THE STORY OF SARAH RECORDS (Issue 1)

Dear Readers

I'm genuinely excited about this new Sunday series.

It all came about over a quiet pint in a Glasgow pub.  Comrade Colin from And Before The First Kiss wants to use TVV to tell the story of Sarah Records, the most indie and twee of all the indie and twee record labels there have ever been.   And I use indie and twee as compliments.  I won't waste any more time.  Here's the good comrade:-

IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU, SARAH

The best place to start, unless you are George Lucas, is at the very beginning. And so it will be here – from Sarah 001. This new series for The Vinyl Villain will be a complete (well, almost complete) run through the jingle jangle vaults of Sarah Records. Yes, that will be around one hundred postings, although, just to be clear, this series won’t go into much detail about the fanzines. Similarly, I won’t say an awful lot about the thirty or so 10” and 12” albums that were released by the label. Also, and I am very sorry about this, I don’t think I can really talk about the compilation releases either. I hate to be a purist about it all but the focus, for just now, is mostly with the 7” singles. That’s just the way of it, ok? The majority of the postings - but not all - will be ripped from the original vinyl (and flexi-disc), where feasible. That seems to be in keeping with the ethos at Jim’s house and I respect that enormously. Oh, um, and to stop it getting very boring or predictable I won’t necessarily post in chronological/release order and I won’t always feature the ‘A’-side. Ok then, that’s the points of order and disclaimers out of the way. Let’s begin.

Well, let’s almost begin. First some background – I guess that’s quite important, especially if you are wondering who this Sarah person is anyway. As you probably do know, Sarah Records was an independent label based in Bristol and Clare Wadd and Matt Haynes were behind it. The label came about as a kind of natural progression from involvement in fanzine culture (especially with Matt’s involvement in the truly shambolic and/or magnificent ‘Are You Scared to get Happy?’) around 1987. I guess this development is comparable to the way that blog culture today has spawned a few notable record labels (e.g. Song, by Toad, 17 Seconds etc.). The Sarah label was born, with its first release, in November 1987 and then died a very deliberate death in August 1995. Just eight lovely years, all told, and one hundred releases - with a memorable music newspaper advert entitled ‘A day for destroying things’ finishing things off for good. More of that much later on, though (and yes, true, Matt did follow up Sarah with the Shinkhansen label but that, for sure, is another story altogether).

So, where did it all begin? Well, released in November 1987, Sarah 001 is from The Sea Urchins. It was a three-track 7” single and it was ‘Pristine Christine’ that truly shined and was the ‘lead song’, the ‘A’-side, if such a thing ever existed with Sarah (I mean, to the credit of the bands and the label, the ‘B’-sides were hardly ever that shoddy really, certainly a lot better than any of the ‘A’ sides by bands like Kingmaker or, well, Toploader, I don’t know). I’m actually playing ‘Pristine Christine’, on repeat, as I type this out and it still sounds wonderful to me, summing up what the label was all about. As for The Sea Urchins, they formed in West Bromwich in 1986 and, for this release, they were James Roberts on vocals and acoustic guitar, Simon Woodcock on rhythm guitar, Robert Cooksey on lead guitar, Darren Martin on bass, Bridget Duffy on vocals, organ and tapping on a tambourine and Patrick Roberts on drums. They were stupidly young when they recorded this first single for Sarah and, of course, amazingly talented. Together they made a glorious noise and it was a truly fantastic start for the new label. The Sea Urchins will feature again in this series, but only a couple of times more, alas (the average life-span of a sea urchin is not one of its strengths you know – ten to twelve days apparently – though some do get to a grand old age, as much as thirty years. Um, sea-life lesson over.).

And, so, this is where it all began. Tune in next Sunday for more Sarah delights. It won’t be Sarah 002, I can tell you that much. But it won’t be Sarah 50 either (for that was actually a boardgame, called ‘Saropoly’ of course!).

mp3 : The Sea Urchins - Pristine Christine
 
Colin, Sunday June 26 2011