Sarah was one of the first labels that I got truly fanatical and collectorish about, diligently buying up all of their releases and doing my utmost to plug gaps in my collection of their earlier releases. I liked the fact that they were so consistent and principled about their business – releasing music that they liked (which, contrary to popular belief, wasn’t all wimpy indie-pop – just some of it…), generally on vinyl, always with an eye on using their records as an opportunity to connect with listeners and push their political or ideological views. Typing that out now makes it sound like a grand affair, but it was always more subtle than that, and I never felt that as a label they were doing anything beyond releasing good music with some interesting additional aspects to the packages.
The Forever People was Greg Webster and Tim Vass of the Razorcuts (and a ton of other bands), and I think that this record was either the only one that they released, or at least one of a very small number. Sarah broke with tradition on this one by using their traditional 7-inch square insert not as a carrier for their own information, but instead to spread a message about Friends of the Earth and the importance of their activities. Indeed, the back of this record’s sleeve states ‘A Friends of the Earth Benefit Recording’, so I presume that some or all of the profits from it were donated to the charity.
This being a later Sarah release (not that that means much now, as it was released eighteen years ago in 1991!) means that they’d moved beyond the lovable wraparound sleeves held inside poly bags, to a more traditional 7″ record sleeve style – with glued-down edges, die-cut record insertion area, the works. Have to say, I always preferred the old poly bags. I liked the idea that each and every record had been placed into a hand-folded sleeve, an insert popped in, and the whole lot placed into a bag at Sarah HQ.