Pink Label • September • Midnight Music

Socks on the Radiator.

Paul Sutton's take on the big Pink thing...

My Nan God rest her soul gave me some Motown records and a record player when I was very young and I loved em.

Met Simon Down in about 1979, in Boston Lincolnshire, my birthplace, at the college of further education. We were more good acquaintances than friends, in fact quite bad acquaintance shortly afterwards as I went out with a girl he'd been casually seeing and he never forgave me and refused to speak to me for about 4 years. He'd moved to London anyway so I didn't give a f**k, and anyway, I had the girl.

The only live musical memories of that period I have is going to see the Laughing Apple (who were Alan McGee, Dick Green & Kenny Popple) in some Lincolnshire village community centre place. Dick had previously tortured parents at our secondary school with his renditions of Free's 'All Right Now' and 'Wishing Well' for 30 minutes with 'Talisman', I distinctly remember his cape. Quality. I think he was my prefect for a while.

Meanwhile I was checking out U.F.O. -things you do when you're young he he. But we all liked the Sex Pistols really. Course we did. We did like Postcard Records though, I thought the first Aztec Camera single was fantastic but have no idea what it was called now. And we had loved Wire since the 70's.

1984 and I was bored so I applied for a job in London and moved to Brixton 2 weeks later. Met Simon the first week when I nipped up the old Fridge to see the Redskins, so we arranged to go for a drink. We did, got absolutely ratarsed in Brixton and ended up in my flat both throwing up the sink. Good night though, and little did I know a precursor for many more to come...

Simon had put out 2 singles on Pink and wanted a partner (in fact he really wanted some money cos he was skint). I had no idea what I was doing but it seemed like a good idea at the time, got a bank loan for £500 and sold my car and the June brides LP was about to be born.

It was around this time that That Petrol Emotion appeared from somewhere and approached me at ULU on a Friday night about putting a single out as Creation wouldn't put them in the studio for 3 months (cos they wanted to record the Bodines instead). They were all going back to Derry the next week if they didn't get in the studio, so we put them in the studio.

Alan McGee had a hissy fit about us nicking his band - the fact is they would have never waited for Creation anyway. They were off. And anyway, it was John O'Neill and he wrote all the Undertones hits, there was no way I was going to refuse. I'd spent far too many drunken nights being stupid to 'teenage kicks' by that point. I just remember sitting in the studio thinking 'Christ, I'm with the Undertones, and they're thanking me for putting their record out'.

Jamie Wednesday appeared around this time also, we saw them once and they were fantastic, like Dexys meets the Fire Engines, which is what we wanted. They were a live act and never got a million miles near their sound on record. Their records were pants but they could cut it when the horns let rip on stage.

The June brides LP got recorded and John O'Neill got a travelcard and a tenner for production (honestly, now I look back I just think 'what the f**k were we doing there?!').

The Wolfhounds had already been signed too. They were great, rough as f**k and angry, a right kick up the arse. And mad too, but in a good way.

So by august of 1985 we were set.

We had the Petrol Emotion 45 and June brides LP's ready for release, and the Wolfhounds and Jamie Wednesday ready to come through straight afterwards.

A young man named Andy Royston interviewed us for City Limits mag and a relationship was born - he became sleeve designer. And did we need him - the June brides LP must go down in history as one of the most appalling sleeves ever 'designed' (and I use that word very lightly).

So I went on holiday to Greece for a couple of weeks and came back and the June Brides and the Petrols had left! Never did find out what that was all about. But that was when it stopped being fun all the time and some kind of order had to come in.

June Brides and Petrols were riding high in the indie charts and we sold 15,000 of the brides LP's in 6 weeks which was astonishing in those days, first indie band on the front page of the NME, praise from all sides (only we knew they'd f**kin left). Somewhere around this time Pink became a limited company and Simon's brother funky Ed was involved.

Also around this time got a 7" sent from McCarthy by bass player 'Jake Ray', which was John the bass player, wedge haircut and Curtis Mayfield records Essex boy. I thought it was great. Simon hated it. Problem. Signings had to be mutual.

After being told repeatedly by Simon (and the rest of the world) that I was wasting my time, I went off to their rehearsal on a miserable wet dark Sunday night at East Ham football club and was an hour late. They were still waiting outside the station in johns VW camper van. Good lads. Plugged in, played a song that lasted all of 30 seconds then stopped and they went 'what do you think?'

I though they were the best band I'd ever heard (ironically they reminded me of Wire's Pink Flag) and told them so, to which one of them replied (I think it was Gary) 'but even our friends don't like us'. I declared there and then that if Simon didn't agree to a Pink signing I would manage them and get them a deal elsewhere. Everyone said I was mad but I was not going to be moved so they were signed.

Put them on supporting the Wolfhounds the next week and they blew everyone away, lo and behold Creation were trying to sign them and Simon admitted he was wrong. They were so young and fresh. I mean, Malcolm couldn't sing to save a note and they were all over the shop, but they were great, about 14 songs in 20 minutes and off. Got asked for an encore and they didn't have any more songs so they did 'Red Sleeping Beauty' twice.

Put them in a West London studio, did some demos, they were awful. Nobody told them you have to tune the instruments first.

Got approached by the NME to do a comp they were giving away called C86, so we had to use one of the McCarthy tracks, and the Wolfhounds recorded a new tune (they had recorded their first 12" by this point (hands up who remembers L.A. Juice').

The NME overkilled the whole thing making up some poxy scene that didn't exist. We hated it, it was the worst thing that ever happened, horrible wimpy bands with lisps and fey strumming singing about some bollocks about sweetshops or something. Utterly reprehensible and against everything we stood for. Could they not tell the difference between Tallulah Gosh Gosh and 'Red Sleeping Beauty'?????

Meanwhile the Wolfhounds get lumped in with it when they're like Eric Burdon on mescaline fronting the MC5.

Mention should go here to the guitar playing of Ding and Clarky, Clarky was a left handed guitarist who learnt to play on a right handed guitar. Without reversing the strings. Genius.

Ding was a metal fan whose nose touched the floor when he bent over to play onstage. And of course Callahan's hatred of jeans resulting in red shirts (complete with fag packed in the shirt pocket), brown 3-piece suit and plastic key ring hanging from the trouser belt side loop at all times.

They were one of the most exhilarating and 'f**k you' live bands you could ever see. And 'Anti-Midas Touch' was a great riff.

Some memories?

Coming back from a weekend away in Cornwall after a couple of gigs paid for by some Arts Council, back of a transit, pitch black, freezing cold, pissing with rain, hole in the van roof with an umbrella up to keep the rain off us and the gear, no sleep for 2 days, passing round a bottle of whisky and listening to a Robert Johnson tape.

And if I recall, I lost my shares in the Pink Label in a game of cards - still want em Ding? they're yours.

Being in a hotel in Germany after being on the road for weeks, sharing a room with Martin Stebbing and him coming out of the toilet saying 'shit, I've just pissed blood' so we decided to be healthy and not drink at the gig that night. And woke up the next morning and thought 'God, this is what its like not having a hangover'.

Neo-Nazis turning up at a gig in a French chateau for the soundcheck.

Having a very very pleasant but completely disorganised French tour promoter who kept ringing up saying 'err.. The gigs cancelled tomorrow' when you're stuck in the middle of nowhere in France (leaving me to tell the Wolfhounds and McCarthy the good news).

And as a result kidnapping his tour guide (Marcel?) and taking him to Switzerland and refusing to let him go back to Paris until we got the money we were due so we could break even on the tour.

Stenaline Ferry - end of a weekend gig in Paris - a knife fight between 2 of the Wolfies over a lump of cheese. One of them had some bread but no cheese. The other had some cheese and wanted to keep it. Things were getting a bit tense by this point, it was near the end...

'you had to be there' moments

Hotel in Holland - 'anybody want a bun'.

Hotel in Paris - Div giving the hotel a panoramic red paintjob all down the front from the top floor window.

EMI Xmas party - I'm not saying what Callahan did behind he secretary's desk but I think he could have been arrested for it.

Doing the dying fly in some club in New Cross. Every week.

PAUL SUTTON
Pink Label Founder

The only difference between our wolfhounds and our daughter is our daughter can ask "why", but I have a feeling if our Wolfhounds could talk, that would probably be their favourite word!