Sha La La Records
Sha La La Records
Independent DIY distribution took many forms with the advent of ‘punk’ and the off-shoots it produced. The most well-known and successful of these was Rough Trade’s Cartel. This itself was preceded by the hugely pioneering — and often overlooked — Bizarre Distribution (sometimes rendered Bizzare and other variations), set up in London by Skydog’s Marc Zermati and record shop owner Larry Debay.
The NME C86 cassette, however, opened up the genre of ‘indie’ to a wider audience and, as a result, many of the associated bands — and those they influenced — spawned a new generation of homemade distribution ideas.
One of these was the Sha-La-La record label, a small but influential collaboration between several UK fanzine editors. Modest and quietly pioneering, its uniqueness lay in distributing flexi discs via regional fanzines.
The very short lived label offered starter homes to many of the best bands of the genre, including The Orchids, Clouds, Bachelor Pad, Sea Urchins, Razorcuts and Baby Lemonade.
I spoke to Jim Kavanagh of the immaculately presented Scottish fanzine, Simply Thrilled , and later Egg Records to get a better understanding of how everything linked together.
Grant McPhee: I’m really keen to know about Sha La La. It’s often mentioned as a predecessor to Sarah Records but my understanding is that it was actually a collaboration between yourself, Matt Haynes and other fanzine writers. How did this tie-in with your fanzine?
Jim Kavanagh: Although other fanzines got involved later on I always regard Sha La La as myself, Peter Williams (Baby Honey fanzine), David Payne (Trout Fishing in Leytonstone fanzine) and Matt Haynes (Are You Scared to Get Happy). As Matt went on to Co-form Sarah, Sha La La obviously gets referenced heavily in that respect and he was very much a driving force.
It was all very informal - each of the fanzines made suggestions for bands to include. Most of it was mutual although it fair to say there was a couple of inclusions I personably wasn’t too keen on. (And no doubt vice versa). Which fanzines carried what flexi just seemed to happen dependant if some one had seeded the idea and when a zine was due to come out. It was all very slow time with letters back and forth.
Grant McPhee: Can you tell me how you came to be involved?
Jim Kavanagh: I was selling these other fanzines in Scotland and vice versa, others selling mine down south. We covered a lot of the same bands. So there was an informal collaboration. Matt told me about the idea in a letter and I immediately liked it. It got a lot of momentum earlier on, Single of the Week in the music press (The Clouds, Baby Lemonade) and a feature in a Sunday supplement, Peel etc. When Peel read out my address on air I got hundreds of letters, totally confusing my parents.
Grant McPhee: I’m assuming it was you who was responsible for bringing the Scottish releases to the label?
Jim Kavanagh: There was a high percentage of Scottish bands. I proposed these in many cases but can’t take full credit as the bands themselves sent out demos etc. but as things progressed it was obviously easy for me help the Scottish bands get things together.
Grant McPhee: Egg Records, was this an extension of Sha La La? And how did the label come to be?
Jim Kavanagh: At a certain point the fanzines/flexis had run their course hence it was a natural progression. I didn’t have massive plans for Egg, just went with the flow. I guess the hope was to release a great bunch of singles and have a roster of a few great bands. I hadn’t expectations of albums or managing bands or of it becoming a job or anything like that.
While not as widely recognised as other Sha La La offshoots such as Sarah Records, Egg released some equally wonderful slices of indie-pop including The Prayers, Bachelor Pad, Church Grims, Submarines, Baby Lemonade, This Poison! and the Hardy Boys.
And Sha La La remains a key progression in post C86 indie-pop - wonderful releases with a very unique and innovative form of distributing them:
