The Art Attacks<\/strong> \u2013 Punk Rock Stars<\/a><\/p>\nA great compilation of recordings from 1979 until 1981 UK Decay, The Wall and The Art Attacks\u2026great stuff. Also some Cuddly Toys and Family Fodder for good measure\u2026What more do you want?<\/p>\n
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The seeds of Fresh Records were sown in Alex Howe\u2019s Wretched Records stall in London\u2019s Soho Market in 1978. Alex also ran a mail-order service, and demand from other shops for the Buzzcock\u2019s \u2018Spiral Scratch\u2019 EP led him to start Fresh Distribution. Bands such as the Art Attacks, Second Layer, UK Decay and Manufactured Romance came to the stall looking for an outlet for their records. Alan Hauser joined Alex in 1979 bringing his Parole Records label with Family Fodder, Cuddly Toys, The Wall and Bernie Torme to set up the Fresh Records label, and the roster quickly took shape.<\/p>\n
A quick glance at Sounds venerated AIternative, Oi Oi and Futurist charts discloses a healthy cluster of waxings from Fresh Records bedding down with releases from other independents. UK Decay, Family Fodder, The Wall, Cuddly Toys, Manufactured Romance, Dumb Blondes and The Dark \u2026 a large number of brain screwing, provocative, enjoyable or excruciatingly painful offerings arrive at our (now even more luxurious} offices from Fresh each week. Fresh are typical of an \u2018Indie\u2019 going places fast. But will the smell of success turn into another corporate stink?<\/p>\n
Time for an insight-style probe.<\/p>\n
Alex \u201cDon\u2019t quote me on that\u201d Howe is label boss, catalyst and hustler. His deceptive \u2018need a drink or some sleep\u2019 image hides a very sharp mind, and an obscene amount of physical energy. He\u2019ll have a chat while dealing with a publishing agreement, and hold three phone calls simultaneously. Then go and bop to a fave band till four in the morning.<\/p>\n
His running partner Alan \u201dyou\u2019ve caught us at a busy time\u201d Hauser. Alan\u2019s the label manager, a diplomat who\u2019d turn \u2018no shit, meathead\u2019 into \u2018we wouldn\u2019t look too favourably on that\u2019. He can put on that pained expression, like he\u2019s got the whole weight of the record business on his shoulders, and have a grin over a pint seconds later. That comes from risking life, limb and overdraft on a band called Raped and a record company Parole.<\/p>\n
In the office, where you couldn\u2019t swing a gerbil let alone a proverbial cat, it was hard to tell who was staff and who were band members. Who did what?<\/p>\n
\u201cCharlie Casey\u2019s ex Menace and now our distribution manager and organises gigs. Phil, from The Dark, is on telephone sales, Graham Combi\u2019s a nutter and supplies the shops and John\u2019s Knight is my trouble shooter well, the person who glues the phone back together when I get annoyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other group members could be seen generally helping out and getting artwork for labels and sleeves together. \u201cEvery outfit does their own artwork we try and make the organisation mutually self reliant\u201d.<\/p>\n
So far, all seemed OK if not actually beautiful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe advantage of having musicians around is extra ears! They\u2019re in contact with the gig scene, can get opinions from other bands, and give us a much more objective view than if we just had one A&R who had to be levered out of his office\u201d. Alan signifies agreement.<\/p>\n
So how did these widely differing personalities team up?<\/p>\n
Alan formed Parole Records to release material by Raped. \u201cThings started to get serious in late \u201978. Other companies refused to touch the band shocked puritanism could describe their reaction!\u201d<\/p>\n
My eyes misted over at the memory of that first pair of bondage pants down the Roxy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were other bands like The Disturbed and 4 Kings that I wanted to put out, and before I knew it I was doing twenty different jobs and trying to look confident when I went to my bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Alex was starting a record shop, working in close association with Rough Trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was little more than a pre-fab garage, really wretched, hence the name Wretched Records. I knew a few street market sellers, had met Alan some years before, and I was able to get some of his records on the street\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pause for a quick argument over who did what.<\/p>\n
The conversation drifted round to various \u2018Indies\u2019 \u2013 Small Wonder, Rough Trade and it seemed as if there was a bit of an old boys network going on, eh Alex?<\/p>\n
\u201cErr, yep but it\u2019s a positive thing, things evolved around that time a lot of like minded people suddenly decided to do it, and help each other out. We were able to form a network, outside the majors, without the hassles of rivalry which plague the large companies. I don\u2019t want to sound all clinical about this, but combining a retail shop, mail order, your own distribution and finally a label is a perfect, self supporting format. Point is, we\u2019re young, enthusiastic and are totally behind the music. Being a businessman isn\u2019t a consideration. We\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Would Fresh sell out to a major, or do a licensing deal?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re both agreed never. Because there\u2019re all these \u2018Indies\u2019 working together now, we\u2019ll be in a very strong position within six months. We keep in contact with Rough Trade, Red Rhino, Revolver, Discount and Inferno, and we can cover the whole country and keep costs down. EMI were amazed when I told them we broke even on under 2000 sales.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rough Trade have a reputation of \u2018letting the music sell itself and not following through with their acts. What\u2019s the Fresh approach?<\/p>\n
\u201cRough Trade have got this policy I respect and they\u2019re genuine in what they do. Afraid I\u2019m more aggressive. Just look at the stunts the majors pull to break\u2019 acts, cut-throat tactics, and if we\u2019re too passive, people won\u2019t get a chance of alternative music\u201d<\/p>\n
(First Published in SOUNDS November 15th 1980)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dumb Blondes \u2013 Sorrow \/ Cuddly Toys \u2013 Someone\u2019s Crying \/ The Igloos \u2013 Octopus \/ Family Fodder \u2013 Savoir Faire \/ Cuddly Toys \u2013 Madman \/ Wilko Johnson \u2013 Back In The Night \/ Bernie Torme \u2013 All Day And All Night UK Decay \u2013 Unwind \/ Manufactured Romance \u2013 Times Of The Life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-downloads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5526,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions\/5526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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