Category Archives: Poppyheads
Sarah Records launch gig (poster)
A poster from October 1987 advertising what was essentially a launch gig for Pristine Christine and thus the label itself, with the Sea Urchins and Poppyheads supporting Bristol’s Groove Farm (who designed the poster – I keep meaning to have a word about that missing apostrophe in “Bristol’s”) at the Tropic Club down on Stokes Croft, which is now all craft beer and cupcakes but back then was mostly secondhand furniture shops and ciderpunks trying to cadge 10p for UHU and Bulmers outside the anarchist squat in the old Volkswagen showroom on the corner of Ashley Road (see also: Have You Got 10p?, debut single by The Ejected on Bristol’s Riot City Records, home of Vice Squad). I’m rambling, but I thought you might like some context. I know I would.
Are You Scared To Get Happy flyer
A flyer for issue 6 of Are You Scared To Get Happy and its two Sha-la-la flexis, one of them the Poppyheads’ 4-song Postcard for Flossy EP – yes, a 4-song 6½” flexi. The Poppyheads later recorded for Sarah, obviously, while Remember Fun had two tracks released by Egg and a retrospective EP on Matinee. Emily’s 4-song Irony 12″, meanwhile, was not only the 50th single on Creation but also much heavier than our flexidisc, as many journalists pointed out at the time.
A barn somewhere near Cambridge, 1988
l-r: Andrew Zurek, Nigel Blackwood, David Barbenel, Rob Young
Sarah Records launch @ the Tropic Club, Bristol
A flyer for the the label’s launch gig at Bristol’s Tropic Club in October 1987 (i.e. the Sea Urchins and the Poppyheads supporting Bristol’s own Groove Farm) and the release of Pristine Christine the following month; the flyer was handed out at an earlier gig at the Tropic. Impressively, it seems, people were already calling us Bristol’s favourite label. Or maybe that was just us…
Sha-la-la and Kvatch flexidiscs
These were the flexidiscs we released with our fanzines prior to setting up Sarah; the Sea Urchins appeared on two flexis, one with Kvatch (Cling Film), one with Sha-la-la (Summershine). The Orchids, Talulah Gosh and Poppyheads also had Sha-la-la releases (From This Day, I Told You So and the Postcard for Flossy EP respectively). It was important that all the flexis came in proper sleeves; they were throwaway, but weren’t meant to be thrown away. (In case you’re wondering, Sha-la-la was a flexdisc label, with the discs distributed via various fanzines, chiefly Are You Scared To Get Happy?, Simply Thrilled, Baby Honey and Trout Fishing in Leytonstone.)