history

"el records is a world where The Avengers' John Steed forever seems to be creative controller and Emma Peel works the A&R department."
Record Mirror

"The melodies, the phrasing, the enthusiasm and ambition are all here plus a mysterious sexuality, a tropic of Ruislip classy vulgarity."
Andy Darling, Melody Maker, March 26 1988

"Alway is a man out of time-part Kim Fowley, part Kim Philby and el is his unashamed indulgence."
Bruce Dessau, NME, March 1988

"Alway is that rare breed - a man who knows a record should always look good."
Jane Solanas , NME, November 26 1988

"There are five ten-inch singles released by el records this week. I had a tape of them all but I lost it. it might be down the back of the couch but I can't be buggered to look. When the man who runs the record label rang, it was easier just to say I'd lost it. "Not to worry," he quipped."Didn't you get the artwork?" Artwork, I thought. He probably meant sleeves so I said yes to this. I knew I had the sleeves because they are pictures of incontinent, studious women in prim uniforms, a muddy man falling off a green horse, some teeth and gums, a hermaphrodite wondering if he/she can fit his/her head into an eggcup and some brown neckties. "Fair enough," said the nice man, "but you're not getting another tape." No skin off my tummy, I thought. I've got singles by the likes of Glen Goldsmith and Madness to dismiss. I mean review... Five minutes later he rang back. "I've got an idea," he said. "and it's a bit saucy". I was immediately intrigued. He suggested I could review his records without hearing them. I considered this a splendid game. The man with the refreshing attitude assured me that the artists in question would be all for it. I was to gaze at the sleeves and write down what i thought the platters might be like. Lambs in aspic. An emeral pollack at half-time with no oranges. Horrible dentists. Nastassia Kinski as Sylvia Plath and the sexy nine seconds in The Battle Of Britain. There's probably some Titian in there as well and lots of Woody in Cheers. Next week we shall be seeing if CBS will agree to a similar evaluation structure. This could be a breakthrough. Oh, and for God's sake buy them if you want to."
Chris Roberts, Melody Maker, March 1988

The social anthropologist Leopoldo Concupisetti identified six essential characteristics of Englishness: snobbism, eccentricity, a love of amateurism, voluntary service, the gentlemanly code of sportsmanship and a kind of eternal boyishness. No better definition of the spirit of él Records could be desired. Odd, then, that by and large Mike Alway's label was spurned by all but a few fanatical Japanese. Or maybe not so odd now that England is better defined by Loaded magazine than Concupisetti's charming formulae. rising from the ashes of my ill-fated involvement with blanco y negro, el's first objective was to establish a highly individualistic reputation that would also charm potential backers into investing in our plan.

those startlingly different, deliberately obtuse first records still sound really exciting. and shp's anthemic "I, bloodbrother be" remarkably achieved "single of the week" in all four national british music papers. though even this outstanding record was ignored by a lethargic radio one to whom the single appeared both offensive and incomprehensible (a reaction that would come to be their pathetic stock response to any el record).

cherry red proved to be the only people with the courage and imagination to finance the label, though I remember taking care not to give too many of the more colourful aspects of our strategy away to their accounts department as we set out to make el a mirage and an exercise in continuity that would stand or fall by virtue of its individuality. I was determined to make records that were spontaneous and imaginative with people of character and often regardless of their musical ability.

in direct contrast to the dreary mediocrity of the prevailing scene, the theme of el records would be escapism into a pop fantasy world which would always be optimism and sunshine. a world oblivious to sordid realities and pre-occupied with life's finer pursuits. so armed with a paintbrush, a map of southern spain, a bottle of chianti, a copy of "pandora & the flying dutchman" and luis bunuel's "my last breath", we set out to confuse, enchant and antagonise as many people as possible.

having been brought up on surrealist sixties fantasies like "the prisoner" "the singing ringing tree" and "the avengers", I thought, how splendid it would be to recreate this meeting of strangeness and dry humour in the context of a record label. a label that I like to imagine was being run by john steed and mrs peel (with the monkees and jackson pollock hovering somewhere in the background!) in an industry that had forgotten artistry and humour our maxim would be "replace money with imagination"

so teenybop idol of my acquaintance, simon turner became this peter pan type figure, the king of luxembourg, jessica griffin, an elegant lyricist who actually worked in the city of london, would be the would-be-goods (a kind of shangri las expelled from roedean) whilst bad dream fancy dress made a psychedelic racket that was akin to the shaggs meeting stanley kubrick over a hot madrass. entering into this spirit of play, one critic described el as "pop that can spell it's name backwards".

we never feared or contemplated failure. though with every record we risked our security to progress-often adopting completely unconventional styles in complete defiance of the eighties - flirting with disaster as we tilted at windmills.

if in england we were treated with suspicion or totally ignored, the reaction of the more cultured japanese was more accommodating as they identified strongly with our vivid, artifactual style. what was seen in the west as pretentious indulgence of "overgrown public school boys" was in japan a funny disposable pop product of beauty and considered thoroughly indispensable. we subsequently made a successful promotion with (unusually for us) live performances in tokyo in october of 1988. almost exactly ten years to the day . . .

but despite international regard for albums of the class of "royal bastard" "the camera loves me" "choirboys gas" "cadaquez" "appointment with venus" and "the red shoes" ; (records which have subsequently come to be regarded as masterpieces in some quarters) we would now be asked by an increasingly intolerant cherry red to account for our commercial failure.

whilst they shared our dismay that quality "hit" singles as memorable as "valleri", "you mary you", "nicky", "trial of dr fancy", "the camera loves me", "guess i'm dumb" and "curry crazy" had sunk without trace, they could see nothing in future plans for the label which included my intention to recruit the superlative children's group hunky dory that would stem the tide of fiscal loss and our alliance was swiftly dissolved.

but a decade on from it's demise, el is more alive than ever and it's influence on today's international pop scene is there for all to see. in japan, the biggest domestic popstar cornelius has claimed that the label changed his life whilst kahimi karie recorded a sublime tribute single, "mike alway's diary". pizzicato five were another successful japanese group to blend some of our visual themes with eclectic musical perspectives. I recall that in 1994, momus returned from tokyo to say that "the el 'look' was everywhere".

at long last el surfaced in the west. shampoo enjoyed a vast success that should have belonged to bad dream fancy dress and popular artists from both sides of the atlantic as diverse as the cardigans, divine comedy, beck, pulp, st etienne and combustible edison apparently drew inspiration from our work. the debatable lounge scene owed as much to our pioneering also and our ideas have infiltrated photography and graphic design. film and television production. even fashion.

so if you want a monument to el look around.

mike alway london october 1998