Heavenly Vinyl, CD & Tape 6 Items

Heavenly released four albums in the early 1990s. Skep Wax Records are going to re-issue all four of them over a two year period. Classic black vinyl. The albums will include a 7" booklet with lyrics and new sleeve notes by the members of the band. Heavenly were one of the pioneers of indiepop. Formed from the smouldering ashes of Talulah Gosh, they took all that energy and attitude and used it to fuel catchy, infectious pop melodies. The influence of 60s girl groups was never far from the surface. This was girl-pop, but with the girls in control. Loved by many but derided as 'twee' by some, Heavenly ignored the increasingly macho environment of the contemporary UK scene and forged a separate path, along with other bands on the Sarah Records label. Later, having co-released their albums on K Records in Olympia, Heavenly toured the US, hooking up with bands in the embryonic riot grrrl scene. Heavenly's quiet feminism became louder and more articulate, and the hostility of the UK music press became irrelevant. Heavenly came to an abrupt and tragic end when drummer Mathew Fletcher took his own life in 1996. After a year's hiatus, the group reformed as the short-lived Marine Research, before going their separate ways musically. Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey currently play in The Catenary Wires and Swansea Sound. Peter Momtchiloff plays in Would-Be-Goods and Tufthunter. HEAVENLY vs SATAN - THE FIRST LP. Recorded in the Oxfordshire countryside, the first Heavenly album was a bid to make a pure pop record. The punk noise of Talulah Gosh had exploded and expired. Amelia had had a go at making a disco hit ('Can You Keep A Secret', subsequently released on Fierce Recordings), which was fun, but wasn't going to trouble the charts. Unbothered by critical or popular reactions, the new band decided to immerse themselves in the creation of a sweet, tuneful pop record. It's true that the punk influences aren't hard to discern (Mathew's favourite band was The Ramones), but it's Pete's elegant guitar and Amelia's m...

Tragic Tiger's Sad Meltdown is Heavenly aka Tiger Hutchence-Geldof's debut album of sorts, cut from cassette tapes of rehearsals mixed with snippets of field recordings. Recorded with contributions from Nicholas Allbrook (Pond), Scarlett Stevens (San Cisco), India Rose & Jacob Diamond.
"I made this cassette in the living room of our house in Fremantle, a seaside town in Western Australia. I had always been shy to sing with others but moving across the world and my ex-boyfriend Nick had given me some bravery. Something about living closer to nature meant I felt creative and open hearted. It was as if the wide open landscape of Australia had finally given my heart enough space to open properly. The recordings are actually just recordings of our rehearsals, I never feel set in how song is meant to be so they usually just come out of me in the moment. My friends playing along with me are luckily all very empathic players and we found a way to play with one another without any structure or plan. It was really moving to create with so much freedom and understanding. Most of the songs are about my sister Peaches who I lost as a teenager so singing them aloud felt very potent but my band always made me feel held"

Vinyl is close to NM! Includes only 3 of the 4 postcards!

Vinyl close to NM ! Includes booklet & original inner sleeve. Seam split on top. Writing on cover.

Skep Wax Records are re-issuing all four Heavenly albums over a two year period, and this is the third instalment, following on from ‘Heavenly vs Satan’ and ‘Le Jardin De Heavenly’.

Each LP includes relevant single releases as additional tracks, a 7” booklet with lyrics, pictures, and new sleeve notes by the members of the band. Altogether, the four albums will amount to a thorough collection of the band’s recorded output.

Heavenly will be playing gigs in various countries in 2024.

The third Heavenly album will be re-released by Skep Wax Records on Friday 2nd February. The re-release will also include all five tracks from the Atta Girl and P.U.N.K Girl 7” singles.

The Atta Girl and P.U.N.K. Girl singles were released in 1993; album The Decline and Fall of Heavenly came soon after in 1994: collectively they show a band that is rapidly expanding its scope. The album veers confidently from high speed indiepunk (Me And My Madness) to cool surf instrumental (Sacramento) and back again to the sweetest indiepop (Itchy Chin). Meanwhile, the singles, which include the band’s most celebrated tune - P.U.N.K Girl – demonstrates how much confidence Heavenly were deriving from their involvement in the nascent Riot Grrrl scene. All the anger is there, the politics are direct and crystal clear – yet the whole thing is still delivered with the sweetest pop melodies. It’s like being punched and kissed at the same time.

The three releases also show how Heavenly had come to feel equally at home in the UK and in the US. The album maybe feels more British, as demonstrated by the Old World irony of the ‘Decline and Fall’ title. At Heavenly gigs in the UK, often playing with other bands on the increasingly influential Sarah Records, audiences were getting bigger, while the bands were finding a sweet spot where anti-corporate understatement and a dismissive attitude to an increasingly misogynist UK Press was no barrier to success. P.U.N.K Girl and Atta Girl on the other hand, are more gleeful, more headlong, and somehow feel more American: they are carried along by the excitement and adrenaline of having found another spiritual home - the indiepunk Riot Grrrl scene that was focussed on Olympia, WA, the HQ of Heavenly’s US label K Records. (K released P.U.N.K Girl and Atta Girl together on one 10” EP.)

Amelia Fletcher and Cathy Rogers were now confidently sharing vocals, sometimes harmonising, sometimes taking it in turns, sometimes singing over each other. Peter (guitar) Mathew (drums) and Rob (bass) had become adept at changing gear from ornate pop to full-on punk, unafraid of genre rules and increasingly happy to make up their own version of what pop music should sound like.

The more delicate, more decorative arrangements of Heavenly’s first two albums had been left behind. The band – or more accurately, the women in the band – were still dogged by accusations of being too fey, too ‘twee’: not Rock enough. But, as the chorus of Atta Girl makes clear, any attempts to define Heavenly by their ‘cuteness’ now received an unambiguous response: ‘Fuck you, no way!’

The fourth and final Heavenly album ‘Operation Heavenly’ will be released later in 2024.

Heavenly were: Amelia Fletcher (guitar, vocals), Cathy Rogers (guitar, vocals), Rob Pursey (bass), Peter Momtchiloff (guitar), Mathew Fletcher (drums).

'Re-issue album includes relevant single releases, a 7" booklet with lyrics, and new sleeve notes by the members of the band. LE JARDIN DE HEAVENLY - the second album. By the time their second album was ready to roll Heavenly were an established part of the Sarah Records stable in the UK and honorary members of the International Pop Underground in the USA, where Le Jardin De Heavenly was released by K Records. The songs on the album are rich with pop melodies and complex harmonies but the band aren't holding back - Mathew's drumming is intense; Peter's guitar flourishes are sharp-edged and loud. There are still elements of the gentler twee sound that had become the band's hallmark (or curse): Different Day and So Little Deserve are winsome, delicate pop songs. But there are also swirls of early shoegaze - Starshy is a dreamy, atmospheric confection heavy with reverb and harmony. And there's a defiant attitude in there too: I'm Not Scared Of You is the sound of a young woman refusing to be cowed by a male bully. It's not hard to see how Heavenly ended up as part of the riot grrrl scene in the US (an encounter that would have a profound influence on the band's later output). At the heart of the album, 'C Is The Heavenly Option' feels like a perfect celebration of Heavenly's transatlantic existence, and the marriage of two indie traditions: Amelia's English pop voice duets with Calvin Johnson's gravelly American baritone while the band alternate between cute melody and all-out thrash. It's a joyous combination. The eight-track album was released by Sarah Records and by K Records. The Skep Wax re-issue of 'Le Jardin De Heavenly' includes Heavenly's third Sarah Records single - So Little Deserve/I'm Not Scared Of You' and the first K Records single - 'She Says/Escort Crash On Marston Street'.