artwork por Peter Seville
Description:Rhino.co.uk pre-order offer! The first 100 orders will receive a free roll of exclusive Factory Records tape - FAC136!
Available to pre-order, shipping from 12th January 2009
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Factory, Manchester’s most well known record label, Rhino records UK is pleased to announce the release of “Factory Records: Communications 1978-92”. Founded in 1978 when former Granada TV presenter Tony Wilson teamed up with Alan Erasmus, an unemployed actor and band manager, soon to be joined by maverick producer Martin Hannett, The Factory name was first used for a club featuring local bands including The Durutti Column, Cabaret Voltaire and Joy Division. The founder members of the label decided to release an EP of music by the acts who had performed there; “A Factory Sample” - and Factory Records was born. The first album on the label was Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures', which produced the hit single 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. Lead singer Ian Curtis tragically committed suicide, but the rest of the band renamed themselves New Order. In 1981 Factory and New Order converted a former yacht showroom into The Hacienda nightclub and, to complete the achievement, had Bernard Manning perform the official opening, Factory was however much more than just it’s headline acts. “A Factory Box Set” celebrates the label from the first release “A Factory Sample” through an extremely diverse roster of acts from the cutting edge post punk of A Certain Ratio, Cabaret Voltaire, The Railway Children, OMD, James and Joy Division to obscurities such as Section 25, Biting Tongues, Crispy Ambulance, Miaow and Swamp Children via early dance culture - ESG and 52nd Street, to the full flowering of the ‘Madchester scene’, ending fittingly with the last Factory release, “Sunshine and Love” by Happy Mondays. Nothing if not idiosyncratic, Factory was also known for the way it catalogued its assets - all the records had catalogue numbers beginning with FAC, but everything else connected to the label came under the same system. So the poster advertising the nightclub was FAC1, the Hacienda's cat was FAC191, the office sellotape was FAC136 and a bet between two of the partners was even given the number FAC253.
Rhino UK are proud to present “Singles Box”: a clamshell card box containing the first ten UK-issued singles in their original picture sleeves. What makes this particularly special is the two singles which are exclusive to this box set: These unique inclusions are the projected fourth single - “Still Ill” (which was pressed only as DJ promo “A” label) but was ultimately passed over and replaced by “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” along side the Dutch release of “The Headmaster Ritual” housed in it’s black & white “cowboy” sleeve – the rarest commercially issued Smiths’ single in any territory. The box is completed with four contemporary badges, a poster featuring the single artworks as well as an authentication certificate that contains a unique redemption code for mp3 downloads of the tracks. An absolute must have item for Smiths‘ fans, and limited to 10,000 copies only. All singles utilise the original production masters from the period. The front cover image of the box was personally chosen by Morrissey. It features Joel Fabiani from the 1969 TV series "Department S", starring Peter Wyndgarde, Joel Fabiani and Rosemary Nicols.
1. 7" #1 (Originally Released November 1983) Hand in Glove 2. Handsome Devil (Live)
1. 7" #2 (Originally Released November 1983) This Charming Man 2. Jeane
1. 7" #3 (Originally Released January 1984) What Difference Does It Make? 2. Back To The Old House
1. 7" #4 (Previously Unreleased Commercially) Still Ill 2. You’ve Got Everything Now
1. 7" #5 (Originally Released May 1984) Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now 2. Suffer Little Children
1. 7" #6 (Originally Released September 1984) William, It Was Really Nothing 2. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
1. 7" #7 (Originally Released February 1985) How Soon Is Now? 2. Well I Wonder
1. 7" #8 (Originally Released March 1985) Shakespeare's Sister 2. What She Said
1. 7" #9 (Originally Only Released In Holland) The Headmaster Ritual 2. Oscillate Wildly
1. 7" #10 (Originally Released July 1985) That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore 2. Meat Is Murder (Live)
1. 7" #11 (Originally Released September 1985) The Boy With The Thorn In His Side 2. Asleep
1. 7" #12 (Originally Released May 1986) Bigmouth Strikes Again 2. Money Changes Everything
Limited to 10,000 boxsets worldwide.
The Smiths' Singles Box is a clamshell card box containing the first ten UK-issued singles in their original picture sleeves.
Two singles in this box are exclusive to this box set, the projected 4th single - Still Ill (which was pressed as DJ promo 'A' label singles, but ultimately got passed over and replaced by Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now), presented in its original form, and the Dutch release of The Headmaster Ritual housed in its black and white "cowboy" sleeve – the rarest commercially issued single in any territory.
The box is completed with four contemporary badges and a poster featuring the single artworks. All singles utilise the original production masters from the period.
Gracias a Federica Pulla me entero que The Guardian publicó este excelente artículo sobre Mike Alway el pasado 28-11-2008 (anonadado me he quedado con lo de Belter...)
El Records is probably the most English label there has ever been. It never made any money, but it had a thrillingly sly, subversive style. Rob Fitzpatrick welcomes its return
Mike Alway is an exemplary pop theorist because he really, really cares. He will talk about the Archies' Sugar Sugar as passionately as he talks about the records of Jean Cocteau and Peter Cook. In Alway's mind, a good record is a good record is a good record. El, the record label he founded from within the Cherry Red indie empire in the mid-1980s, had a style, an aesthetic and an attitude that one can barely imagine anyone else even daring to attempt. Probably the most innately English record label there has ever been, it was as devoted to great British film-makers and satirists as it was to anything as workaday as pop groups. It never made Alway (or anyone else) much money, but more than 20 years after its first wave of releases were selling just a few hundred copies each in Britain, its sharply delineated pop projects still provoke interest from around the world. And now Alway has reinvented El, turning it into a daring and stylish reissue label that is driven by his desires to save and promote great forgotten music. "I originally came to the record industry as an enthusiast," says Alway, sitting in his sunny front room in Richmond, south-west London. "And part of what enthused me was mystery. I imagined in my green innocence that other people felt the same way." Alway came to Cherry Red in 1980, when label founder Iain McNay hired him as an A&R man. Within a couple of years he'd signed indie royalty in the form of Felt, the Monochrome Set and the Marine Girls (Tracey Thorn's first group) and put together the ground-breaking Pillows and Prayers compilation. Alway's signings dominated the UK indie scene for three years before was tempted away to set up the the first indie-within-a-major, the Warner offshoot Blanco y Negro, with Rough Trade's Geoff Travis, taking Thorn's newly formed Everything But the Girl with him. But he soon realised he didn't have the patience to work for a company that took so long to make any sort of decision, and that being at his bands' beck and call held little or no appeal. Alway left Blanco and started planning a new label. Much time was spent listening to classical music and watching Powell and Pressburger films. "I sensed a way of applying what they did to music. In Powell's books he describes a production team with someone firmly at the helm. I began to see that you could cast a musical project like you would a film or a play." The label began in a fairly conventional manner. Alway signed Nick Currie in his Momus guise, and Bid from the Monochrome Set, but when Currie left to sign to Creation, Alway changed direction and began to look for the artists who would become the characters that would populate the label. It was less A&R work than a casting process. One of Alway's first castings was Simon Fisher Turner, a man whose life story includes child stardom in Tom Brown's Schooldays, taking Robert Mitchum to see Siouxsie and the Banshees, being "the new David Cassidy" on Jonathan King's record label and playing bass for Adam and the Ants. "I was making music in gallery spaces," says Turner, now a respected soundtrack composer. "But no one was really interested in a guy bagging up handmade cassettes with small bits of art and one-off collections of sweets and postcards and cheap toys. I wrote Mike a letter and sent him a cassette. He returned one to me fairly promptly and I went up to their office. He offered me a job [recording] as the King of Luxembourg there and then - I liked that. Instant. Very Jarman." They agreed that Alway could manipulate the work musically and aesthetically as he saw fit and the "King" was dressed by Berman's & Nathan's, costumiers to the London stage for more than 200 years. "He also banned any use of the bass guitar," says Turner. "But having been through a humiliating musical experience with Jonathan King as a kid, it was a delight to have a second chance with Mike. He was a complete control freak, but this control was actually very broad and, perversely, adventurous. There was a lot of fun to be had on El - dressing up's always a gas." The artists weren't the only thing that was dressed up: the look of El was developed through hours spent in junk shops looking at hundreds of old LPs. "These were all the records that people didn't want any more, despite them looking fucking incredible," Alway says. "Everything El was came from a Spanish record label called Belter - if you look at their sleeves you will see El. The only thing I added was this late 50s, early 60s classical music aesthetic. I darkened the atmosphere slightly, to make everything seem more complex." El revelled in its thrillingly sly upper-class style. His artists weren't knuckle-dragging gangs from rough backstreets: they were presented as languorous Vogue models, archbishops' daughters, royalty. There were songs about the British Empire, soufflés, choirboys and stately homes, but there was never the merest whiff of snobbery, just the crisp, lemony cologne of a delicious privilege shared. As Momus would later say of El: "Although it sounds like 'pa-pa-pa' and songs about 'high tea on my country estate', it's actually a blast against almost everybody in Britain." "I used to buy lots of anachronistic magazines and trawl them for song titles," Always says. "I got the King's Turban Disturbance from a column in the Spectator. Cookbooks were good, too. People hadn't written songs about trivial things like soufflés, everything was drowned in this awful bombast. I wanted to move pop music's vernacular on a bit. We were anticipating a Britain yet to come, a more stylish place in line with the Italian and Spanish culture I loved." In 1987, Time Out put El in the list of things that were going to be big in 1988 - "Us and Tottenham Hotspur!" laughs Alway - but press interest didn't add up to any sales in Britain. However, in Japan, El releases were selling between 8,000 and 15,000 each. El was as pretty and as disposable as Japan's own pop culture - everything the UK press and radio disliked was precisely what Japan loved. The influence El had on "J-pop" and musicians such as Cornelius and Pizzicato 5 was enormous, while Kahimi Karie would have a hit in 1992 with a song called Mike Alway's Diary. But time was running out for the first incarnation of El. The losses were too great to sustain, and the label was closed. In the mid-90s, Alway started to get letters from America about El, and plans were hatched to revive the imprint. He knew Cherry Red wouldn't want to invest heavily in new, untested music, so he went back to the LPs that inspired him in the first place. The new incarnation of El means near-forgotten recordings by Sabu ("The Elephant Boy") and Orson Welles, Roy Budd and Al "Jazzbo" Collins, Stravinsky and the Ink Spots. The majority of these artefacts date from a time when it seemed perfectly reasonable to lavish skill and money on an LP of questionable commercial appeal, and each one feeds neatly into Always' master vision of a better world where people dress more tastefully, read more widely, think more deeply and take an interest in the world outside their immediate environs. Four wonderfully odd CDs are released every month, each selling between 1,000 and 3,000 copies. Each is a gem. "We put a lot of effort in the packaging and the sound quality," says McNay. "We do things properly, we pay the publishing, the MCPS to the writers, we make payments to a charity that helps ageing musicians. We're sensitive to where we get the sound from. Ultimately, we just want to put out interesting records." "There is a definite correlation between the original El and where we are now," Alway says, making another cup of tea. "These records informed the original El - we are somewhere between beat, meaning beat poetry, and the hipsters, jazz and the embryonic pop of the late 50s. For me, and for El, there is a future based on the glorious failures of the past. All these amazing records that are so close to being forgotten and there are so many of them. It's not easy, there are economic difficulties to face, but walking on thin ice keeps a man on his toes."
