Heavenly – in session for John Peel – March 17, 1991 – BBC Radio 1 –
Heavenly – characterized as a mix of Jangle/indie and Twee, the band came out of an earlier incarnation as Talulah Gosh, and were known for their light and innocent take on things – a breezy and carefree approach, coming just before Britpop hit.
Together in this incarnation for a relatively short time (1989-1996), they had four albums and one e.p. before calling it a day, and had Matthew Fletcher, drummer and brother of lead singer/guitarist Amelia Fletcher not committed suicide, the band may have continued and possibly morphed into Britpop. It was impossible to say, although the decided to carry on for a while, renaming themselves Marine Research before dissolving in 1999. But in their heyday, they were considered part of the C86 scene (A term coined after music paper NME released a cassette-only of indie bands whose jangling guitars and melodic pop tendencies became a code name for Indie). The scene was praised and derided, but came to be pivotal as part of the Indie scene that had developed in the late 80s/early 90s.
This session, for John Peel, was recorded at the BBC on March 17, 1991 and comes around the time of their debut album release, Heavenly versus Satan. Peel was a big fan and supporter of the group, whose sound was guitar-based and whose lyrics were mainly about innocent and unrequited love, much in the same vein as Talulah Gosh.
Although variously regarded as influential and trivial, Heavenly represented the new direction independent music was taking – and for the first time, being taken seriously. Over the years, Indie has come to be a major force in Pop Music, and it’s no longer considered the property of directionless artists as it once was. There was a time that, unless you were signed to a major label, you really couldn’t be taken seriously. Now the opposite has come to be true.
Times have changed, tastes have changed, the business of music has changed immeasurably.
The spirit of music and its ability to move and stimulate . . . not at all.
