A long time ago in what seems like a galaxy far far away there was a professor's kid from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who grew up in half a dozen different parts of the US and his name was David Bowman or Maready, who was in a few bands, including one with with Kurt Ralske of Ultra Vivid Scene, and then started up a one man band called Nothing But Happiness, up in that New York City, that released a classic single 'Narcotics Day' on the UK Remorse Label in 1985, followed by an LP 'Detour', the following year. You may or may not have heard of them (is a one man band still 'them' or is it 'him'?). Ahhh, but our circle starts to form a year or so earlier .......
Setting the scene 1: The classic 'Narcotics Day' by Nothing But Happiness from 1985.
In 1984 I released a compilation LP on the original Glass Records label, called ‘Shadow & Substance (The Wonderful World Of Glass Vol. 2)’, intended to show the label as part of, or at least allied with, the UK/US International Pop Underworld of the day. Alongside tracks by Half Japanese, Cheri Knight & Bruce Pavitt (of Sub Pop, which at that time was a cassette fanzine type thing), sat ‘Nothing But Happiness’ & ‘King Of Culture’, two connected ‘groups’ that I heard, and indeed met in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1982, through Pam Weiner of Green Records, from Tampa Bay FLA. I used to write to labels or bands I had seen reviewed in Option Magazine back in those days, exchanging discs or tapes with them, which is how I first connected with Bruce, Calvin Johnson, Jad Fair and Pam. Cut to: 30+ years later, Glass Records is ressurrected as Glass Redux, to give me something to do in my old age, and I spot David Bowman on Facebook. Next thing you know he’s telling me about the unfinished 2nd NBH LP from 1991, "Retour', goes off to Seattle to finish it, sends it to me, I love it, and here we are, closing the circle and maybe drawing a new one up.
"Retour" by Nothing But Happiness on Glass Redux REDUXCD011 will be arriving soon.
Setting the scene 2: The b side 'Couldn't Make You Mine' by Nothing But Happiness from 1985.
Glass Miniature is the digital download only division of Glass Redux. Each release is an imaginary 10" Record, with a PDF of the sleeves and labels - just like the real thing, sort of. The Zapple to our Apple. The Nova to our Deram. Perhaps the HELP to our Island.
C'mon down to the Glass Miniature Bandcamp page and do some shopping
Richard Youngs: acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drum machine, electric guitars, percussion, piano, vocals.
Pete Aves: pedal steel on Obfuscation, Grounded Stars In The Afternoon, Fairweather Thoughts.
Madeleine Hynes: heavy electric on Where Are You Going To Get Your Luck From?; backing vocal on All Year Breathing.
Frances McKee: backing vocals on Grounded Stars In The Afternoon, My Fall.
Andrew Paine: handclaps and synth on Like An Astronaut.
Jane Sayer: acoustic and electric violins on Strangest Day On Earth.
Sorley Youngs: lead vocal on Where Are You Going To Get Your Luck From?; backing vocal on All Year Breathing; harmonica on For Too Long, My Fall.
Chord changes are a luxury made possible by technical competence.
Back in 1977 when I picked up a guitar the first chord I learnt was E minor. I could’ve stopped there and written this album. All I needed was a capo and some lyrics. But, tetheredby notions of song craft and aspirations of virtuosity I learnt to play the instrument with greater complexity. Now middle-aged, I would like to think myself able to transcend suchconsiderations.
The first song you hear on this record is in E minor. In fact, it is E minor and nothing else.The next song is F minor - made possible by placing the capo on the first fret and forming the same shape with my fingers one fret up. The song after that is F sharp minor. You see a pattern. It’s a series all the way to the 12th fret and full circle back to E minor, except one octave up. It’s high concept, low technique. fleshed out with vocal melodies and added instrumental flourishes from friends and family.
Learning E minor at the same time as me was Pete Aves. We were the guitarists of pre-teen acoustic punk band The Rejects. Subsequently he has worked with Petula Clark, Lee Hazlewood, Jarvis Cocker, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the High Llamas. Now he’s back working with me.
Madeleine Hynes was one quarter of the avant primitivist Leather Mole.
Frances McKee is still one half of the legendary Glasgow band The Vaselines.
Andrew Paine is a Glass Redux recording artiste and bassist for The Flexibles.
Classically trained violinist Jane Sayer has produced techno records as Johann Sebastian Barking.
Sorley Youngs is the singer and guitarist of The Flexibles.
Guest appearances aside, this remains a collection of songs that can be covered by anyone within hours of picking up a guitar. Liberated from dexterity, all that is required is the holding down of two fingers and a steady strum. At the core of each is one chord. The rest is scenery.
Sleeve Notes for the 2015 CD Remaster of Passionfruit Pastels
Passionfruit Pastels. 32 years later.
Some thoughts by Gary Knight.
The Moment:
Early 1982. We’d just released The Initial Caress and John Peel had been playing it a lot. We were feeling inspired. Cameron and I were itching to go back into Woodbine to record a first album proper and we were lucky enough that Dave Barker was keen to get it out on Glass Records. In fact, it was the first album recorded specifically for the label.
The Title:
Passionfruit Pastels. We felt that the album had a broader, more colourful palette than The Initial Caress. We wanted it to sound that way. Passionate and artistic. And we wanted a title that felt fresh and unpretentious. We were keen for the album to feel like a kind-of antidote to all the stuff out at the time that was dressing itself up in grandiose, bombastic imagery. The fruit pastilles pun thing appealed to us for that reason too.
The Cover:
The sleeve design had to signal all that instantly, of course. As with Caress, we rejected the idea of typesetting and photography and let Claire Johnson express it all with brushstrokes and crayons. Actually, we even rejected the term ‘sleeve design’, we thought it sounded too conventional. We credited it simply as ‘Wrapper by Claire’.
Half-Awake (Mountains):
In contrast to the moody start of Caress, we wanted the album to start with something warm, positive, optimistic. Hopefully, this just sweeps in and instantly lifts you. It does that for me. The words are all Cameron’s, so you’ll have to ask him about them. When I did, he said they were about ‘a liminal state of consciousness’. For me, they just have a wonderful enigmatic feel about them. The funky percussion is by Joby Palmer who’d been our drummer in 3-Way
Dance and used to be my next-door neighbour. He’s on a few other tracks here too. Joby always added really vibrant percussion. And really bad jokes.
Our Star Drawn Through Panes:
This may be my favourite piece on the album. I think it just works beautifully. The writing of the track started as it does here, with me holding down a simple guitar motif whilst swaying around with a set of wind-chimes fixed to the top of the guitar. Cameron then swoops in and casts his spell around it. I’ve never been a musician but I just heard something magical in the combination of the chimes and the notes I was repeating. Cameron paints something special over that. His voice really soars here. Whatever he’s singing about sounds amazing.
We Fail Each Other:
This is maybe closer in spirit to some of The Initial Caress tracks. It’s got a real hymnal quality about it. The words are mine this time. As with Clutching it’s a song about striving for something profound and, in this case, the pain of falling short of that. I don’t know if it was inspired by our experience of playing live…but it may as well have been. Cameron and I only played five times together and we struggled. Playing in a loud, rhythmic, post-punk band (3-Way Dance) was easy. Two young guys playing quiet, melodic stuff felt a lot more exposed.
The Ball Rolling:
A nice way to counter-balance that sorrowful hymn. An instant, upbeat, strumalong. More than a touch of Simon &
Garfunkel here. I remember I was playing their early stuff a lot around then, especially the Bookends album. Cameron on
guitar, of course. Both on vocals. Lyrically, it’s about trying to keep up with a rush of changes in your life. I like the way
we each sing different lists of words at the end. One list is optimistic and one is pessimistic.
Tears Turn Fresh:
The final track on Side 1 of the original album. That mattered to us. We wanted Side 1 to work as a cohesive set of songs and Side 2 to be more unpredictable. Anyway, this is driven by Cameron's wonderfully melancholic piano playing. Originally it was driven by his wonderfully melancholic electric guitar playing which was soaked in a haunting Vini Reilly style delay effect. (You can hear that version on the Glass Redux CD release of The Initial Caress.) Cameron did such a great job of transposing the original melody that we had to go with piano. My holy-hushed vocals are, as you can guess from the title, all about finding joy from despair. Claire’s voice adds a fresh texture towards the end too.
Sun Brings Smiles:
So, Side 2 kicks off with our stab at a bright ’n’ breezy, art-pop song. It sounds very Orange Juice to me now. We bothgot into the early Postcard Records stuff, so maybe that’s where this came from. Joby is in there adding a disco-beat rhythm and a hyperactive tom-tom section in the middle. Cameron is doing the jazzy guitar thing and I’m messing around on his old Farfisa organ. This was released as our first 7-inch single too.
At East:
Now, this is where the unpredictable thing really kicks in. We loved the idea of following the poppiest track on the album with the darkest and weirdest. This starts off sounding like some kind of supernatural death-rite then snaps out of slow-mo into a tribal runaway drum race. I play the inescapable Caribbean drum pattern and the insane chanter pipe wail, Cameron pulls the eerie, suspenseful chords and Joby just gallops away with those thunderous drums. With some wonderful sonic knob-twiddling by John Rivers. To me, now, it sounds like a jam between A Certain Ratio and Pink Floyd. And I love it. Definitely the closest we came to the way we’d been heading with 3-Way Dance. (The original drumless version of this is another of the demos on The Initial Caress CD.)
(Sigh!):
We were after another big contrast with the track listing here. A simple, stripped-back song to counteract the rollercoaster ride of At East. This is just me singing to a bare keyboard. At the time, I think I thought I’d captured a Nico-esque vibe. Now, I find it hard not to cringe. To me, I just sound like a very naive someone over-stretching their ability. And I wish it had been a lot shorter. I seriously considered dropping this track for the CD but some people seem to like the innocence of it and Dave Barker and Cameron persuaded me to keep it in there. The song itself got a kiss of life a few years later when Richard Formby and Joby livened it up onstage a few times.
Tickling The Ivories:
In sharp contrast to the preceding track, this is short ’n’ sweet. Just Cameron creating an effortlessly cool, reflective mood on a piano. And again, throwing a completely unexpected texture into Side 2. Cameron described it as his homage to Neil Innes. I can imagine him playing this in a late-night Jazz bar. Of course, then he’d play something really weird and have everyone quickly downing their cocktails.
To Friends (An Open Letter):
I love the sound and the feel of this. As with the rest of the album, much of that is down to John Rivers, of course. John’s a bit of a genius when it comes to creating drama from very little. For me, the sweeping keyboards and the toy xylophone work really well. Again, though, my voice doesn’t deliver what I was aiming for. This was one of those pieces that were very tough to pull off onstage. Imagine me trying to sing passionately whilst playing a toy xylophone. Kate Bush would have trouble pulling that off.
Caroline, Beginning:
The final track on the original album. Cameron creates a nicely melancholic closer here. I can definitely hear Simon & Garfunkel again. Not sure if Cameron was listening to them at the time himself though. His words are cloaked again. I did ask him about his lyrics in general and he said he was mainly interested in the ‘music’ of them. Which is a nice way of putting it. Anyway…after all the mood swings on Side 2, it’s nice to finish with something thoughtful and soothing.
Bonus Tracks on CD Edition Play In Light:
This was actually the first track recorded at the album sessions. But we decided to save it for the b-side to the Sun Brings Smiles 7-inch single. There’s quite a lot going on here. Mad clapping drum-machine, far-out Farfisa, triple-vocals including Claire and Joby’s frantic percussion. A bit too frantic, actually, as it slips out of time with the drum-machine. Although, I’m sure Joby would insist the drum-machine went out of time with him.
Sun Brings Smiles (Sweetamix):
This also went on the b-side of the single. I think I prefer this to the a-side. It’s pretty similar, just minus the disco drums really. But with more space to feel the guitar, organ and vocals, it just feels more interesting to me.
Half-Awake (demo):
Like the demos on The Initial Caress CD, this was recorded cheaply in a rush at a little 4-track studio (Humbucker in Leicester). It’s rough and ready and, for me, it’s crying out for Cameron’s vocal harmonies that grace the album version. But it’s great to hear more of his original organ noodling. And you’ll notice, the drum-machine doesn’t go out of time, Joby.
The Studio:
Woodbine in Leamington again. This was not just our first full album, this was our first complete session with John Rivers. He’d remixed The Initial Caress but this was us recording with John from start to finish (with engineering assistance by Jonathan Dee). He worked wonders for us, as he always did. We were chuffed to be working with him in the first place. We were, and still are, huge fans of his production work with Eyeless In Gaza and Felt. One of the great things for us was that he wasn’t your typical ‘guy in a rock band’ kind of producer. That was perfect for us because we definitely were not a rock band. He wasn’t thrusting guitars, drums and bass at us. He was adding textures, harmonies and atmosphere.
The Reaction:
I think John Peel played The Ball Rolling, Tears Turn Fresh and Caroline, Beginning. Not sure. But the album is definitely in there amongst his album collection at johnpeelarchive.com. One of three In Embrace albums there, in fact. Anyway… Passionfruit Pastels did get reviewed in Sounds and Melody Maker amongst others. MM described it as ‘Aztec Camera on acid' and made a sniffy reference to ‘bedsit Keats and Shelley’. Whereas Sounds quite liked it, describing it as ‘warm, slightly eccentric yet melodic’ and wondering why we weren’t on Cherry Red. (Ironically, we did end up on Cherry Red for a couple of later singles.) We also had a good response from various fanzines, particularly from Stringent Measures. In fact, Chris Coleman dedicated an entire issue to Glass Records around that time.
The Partnership:
Sadly, Passionfruit Pastels was the first and last album I made with Cameron. This, The Initial Caress, five live performances and that was it. Not much more than a year together but a whole cluster of music that still sounds fresh to me. Amazingly, this was all done with Cameron still in his teens and me barely out of them. We both shared a love of Eyeless In Gaza, Bron Area, Durutti Column, Postcard, Factory, Kevin Hewick, Young Marble Giants, lots of early indie stuff. But Cameron also brought his classical music training and influences like Carla Bley, Joni Mitchell, John Evan and Keith Jarrett. I think my major contribution was probably my obsessive drive for the whole thing. I didn’t have Cameron’s musical talent but I had lots of ideas and this relentless passion for it all. We parted ways because I wanted to throw myself into lots more gigs, no matter how painful they were, and Cameron didn't. We were on different pages and I convinced myself I should push on without him. A shame in many ways but at least we had the chance to make these recordings.
The Gigs:
1981: October 19 - Birmingham, Old Repertory Theatre with Miocene Epoch. November 16 - Coventry, Belgrade Theatre Venue with Eyeless In Gaza. 1982: February 3 - Leicester, The Abbey pub with Kevin Hewick. October 16 - Northampton, The Black Lion pub with Kevin Hewick. November 10 - London, Chelsea College of Art with Kevin Hewick.
Sleeve Notes for the 2015 CD Remaster of The Initial Caress
The Initial Caress: 32 years later.
Some thoughts by Gary Knight.
The Beginning:
We created In Embrace to break free of the guitar/bass/drums/vocals restriction of our previous band, 3-Way Dance. 3WD was a marvellously moody, Post-Punk thing. But we wanted to create music with a greater emotional range andbe able to play around with all kinds of instruments and ideas. In 3WD, Cameron was the ‘angular' guitarist and I was the ‘anxious' vocalist. We didn’t really want to be angular and anxious all the time, it just wasn’t true to our lives. We weren’t enduring strife in trash-strewn cities. We were enjoying life in leaf-strewn villages.
The Name:
I think we got the idea from a magazine article about a Picasso painting that was being exhibited in London at the time - The Embrace. We liked it because it sounded passionate and because we wanted to embrace different instruments,fresh approaches, new ways of writing.
The Concept:
We released this as a ‘Mini-LP’. That’s how we saw it, a short, sharp, debut album. Of course, pretty much everyone else saw it as a 12-inch EP. I guess ultimately it didn’t really matter. These were our first five recorded and released
tracks whatever you call it.
The Title:
"The Initial Caress". I probably came up with it because it signalled that this was a first step and I’m sure I would’ve loved the idea that it held a promise of a passionate experience. Hopefully, the kind that blows your mind and unlocks a world of pleasure. Not the kind that you regret and pretend never happened!
The Cover:
It was very important to us that everything about the sleeve was natural and hand-created. A naive hand-painted design, simple hand-written lyrics and labels. No photography, no typesetting. We wanted something that felt fresh, optimistic, tender, organic. We even extended this feel to the language we used. Instead of something like ‘sleeve design by Claire Johnson. (My girlfriend at the time by the way.) We expressed it as ‘flower and paint by Claire’. A tulip created from a brushstroke and a paint drip. Oh, and a cat’s tail. The smudge on the lettering was ‘created’ by our cat, Splash. We all decided we liked the idea of an added imperfection, so we went with it.
Clutching:
The slow fade-in feels in tune with the organic feel we were going for. This isn’t a track that starts with a catchy intro. It’s a moment of dark drama that swells from the distance to set the scene. I push ahead with the deep synth bass tones, Cameron adds the shimmering piano notes, we both sing like we’re lovestruck time-travellers from a 16th Century chapel. But seriously, there’s a wonderfully moody monastic thing going on with the vocals. I’m sure it threw a lot of people but it was entirely instinctive. Musicians always mention the hip early records that influenced them. What about all those years of singing hymns to organ music at school? That’s pretty dramatic music to expose young minds to. Looking back now, it definitely seems to me to be an influence in our case.
The Air Inbetween:
So, how do you follow a dark, brooding melodrama? Why, with a quirky jazz-guitar instrumental, of course. Ha. That immediate smashing of expectations and clash of styles is something that we wanted to play with. We wanted it to be clear straight away that In Embrace could explore all kinds of moods. Not just moody ones.
Precious:
So, you’ve followed your dark, brooding melodrama with a quirky jazz-guitar instrumental. So, what do you follow your quirky jazz-guitar instrumental with? Why, with another dark, brooding melodrama, of course. This is simply three sustained notes repeating and building over an incessant heartbeat to the words You are all I really need / Emotion: sincere and natural. Which pretty much sums-up what we were trying to achieve here.
Breathless With Passion Explicit:
Ahem. No holding back with the theme here is there? Openly and unashamedly about sex. Actually, not just about sex. I think it was trying to be sex. Or at least an expression of it as a near-religious experience. Still sounds like a brave thing to attempt. This track started life in 3-Way Dance. Well, the title did. It was a line in a song called Union Of Body which featured a whole bagful of percussion instruments and again was about the sins of the flesh. There was a lot of fleshy sin on my mind back then. Of course, Breathless With Passion Explicit sounds a lot more profound than Fleshy Sin.
For Lovers:
The final track on the original record. Another mood, another style but another exploration of love and lust. Cameron’spiano wandering is just beautiful, of course. He just weaves his spell around the moody, repetitive guitar motif I was trying to hold in place on a Spanish guitar. I remember the strings being torture. Kind-of like pressing your fingersagainst a cheese wire for five minutes. But back to the song, I think it’s a nice way to end the record. After all that earnest intensity, it feels like early-morning after a heavy night with a refreshing breeze blowing through the room.
Bonus Tracks on the CD Edition: Clutching (demo):
In contrast to the dark, brooding feel of the final recording, this original version was a little more urgent and driven by a drum-machine. The drum-machine worked well live but it didn’t fit with the natural, organic feel we were aiming for with The Initial Caress. This is one of the stronger demos for me. In fact, I think Cameron might prefer it to the final recording in some ways.
The Air Inbetween (demo):
Still sounds great to me. And I still think Cameron should get around to an album of quirky little instrumentals.
Precious (demo):
Hearing this demo reminds me that this track also grew out of a 3-Way Dance track. The 3WD version was called Dramatic Soundtrack and had a great Jah Wobble style bassline by Peter Dodge with Joby Palmer and Cameron standing side by side pounding out an epic military drum rhythm. I do like the stripped-back purity of the IE version but I wish we’d recorded the 3WD one in a studio too.
Breathless With Passion Explicit (demo):
The deep, bassy, synth line on this has a wonderfully moody growl to it. But I think the piece suffers from the drums being played through the vocal mic and confusion in the mix.
At East (demo):
One of the two demo tracks here that didn’t feature originally on The Initial Caress. I think we were trying to create an eerie, hypnotic, instrumental piece that in our minds would work as a soundtrack to a sinister arty film scene. I definitely think we were successful in creating it. But it could do with a sinister arty film though. We gave this track the full studio treatment on the "Passionfruit Pastels" album (also re-released by Glass Redux) where we added some epic drumming by Joby and some studio effects Pink Floyd would’ve been proud of.
Tears Turn Fresh (demo):
The other track here that didn’t feature on Caress. It’s great to hear Cameron doing his echo-tinged electric guitar thing. It really summons the spirit of Vini Reilly for me. We were both into Durutti Column. I guess my vocals here have that influence too. This also became a key track on "Passionfruit Pastels" where Cameron transposed all the guitar with piano and transformed the track into something special.
The Studio:
The Initial Caress was recorded at Woodbine St. Recording Studios in Leamington Spa in late ’81, I think. I remember that our first day of recording had to be cancelled as my 2CV ran into a huge snow drift on a village road somewhere. The Winter of ’81 was reported as the coldest and snowiest of the century. (Apparently, even The Queen got stranded for hours in a Cotswold pub.) When we did finally get going, the session was engineered by Jonathan Dee. He did a great job but we decided that we wanted to remix everything to give it more drama. We did that with John Rivers who, of course, weaved his magic. John recorded and produced virtually every In Embrace session from then on. Capturing our imagination beautifully every time.
The Studio (demos):
The demos here were recorded at a tiny 4-track studio in Leicester called Humbucker. All very in and out, rough and ready, but were an important step for us. They weren't just the first things we recorded in a studio. They were the tracks sent to Dave Barker that excited him enough to want us on his label.
The Reaction:
Well, in those days, we were devouring the John Peel show every night on radio. I think all we really craved was to be played on his show and maybe reviewed in the music press. The music press pretty much ignored "The Initial Caress" but John Peel certainly played it. Several times. I think he played The Air Inbetween a few times and also Breathless and For Lovers. I remember getting a real buzz when he first mentioned the record. And then a real crash when he said he couldn’t play it because his copy was pressed off-centre. Dave must have rushed one to him because he played it next night and kept playing it. Being played by Peely once was probably all we were hoping for. Being played again and again was unreal. God bless him.
The Quote:
“A most curious work actually but rather effective. You have to hear it a few times I’d venture.” John Peel, BBC Radio 1, May 26 1982.
The Gigs:
Cameron and I only played together five times as In Embrace. (I went on to play many more with other people, of course.) The first three of those gigs revolved around material on "The Initial Caress". Our first appearance was at The Old Repertory Theatre in Birmingham (19.10.81) supporting Miocene Epoch. I can’t remember much apart from sound problems but I was told that Lawrence from Felt was in the small audience. The second date was much more exciting for us as we got to support Eyeless In Gaza at the Coventry Belgrade Theatre Venue (16.11.81). Our performance was notable for a mysterious bleeping noise that was heard throughout our set. It turned out to be coming from Pete Becker’s Copycat echo box. Our third gig was upstairs at a pub in Leicester - The Abbey - with Kevin Hewick (03.02.82). I remember dragging him over to hold down some keys on one of our tracks, probably Breathless, whilst I bashed away on a hand-held drum next to his head. Sorry, Kev. Anyway, the best thing about the gigs was getting to see Kevin, Pete and Martyn Bates play some of the best stuff they’ve ever written. They were brilliant.
The Label:
None of this, then or now, would’ve been possible without Dave Barker, of course. I got to hear about Dave and Glass Records via Richard Formby of Religious Overdose when I was editing the Leicestershire-based music fanzine - 0533. I abandoned 0533 to join 3-Way Dance and when we heard that Dave was putting out a compilation album, we were desperate to get in on it. I remember sending Dave some tracks and him telling me that he would love to add 3WD to the album but he only had about 2 minutes space left on it. So, we quickly rushed into a studio and recorded a short experimental track - Praise The Flames - and squeezed our way on to the Wonderful World Of Glass LP. Shortly after that, Cameron and I walked away from 3WD to start In Embrace. Dave was immediately interested, booked us into Woodbine, got The Initial Caress out and we all dreamed out loud together. We’re doing it again with this CD, of course. Which, amazingly, is the very first time this stuff has been released on anything other than vinyl. You lucky devils. (https://glassredux.bandcamp.com/album/the-initial-caress)
The original Glass Records was a UK Independent record label operated from 1981 to 1989. Created by myself, David Barker, early releases focused on artists from Northampton (Religious Overdose, Where's Lisse? & The Jazz Butcher), and the Midlands (Nikki Sudden, Bron Area & In Embrace). The label released several records by artists having later associations with other London-based labels: Creation Records (The Jazz Butcher and Nikki Sudden & the Jacobites) ; Fire Records (Spacemen 3 and The Perfect Disaster). In other words, I found em first, and they nicked them hahaa.Glass's mainstay acts were The Pastels, (who I nicked from Creation because they wanted to make an LP and Alan & Dick couldn't do that at the time), In Embraceand The Jazz Butcher. The label also issued material by Bauhausmember David J, The Membranes, American Alternative Punk Gods The Replacements, and the influential Liverpool Ur-grunge Walkingseeds.
I closed the label in 1990 to work for Fire Records, creating the Paperhouse label, taking the Walkingseeds with me, also releasing the first Teenage Fanclub album, set up a singles only label Seminal Twang and afterwards moved to Creation Records. But those are different stories for a different day.
GLASS REDUX
I resurrected Glass Records in 2015 as Glass Redux, to reissue some of the old catalogue, unreleased material, rarities, new material from associated and former artists on the label, and cult figures from the International Rock'n'roll underground, past, present & future. DB
The Glass Records Story - Dave Barker - Interview by Iain McNay - 2009
