A History Of Heavenly Records In Eight Releases

Over the past 18 months or so, Heavenly Records has become synonymous with a particular strain of 60s and 70s referencing thought, a new nostalgia if you will. Their current roster – largely comprised of impossibly thin boys with good hair, plucked from the shadowy corners of The Shacklewell Arms – draws on krautrock obscurities and ploughs all possible furrows of the psychedelic spectrum. It’s in the likes of TOY, who’ve already produced two exemplary albums of motorik, Neu!-inflected jams in little over a year, and the glammy, Television sleaze of Charlie Boyer & the Voyeurs on which the label has built its resurgence.

Since its initial birth in 1990 however, when former Creation Records bod Jeff Barrett teamed up with distribution company PIAS (then called Vital), Heavenly’s trajectory has followed a confusingly extreme U-shaped curve.

From initially leftfield beginnings, releasing early, provocative singles from the Manic Street Preachers and basically setting up a bar in Soho (The Social, nee Heavenly Social) in order to give a then-unknown Chemical Brothers a place to play, 2000 saw the label team up with pop juggernauts EMI for a nine-year sojourn to the middle of the road. They put out Doves. They put out 22-20s. And, in 2004, they signed tubby funsters The Magic Numbers – a band so relentlessly wet behind the ears, you wanted to give whatever their brother/mother/lover relationship schtick actually was an en-masse wedgie and flush its four heads down the collective toilet.

Nine years later in 2009, however, EMI ditched them. And, like the divorcee emerging from a prolonged period of drudgery and dishes to realise she’s actually one smokin’ hot piece, Heavenly began to thrive again. On Monday, the label will release its 100th album – Temples’ Sun Structures – and so, to celebrate, we give you a guided tour of the label’s dizzying ups and embarrassing downs, in eight key releases.

Sly & Lovechild, "The World According to Sly & Lovechild" (1990)

With Barrett having moved away from his former label Creation’s shoegaze-influenced roster and putting in time as PR for some of Factory’s Manchester scene-starters, the label boss started looking towards acid house. “The World According to Sly & Lovechild” was Heavenly’s first release and, while it may not be remembered as a seminal 7' for the label, it is notable for its production credit. Namely, one Andrew Weatherall, who would go on to be one of the staple figures throughout Heavenly’s history.

Saint Etienne, Foxbase Alpha (1991)

Following the success of “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” – the Londoners’ dance cover of the Neil Young original – Heavenly put out the band’s Mercury-nominated debut as the label’s first LP release. Fusing elements of indie, dance, house and synthpop, it showcased elements of Barrett’s musical lineage, while also showing the label’s progressive policy. Heavenly would go on to release ten albums by the group between then and 2009.

Manic Street Preachers, "Motown Junk" (1991)

Back in 1991, the Manics were a politically-charged, aesthetically-confrontational, wholly polarizing affair. With slogans including “BOMB THE PAST” and “DESTROY WORK” spray-painted across their chests. Their entire ethos was designed to question, incense and aggravate everything Joe Bloggs held dear, anyone that aligned themselves with the Manics, aligned themselves with the outsiders. Heavenly may only have put out two singles – "Motown Junk" and the brilliantly ironic "You Love Us" – but, in backing the band in their early days, the label established their standpoint from the start.

Northern Uproar, Northern Uproar (1996)

Several years on from their leftfield beginnings, the backing of laddy Britpop also-rans Northern Uproar began to hint at the label’s increasingly populist leanings. Coming at the tail end of Britpop’s omnipresent dominance, the Manchester band were one of a number of second-wave acts attempting to capitalise on the Gallaghers’ men-of-the-people schtick. Their debut, Northern Uproar, peaked at Number 22, while the group disbanded the following year.

The Magic Numbers, "Forever Lost" (2005)

The less said about Heavenly’s EMI phase, the better really. However, special mention does need to be paid to "Forever Lost" – their unequivocal nadir. The debut single by the Ealing quartet with its fey summer feel was the polar opposite of everything Heavenly was meant to be about. Proof, indeed, that money can’t buy you taste. The Magic Numbers would go on to sell a frankly baffling number of records over the following three years, before everyone regained their senses and rightly relegated them back to the bargain bin (RIP Woolworths), around 2009.

Edwyn Collins, Home Again (2007)

One of the rare highlights of this period, however, was the return of former Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins, following two horrific brain haemorrhages in 2005. Initially Collins suffered from severe speech problems and physical difficulties on his right-hand side that would ordinarily lay the prospect of recording to rest. Yet two years after coming out of hospital, Edwyn released Home Again – a heartwarming collection of tracks that not only showed an overwhelming strength of spirit, but also proved that the 80s icon still had more than a knack for a tune.

TOY, "Left Myself Behind" (2011)

And so, to (almost) the present day. TOY may have initially started pricking up ears as ‘those blokes that used to be in Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong’, but it wasn’t long before the quartet’s dense psych swirls and relentless tempos earned them credit in their own right. Impressively, Heavenly were there from the very beginning, releasing this debut single back when the group were still playing to a handful of people at the Old Blue Last, with an initial vinyl run of 100 snapped up in a day. This was Heavenly getting back on form in a major way.

Charlie Boyer & the Voyeurs, Clarietta (2013)

One of the most recent releases to bear the iconic Heavenly bird, Charlie Boyer & the Voyeurs are a sign of the label coming full circle and backing the kind of fringe concerns that they used to be about. One of the best debuts of last year, Clarietta is as glamorous as it is cold, an album that manages to spit out slices of Modern Lovers-esque proto-punk while sounding like it couldn’t give any less of a fuck about what you thought. The 90s began it all for the label and the 00s nearly ended it, but this decade looks like it should be in safe hands.

Follow Lisa on Twitter: @LisaAnneWright

Read more like this:

A HISTORY OF WARP RECORDS IN EIGHT RELEASES

A History of Kompakt Records in Eight Releases