sarahnewsletter number six So, Christmashas beenand gone, a NewYear is uponus, andthe housestill lookslike 32 people january cameto stay the other night; but I guessthat's kind €94 of 0K, becausethey did - after our ChristmasParty. l,Jerrestill processingreports on the eventitself - exit-po1ls implied those who went for the MUSICfound it better than last time, while those who went for the drunkennauling, onstage-sexand hope of seeing Stewart Boyracer pulled to the ground and snoggedsenseless in mid-bass solo found it a bit of a 1et-down;but you werethe.audience so that's g fault - we did our bit - a festive sweet on the door, the chanceto win a sffindid raffle (wel1, an autographediife-size Father Christmas[he's not a big chap], to be pedantic - you canrt actually win "a raffle" becausea rafflets nore of an abstract concept than an actual thing you can take homeand li!13.i, showpeople), conducivebackground music (thoughapologies for the deterioration in sound-qualitytowards the end - I donrt knowif itrs our cassette-deckor the demo-taDeswe ontlers get nowbeing worsequality lnote to bands:please make sure gfc. demosare at least a C60and D0NiTknock out the little tab things becauseit's annoyingJ,I'm just crossbecause a lot of thoughtwent into it and Ird hopedmy Mudhoney/PussycatTrash/Madonna medley might at least provokesome emotive and constructive discourseon Babesin Rock - not to mentionthe MassiveAttack/Tramway segue instigating a thoughtful re-appraisal of Bristolts place in UKPop; instead, a1l we got wereemotive re-appraisals of whetherTDK or BASFstood up betterin a humidatmosphere) - and 500 balloons frgln a wonderfulshop in Streatham,though it turns out paul Blueboytsgot a balloonphobia, so apologiesto him for anydistress causedby us coveringthe stagewith them. Sigh- other labels havebands with gallopingcoke habits or a fondnessfor deviantsex with miners(itrs the lamps),our bandshave balloon phobias. Andapparently Al i son from BRIGHTERhas a brusse-T-sproutphobi a. So thatrs whyBrighter didn't play - thoughtwe might cover the stagewith brussel sprouts. Like youdo. Hecollects bakelitedoorknobs too, youknow. Scary. . Anyway,it sold-out, ACTIoI{PAIl{TItlG! turned up at the last minute, draped themselvesin fake fur andtinsel andstruck a mix of fear andincredulity into all -watching,BoYnACER forgot to bring their guitars, bass, ampsand eifects pedals,but local heroesThe Beatnik Filmstars lent themtheirs, so a big thank you to them (in truth, it's alwaysgood to haveat least one idiotic band scheduled,because there's never enoughtime for soundchecksand if someone forgets their drumsor gets lost en route you can say it's all their fault), BLUEBoYhad to cut their set short becausePaul was complainingabout three large blue balloonsby the bar that were',lookingat him funny,',and HEAVEilLy's soundmanDick wasflero of the Night for doingthe soundfor everyoneand singing Calvints part on "C Is TheHeavenly 0ption,'; sadly, followin-gMat-h-ew's iet- closing rendition of TheCramps' "Goo Goo Muck',, B0YRACER are refusing to speak to HEAVEilLYever again as suchthings are apparentlysacrosanct (if only they'd witnessedthe Heavrsversion of',Antmusic"in London2 daysbefore..-). One doesnrt'like to tell themthat HEAVEIILYhave been refusing to speakto themfor the past year and a half, just on principle. Andnobody is speakingtdTCTIot{ PAIilTII{G!as - well, you wouldn'treally wantto, wouldyou? AndAmelia gets a gold-starfor strugglingon with horrible flu, havingspent most of the evening asleepon our sofa - yourre lucky reaily the entire HEAvEllLyset wasnrta quick re-hashof PsychedelicJungle topped off with someof cathyrsincreasingly novel interpretations of smurf classics. Moreexcitement lat-er at our ollc! when BOYUICERand ELUEBOYnominated one membereach to patch up their differences, on our office floor of all places; shamethey didn't nominateanybody to mopup too. Ird better not namenames, as Stewart,,James, Keith, Harvey,Paul, Lloyd and Markall say it wouldn't be fair. ACTI0I{PAIt{TIt{c! stayed'up a1l n.ight, someonethrew up on the doorstep(we've written to Unigateto complain- it's the third time this week...) and - ll,ell, thatrs Christmasbinned for another year; to nod thanks if you voted for us in the Festive Fifty - HEAVEilLYTS except "Hef "Go nltti eir'll at 33 took the honours (our own entry was: Jazz", west" and "Razznalazz"- first two alternate for No.1 dependingon what point we're trying "French "She't, to make- plus honourablementions for Disko" and That Dogrs the former disqualified on the groundsthat buying sornethingon Duophonicbecause you like th'e music is like voting BNPbecaus-e they have nice neat haircuts). ,".r.u3l!'l'X'liiirt.i?'lil,1'ffiI',,:';io'oin3[fi.?Hi.S]iiln,neb|s, like sixteengtiii'!1,;:iliru:i.i'i,::iil:i'n::'::':,;;ttlT,,,'7"s list year, so sody6iil Firs ir;HF Eo3stpr-L^-Llaa 7", but the other songs- just over.l1 - ar.eall brand-new;. andit's also out in Japanand Amenica, and therers a launch- Pei9lED ii::{'3:[],il8,I'til"!,i'l,3ill; ol!!']ni,'liili!,loolli'.', - €ta. he's helping out while Moodytsotherwise engaged in Sweden.. Aiso out on January17th is THESTGARGLIDERS'new 7"/CD' SARAH86. Three "Top 40 Sculpturen (bold and brassy, notable also for its sung football- songs, "90 commentary'halfwaythrough - Aussie Rules, presumably), Days 0f Moths And Rust,,and-',yr.Jaci.et". ihen on February14th (Valentine's day - donrt forget!) there's a compilation ("WerreAll Tryini To Get Thereu- SARAH619) of 12 songs chosen from their 6 singles for us, beautifully yet cheaply packaged,and including an index of first lines. Not muchchance of UKdates, Irm afraid' but somegigs in Melbournearound the reiease date if yourre stranded.that way and despeiaie. Sorry, tautology. That LP's anotherthat's coming.out in Japan.. "Tidal February 28th finally brings THE}IAKE's much-delayed tlave 0f. Hype" "Britain" - "Big LP (SARAH6i8), featurin! such wondersas (opening lines: dog tied uo outsid6 suoermarliet/Xenophobicold man waiting for a fight, slightly "I you So" (continuingtheir [allegedJtradition of mentioning oissed...u), Tolil "Solo iolk they Iallegedly] met whilst IallegedlyJ signed to Factory), and a song about the perils of self-obsession. out in the U.S.A. too... Project",- "Rebellion" Then on Maich 7th you get (please) HARVEYltILLIAlilS'solo LP - werre actually in Big Trouble for saying too nuch about this last time but - hell, we just-wantedto rub you all up into a little whimperingbreathless flush of excitement, especially given there arenrt exactly 30-date tours and all the other stuff a record-label has the moral right to expect frotn its artistes by way of promotion. Anyway,itrs 10" across' very thin,. and..featuresa real "St.Etienne" pilno, a real flute, a real violin and a real Ian Catt-producing; and 7 real songs, and a large photo of Harveyon the front. This is the same Harveywho was AI{0THERSUllt{Y DAY and currently guitars for.BLUEBOY,occasionally HIT PARADE,and used to do so for THEFIELD llICE. Again, also out in Japan. IHE "River" Marchshould also see a nel,tBLUEB0Y 7'/CD, featuring (a 6* minute "Hit" Pet Shop Boys epic), the sequencery (another I.catt production)' and '"Nimbus'i(a-scary thing with lots of guitar-weirdness and Keith muttering quietty in'the baikground- snapshotof everydaylife here at SARAH,really....). "Unisex". Followed a month later by their second LP, 12 songs, 3 of them previewedat 0ur.Party and soundingpretty bloody wonderful, esp_eciallythe last bne ("Irnipramine"- ybu'd never guess Keith workedin a hospital). Theremight also be a BLUEBoYsingles compilation in the U.S. on Harp Records... and theyrve just donea live acoustic session on G.L.R., and were most thrilled becausethey got to meet Bill Oddie: "He just camethrough this door...". SlSh. 0ther labels have bands who dream of meeting Keith Richards or Thurston Mgore' qurs feel their life is completeif they bumpinto one of The Goodies... No!',- at the risk of making you explode with awe at the way we rattle off all this international wheeler-dealerstuff iust like we were somethingspecial - our next single should be "Autobiography" by IHE HIT PARADE,licensed from Polystar Recordi of Tokyo. I know a lot of you were a bit baffled by our last HITPARADE7" since (A) you didn't knowwho they/he/it were (B) it was drjppy and (C) it seemedto have a song about the oft-mentioned Harvey on the B-side. Our problemis, we donrt care. Honest- we really donrt give a fuck. But, just for you, a little History: THEHIT PARADEis basically one person, Julian Henry - originally of Gerrards Cross, Bucks, but latterly of Acton' London- who, with help from old school chuns Matt and Raymond,and guest appearancesfrom a still not yet fully-formed Cath Carroll (later of course to find fame and fortune on Factory and marry that bloke out of Big Black), released a string of 7'rs in the 80ts on Julianrs own JSH label, all with rnatchingdie-cut sleeves, picture-labe1s, marriage proposals in the run-offs - and you know - itts memoriesof these 7"s that kind of sumup popmusicin the mid-eighties for me - the way nobodybought them becausethey thought Sonic Youth were better. Which they weren't. Much like you'd all adore lHE HIT PARADEif Julian had an Americanaccent and r.rasmore familiar with 0lympia, Washingtonthan 0lympia Exhibition Centre. I alwaysfeel he's got a lot in commonwith peoplelike Beat Happening,except of course that Beat Happeningare mostly crap. Anyway,THE HIT PARADEthen disappearedfrom sight but eventually re-emergedon the ground- breaking VINYL JAPAN1abe1, from where they stepped up to Polystar and maior- label pop-star status. Our single will be 3 tracks from the bandrsnew Polystar EP (with Ms.Carroll makinga welcomere-appearance) and then, hopefully, werll do their'last LP as well - becausethe sleevehas a nice Dictureof Julian in a red jumper posing FreemansCatalogue style in front of BamburghCastle, and thatts where I went paddling and caughtflu on holiday in 0ctober. One place werve never gone paddling is N.Y.C.rs East River but, just a couple of blocks awayfrom its slimy banks, EASTRMR PIPE, having been wined and dined by every major label in The States (truel) and received every accolade going, from S0TWin MelodyMaker to Albumof the Weekon national TV in lreland, have decided to stick with us becausewerre nice, and are right notrputting the finishing touches to a new eight-song thing l{hichr'll almost certainly include "Hey, I'lherersYour Girl?" from their'last US single... And- I finally ta1ked to Flvlhimself a couple of weeksback, the first time either of us has, so that was... well, kind of wonderfulrea11y. Like it must have been in the o1d days whenyou signed to HMVand finally got to meet the dog. I rememberJohnny Dee, when he did the NMEpiece, thinking us tieird for saying "so whatrs he like then?" after he'd donethe interview. But werre like that - we never met any of THEGoLDEll DAII{ either - except bassist U1ric, who turned up on our doorstep in fluorescent cycling garb one day - but that wasthe mid-eighties all over. And a new EP impends from SECRETSHIllE, who sent us a fantastic new demo just before Christmas, sort of Lush snogs Nirvana, with babies. And since they're nowall back in Bristol, there should be moregigs. 0nly one confirmed so far though: supporting Sleeper at SouthamptonJoinerrs Armson February 15th. Meanwhile ACTI0I{PAII{TIilG!, fresh from getting Radio 1 Evening Session Single of the Weekfor "Mustard Gas" (SARAH87) and somedisturbingly over-the- top live reviews, are nowapparently in the vanguardof the NewWave of NewWave - a movementseemingly dedicated to proving that Fabulouswere ahead of their time - and as such will be doing an NME-sponsoredshowcase at the Powerhauson February 24th, along with SMASH,MANTA RAY and DONELYING DoNE. Theyrre also speeding off (l choosemy words appropriately...) to Londontomorrow for an NME feature, and an EveningSessjon session (?) is in the pipeline. And theyrre wowing PortsmouthWedgwood Rooms with the appalling CoRNERSHoPand rather more appeaiing BREEDon Jan 27th and Brighton Jazz Roomswith'rsomebody Scottish" (John Smith? KennyDalgleish?) on the 29th. The South Coast is a-buzz. As opposedto the X79, which is a bus. To Hartcliffe, not Dublin; but speaking of Dublin, THEHARVEST tIIilISTERSt "Little Dark Mansion"came twelfth in Hot Pressrs Albumsof the Year, and nowtheytre off on a 10 date tour of Ireland sponsoredby Heineken;presumably reaching those venuesother bands donrt reach. And HEAVEI{LYfinally seemto have somenevi songs, pick being the stupendous "SpermMeets Egg, So l.lhat?", so maybea newrecord soon-ish..? l'lhat is definjte is'that youtve almost certainly jult missedthem at Le Gibusin Paris-TJan16th) unless you are amazinglyhip and French, in which case: "Salut!" B0YRACER played to 300 people at Le Gibus a monthago, and apparently somebodyFrench met Dean from SECRETSHII{E (no, the other one) and was so overwhelmedhe exploded. Strangetimes... Haveyou heard about this tunnel thing? Worrying,isnrt it. -tL di,.p;:$1?,3;':1.';5,i:,:nl.?' 13?'i"T:i' ffi , I ffi Ii3?' {,*. ZOqHg9t ;H:.':ll8:.:nilll"'li,8flioi!,,;nflt'nil:.'3f liHl?.ii,'iflli @r[3tti1 signing to SARAHof necessity brings, manyba andshrivet rrom sisht, onty to risezombie-t?fl: lffi: Il;:tt tbw-f65 later arnongthe living-dead of Vinyl Japan. NowVinyl Japan 'i df- s an intriguing label , the purposeof which remainsobscure, STEI but basically it seemsto involve signing bandswe no longer have a use for, or bands for whomwe never actually had a use but about whom they can write things like "... appealingto the sam-eTa-fr-baseas Sarah Records - hangnext to your anorak" (that's from a Slumberlex-confetti] press-release). So, as well as THE HIT PARADEtsLP mentionedearlier, Vinyl Japan now have NORTHERNPICTURE LIBRARY (ex-FIELD I.IICE), ST.CHRISTOPHER,THE SIIEETESTACHE and HAL,who are what used to be BRIGHTER(although BRIGHTERmight also still exist - it's hard to let go). Please don't ask about the cat - shers youngand foolish and easily swayedby the promiseof raw fish. I'lestill write to her... Friday7th Januaryto be precise. A dayof high drama andlow passion. First, BOYRACERdecided to go their separateways for - oh, a variety of bl*tn&r rather unsavouryreasons, plus a coupleof nice savouryones and three that wereactual'ly rather sweet. Stewarthas vowedto carry on in someform... Andthen THE0RCHIDS were involved in a nasty road accident on their way to launch'the net'tLP at HighburyGarage - they hit ice just north of The Border, skidded off the road, down an embankment,rolled over several times and landed in a messof bushes,snow and, I'm afraid, humanblood. Chris and John endedup spendingthe best part of the weekendin hospital in Dumfries (the best part of the weekendis alwaysSaturday morning, I find - I usually go to the library), and the van is written off, but - that aside - I guess they were lucky. Meanwhile,down in London,and in true Kids from Famesty1e, Bob and Harveyknocked up an impronptuacoustic set of FIELDf{lCE songs, including two which they never actually played live as The Field Mice ("An Eariier Autumn" and "l,lrongTurn..."), and everybodycried and huggedcomplete strangers. 0r maybethat was just me. Finally, to makeour weekendcomplete, Dean from SECRET SHII{E(no, the other one) choppedthe endsoff two of his fingers with a Bristol EveningPost scalpel - yet, in true SARAHstyle, he struggled on heroically to complete both their headline gig at the Domeand Saturdayrsevening edition. Moreimportantly, werverescheduled the Garagegig, nowwith THEORCHIDS, BLUEBOY and SECRETSHII{E, for either Feb 25th or March4th - ring us or checkThe Pressto confirm which, but either waynote that the first bandis on at 8.15!!! Wedonrt real1y go in record-shopsmuch because - wel1, Shop becausetheytre full of peoplelike you, basically - don't deny it - so werre generally a bit un-surewhat actually goes fclK on. However,we spotted recently that someshops display CD singles spine-onso that ours, with blank spines, don't sell. And this afternoon, hanging out in Bristolrs brand-newVirgin Segastore, I noticed that whenCD singles are shrink-wrappedyou canrt actually read the back sleeve, as the CDgets in the way;o'l'r; so nobodyknows what theytre buying; so they Soqch.recol'lsl.'?f ii'lid;;fi!:li:tl:F;:i'iiy;; PoDox g!! _-- '!t,i?'li;,,.ffii.r;;*i:i,:i:'FHi;:; bribtol_BSfl Fe tr;::rjiiii:;i.inl,fliii;i,,.lii,;ii onl636q4 :^it3tl'"*:li.liTJ8,vll3i,i'?Tiibyfi:I; prefer'rRevolver",it wasmore - phallic. (sendsae for mail-orderlist, or f'l for next four newsletters...)