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The first authorized biography of legendary British independent label Sarah Records.

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From 1987 to 1995, Bristol, England´s Sarah Records was a modest underground success and, for the most part, a critical laughingstock in its native country-sneeringly dismissed as the sad, final repository for a fringe style of music (variously referred to as "indie-pop," "C86," "cutie" and "twee") whose moment had passed. Yet now, more than 20 years after its founders symbolically "destroyed" it, Sarah is among the most passionately fetishized record labels of all time. Its rare releases command hundreds of dollars, devotees around the world hungrily seek out any information they can find about its poorly documented history, and young musicians-some of them not yet born when Sarah shut down-claim its bands (such as Blueboy, the Field Mice, Heavenly, and the Wake) as major influences.

Featuring dozens of exclusive interviews with the music-makers, producers, writers and assorted eyewitnesses who played a part in Sarah´s eight-year odyssey, Popkiss: The Life and Afterlife of Sarah Records is the first authorised biography of an unlikely cult legend.

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Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter One: Songs of Innocence and Inexperience: The Roots of Sarah

Chapter Two: "Let´s Just Communicate!": The 1980s Fanzine Underground

Chapter Three: "How Much Do One Thousand Flexidiscs Weigh?": When Matt Met Clare

Chapter Four: "Come to My World": The Sea Urchins and the Beginning of Sarah

Chapter Five: "A Constant Source of Bemusement and Wonder": The Orchids

Chapter Six: "Another Fucking Harvey Band": The Ubiquitous Harvey Williams

Chapter Seven: "Sarah Records Unequivocally Supports a Fully Integrated Light-Rail Rapid-Transit System for the Greater Bristol Area": Expressions of Civic Pride

Chapter Eight: "A Diary of Sorts": The Field Mice, Northern Picture Library, and the Quicksilver Bobby Wratten

Chapter Nine: "I Sometimes Feel So Lost": Brighter

Chapter Ten: Safe Harbour: The Wake and The Hit Parade
Chapter Eleven: "I Am Telling You Because You Are Far Away": Internationalism and Sarah´s Written Communiqués

Chapter Twelve: "Atta Girl": Heavenly, Riot Grrrl and Feminism

Chapter Thirteen: Sadness is Unisex": Blueboy and "the Best Album" Sarah Released

Chapter Fourteen: An Economy of Ambition: Sarah´s Short-Term Visitors

Chapter Fifteen: "We Had an Outsider´s Perspective": Sarah´s Foreign Visitors

Chapter Sixteen: "A Day for Destroying Things.": The End of Sarah

Chapter Seventeen: The Afterlife of Sarah

The Sarah Discography

Index

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