Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Punk & Post-Punk
  4. Volume 13, Issue 3
  5. Article
Volume 13, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 2044-1983
  • E-ISSN: 2044-3706

Abstract

Sarah Records was an independent label active in Bristol from 1987 to 1995 famous for its many contributions to the UK indie pop scene from bands like Heavenly, the Field Mice and the Orchids. In 2015, the same year that the named Sarah as the second-best independent label of all time, the founders launched a digital archive to share photographs, press-clippings and other artefacts. While Sarah releases were often dismissed by the popular music press at the time as ‘twee’ – perhaps due to the label’s name and the gender of one of its founders – the archive provides a compelling counterstory (Martinez) of the label as an activist organization advancing political causes through its releases, advertisements and more. This article examines the political legacy of Sarah Records, a label that regularly advocated for feminism and socialism through its releases, by considering how its engagement with the press, its use of technology, and now its archive have worked to enact its political ideals and subvert dominant cultures.

© 2024 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/punk_00252_1
2024-09-03
2025-03-27
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Anon. (2015), ‘The greatest indie labels of all time’, NME, 7 March, https://www.nme.com/list/the-greatest-indie-labels-of-all-time-1341. Accessed 3 July 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Dale, Pete (2021), ‘Slampt, the “fans” and ephemerality: Punk, subject and object’, Punk & Post-Punk, 10:2, pp. 291–305.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Dawkins, Lucy (2014), My Secret World: The Story of Sarah Records, UK: Yes Please Productions.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Duffus, Jane (2023), These Things Happen: The Sarah Records Story, Bristol: Tangent Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Fife, Kirsty (2019), ‘Not for you? Ethical implications of archiving zines’, Punk & Post-Punk, 8:2, pp. 227–42.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Haynes, Matt (2014a), ‘Aberdeen, fireworks advert’, Sarah Records, 13 June, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/aberdeen-fireworks-advert/. Accessed 10 December 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Haynes, Matt (2014b), ‘Five years anniversary advert’, Sarah Records, 13 June, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/five-years-anniversary-advert/. Accessed 10 December 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Haynes, Matt (2015a), ‘Exhibition guide’, Sarah Records, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/sarah/history/exhibition-guide/. Accessed 11 December 2023.
  9. Haynes, Matt (2015b), ‘The Sarah fax machine’, Sarah Records, 11 November, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/the-sarah-fax-machine/. Accessed 10 December 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Haynes, Matt (2016), ‘Heavenly vs Satan ad, NME Feb ‘91’, February 1991, Sarah Records, 27 January, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/heavenly-vs-satan-ad-nme-feb-91/. Accessed 11 December 2023.
  11. Martinez, Aja (2020), Counterstory: The Rhetoric and Writing of Critical Race Theory, Champaign, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Pell, Susan (2015), ‘Radicalizing the politics of the archive: An ethnographic reading of an activist archive’, Archivaria, 80:Fall, pp. 453–72.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Simpson, Dave (1995), ‘Sarah R.I.P.’, Melody Maker, 2 September, p. 43.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Thimsen, A. Freya (2022), The Democratic Ethos: Authenticity and Instrumentalism in US Movement Rhetoric after Occupy, Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Thompson, Ben (1988), ‘Single of the week: “Another Sunny Day, Anorak City”, NME April 1998’, Sarah Records, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/anorak-city-2/. Accessed 1 August 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. True, Everett (1990), ‘Cutie calls! The rise of Sarah Records’, Melody Maker, 4 August, p. 36.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Wadd, Clare (2014), ‘Exhibition guide’, Sarah Records, May, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/sarah/history/exhibition-guide/. Accessed 9 December 2023.
  18. Wadd, Clare (n.d.), ‘Clare, letter to NME (August 1992)’, Sarah Records, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/clare-letter-to-nme-august-1992/. Accessed 27 June 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Wadd, Clare and Haynes, Matt (2014), ‘“A day for destroying things” advert’, Sarah Records, 13 January, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/day-destroying-things-advert/. Accessed 1 August 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Wadd, Clare and Haynes, Matt (2015), ‘Trains and postcards’, Sarah Records, 15 November, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/more/trains-and-postcards/. Accessed 10 December 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Wadd, Clare and Haynes, Matt (n.d.a), ‘Buses and compilations’, Sarah Records, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/more/buses-and-compilations/. Accessed 10 December 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Wadd, Clare and Haynes, Matt (n.d.b), ‘Introduction’, Sarah Records, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/sarah/introduction/. Accessed 10 December 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Wadd, Clare and Haynes, Matt (n.d.c), ‘Sarah Records’, Sarah Records, http://sarahrecords.org.uk/. Accessed 10 December 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. White, Michael (2016), Popkiss: The Life and Afterlife of Sarah Records, New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Wilkinson, David (2016), Post-Punk, Politics and Pleasure in Britain, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/punk_00252_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): counterstory; indie pop; materiality; music heritage; socialism; twee

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test