One From Under the Tree

Did you get any records for Christmas? Santa was pretty sneaky at my house. I was thinking I might get either that Pooh Sticks 7" box or maybe, just maybe, that mammoth Go-Betweens box. Instead, Jolly Ol' St. Nick somehow got a hold of my long shopping list of hard-to-find titles, most of which have been on there for years, and wrapped up a few of those. It was quite a surprise, especially this one featured today since it came in a giant box that I would have sworn was empty when I gave it a harmless little shake. Why so light? Because it was a flexi all by its lonesome.

I don't have too many flexis in the collection. As an indie-pop fan, however, there were so many great releases in the late '80s on this inferior format that I can't help but want a bunch of them. I have written of my slow hunt for everything on Woosh, and my other obsession is collecting the lot on Sha La La. There were eight split singles on the label, and they all came out around 1987. They were distributed in fanzines like Are You Scared To Get Happy?, Simply Thrilled, Baby Honey and Trout Fishing in Leytonstone. Sha La La is often considered the precursor to Sarah Records because Matt Haynes was one of the guys behind Are you Scared to Get Happy? and these flexis. In fact, there are a few mentions of Sha La La on the Sarah site. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"It was important that all the flexis came in proper sleeves; they were throwaway, but weren’t meant to be thrown away."

"Flexidiscs had been around for years, but usually as unsleeved, gimmicky, promo freebies taped to the cover of a magazine. Ours came in proper sleeves because we wanted them to be treated as proper records – albeit records that were the complete antithesis of all the exploitatively expensive 12" singles and emotionally manipulative multi-format 7"s that independent labels had succumbed to in mimicry of the majors (the Sha La La flexis were actually only 6½", just for good measure)."

"And if you’re wondering about the ba ba ba-ba ba catalogue numbers... it's a quote from the coda of Hip Hip by Hurrah!"

A quick look at the bands that appeared on Sha La La are a who's-who of indie-pop legends, including Talulah Gosh, Razorcuts, Reserve, the Siddeleys and future Sarah acts the Sea Urchins and the Orchids. My Christmas present was the very first Sha La La release (ba ba ba-ba ba 001). The one-sided flexi was titled the "Bring Back Throwaway Pop!" EP and was included with fanzines Baby Honey #3, Simply Thrilled #2 and Are You Scared to Get Happy? #3. Mighty Mighty were on Chapter 22 and had already made a name for themselves by being included on NME's 'C86' cassette. They kick off the flexi with an alternative take of their 1986 indie hit "Throwaway." I have wanted this for a long time and even mentioned it on these pages back in 2014. The other band on the flexi is the Clouds. I covered them extensively last summer during my series on the Subway Organization. You can refresh your memory here. More surprises from under the tree a little later.

Mighty Mighty - Throwaway (Throwaway Version)
The Clouds - Jenny Nowhere