We’ve got the date function turned off on these posts, because it’s generally not really relevant. Just for the record, though, we’re posting this at 8pm on 28th August, 2015.
Category Archives: Brighter
La Nuit Pop de Sarah, Lausanne, 1990 (flyer)
A night in Lausanne, Switzerland, where I’m not sure we’d ever sold a single record. We also didn’t know, till we saw the freebies on the door, that it was sponsored by Marlboro. “Le décor vous appartient” translates roughly as “the decor is owned by you” – I’ve no idea what that means, but I’m sure Alison from Brighter would love to know who owned the bit of decor that split her head open during soundcheck. She still played, after a trip to Lausanne A&E, but in a bit of a painkiller haze, so probably didn’t notice the mass pogo that broke out when Brighter started, and stopped seconds later when everyone realised they weren’t the Damned. All very peculiar. But probably what you’d expect from something that used the words “happening” and “jam session” on a flyer.
Mojo misses the point
You wouldn’t think it would be possible to misunderstand us to such a large extent in such a small number words, but obviously Mojo‘s whole raison d’être is to completely miss the point of everything about pop music, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. This is from a feature called Nuggets which judges records according to how much idiots are prepared to pay for them. And he’s right, of course… if only we’d put as much effort into making the records good as we did into making them collectable, we wouldn’t have been forced to give up at SARAH 100 and take out hugely expensive adverts explaining that the label was no longer financially viable. Noah’s Ark is fantastic, by the way – as music, I mean, not as an investment opportunity.
Blueboy, Brighter, Boyracer @ The Royal Park, Leeds (poster)
A poster from what people later referred to as our alliterative period, which lasted for much of October 1992. The Royal Park was in Headingley rather than central Leeds, and my main memory is of someone trying to sell me drugs within five minutes of arriving for soundcheck that afternoon. That’s actually my only memory, to be honest, but that has nothing to do with the drugs. The cat is Jessica, and that’s our fence (again: garden, not drugs).
Brighter, Around The World In Eighty Days (Melody Maker, July 1989)
Brighter, Laurel (Graham Linehan, Select, June 1991)
Brighter, Laurel (Dave Jennings, Melody Maker, May 1991)
Four bands at the Fleece & Firkin, Bristol, April 1990
Bit of a legendary gig, this, partly because of our own mad decision to try to have a 4-band line-up on a Sunday night when licensing laws meant that everything had to be done by 10.30pm. It was only Brighter’s second-ever gig, the Field Mice played as a duo of Bobby and Harvey as Michael couldn’t make it, and Action Painting! (who were in the audience) got into a fight with the Sea Urchins who carried on playing even after the lights had gone up… pretty good entertainment for £2.50, I think you’ll agree. Happy days.
Click here for the review in local listings magazine Venue.
Flyposting, Upper Belgrave Road
Flyposting was never fun; having to go out in the middle of the night with a bag of posters and a bucket of paste, ready at all times to run or duck into a shop doorway if you heard a police car. This poster is for a gig in May ’91 at our local pub, The King’s Arms. The house with scaffolding is 45/46 Upper Belgrave Road, aka Sarah HQ (the basement, not the whole house).
Brighter, Even As We Speak, Hit Parade @ Camden Falcon
Poster for Brighter, Even As We Speak and the Hit Parade at the Falcon in Camden Town (corner of Royal College Street and Jeffreys Street, and the main Camden pub venue in those days – it’s now flats) on January 31st, 1991; this would be Even As We Speak’s first trip to the UK, and before we’d released our first Hit Parade single.