Vinyl Destination

This is only the second Sarah Records release so far that’s come up as a candidate for my witterings on here. That’s quite a surprise to me. As I’ve said before, Sarah was one of the first record labels that I pointed my fevered collector attentions at, and as such there are a lot of Sarah records squirrelled away on my shelves. Not a full collection, however – that milestone is as yet to be reached (and if anybody has a mint condition copy of The Sea Urchins’ ‘Pristine Christine’ they’d like to donate, get in touch…)

Shortly after the time of this record’s release, I became aware that Sarah were holding some kind of Christmas party knees-up in Bristol, and that it was being held on the day of my birthday (22nd December, by the way, for the SARAH 1 donaters out there). At the time, I was relatively naive about things and unable to travel far beyond what was easily reachable by train, let alone making my way to an event that would necessitate some kind of late return home or – shock – working out somewhere to stay for the night. (I wasn’t a thunderously rock’n’roll eighteen year old, at least in terms of travelling outside of Shropshire). However, this party seemed so inviting, and I felt it was fate that it was being held on my birthday. Being a skint, but innovative young chap, I decided to work up the courage to phone up Sarah Records, and nervously ask if I could have a free ticket, y’know, being as it was going to be my birthday an’ all. To my delight and surprise this was agreed to by a very friendly Clare Wadd! But. It never worked out. I didn’t sort out any kind of travel or accommodation plans, and so my birthday came and went as normal, with no indie-pop celebrations! Ho hum.

That party was being held on the Thekla in Bristol, a stationary boat containing a venue. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve since made it to the venue, to experience one of the most intimidating gigs of my life so far. It’s funny that within the time that had passed between around 1991 and around 2005, my listening tastes had gone from twee, super-melodic indie-pop music to utterly brutal, scream-drenched cavernous drone. That was never planned!