Falling A Records is a British

Essex, England Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

-based

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

, founded in the late 1970s by

Barry Lamb Barry Lamb (born 9 May 1963 in South Shields, England) is an English experimental musician. Biography Barry Lamb is an English composer, author and musician. He was born in South Shields, but lived in Holland-on-Sea during his secondary scho ...

and Peter Ashby.,''Record Collector'', October 2011, no 393, page 54 born out of the D.I.Y cassette movement. It owned a shop in

Clacton-on-Sea Clacton-on-Sea, often simply called Clacton, is a seaside town and seaside resort, resort in the county of Essex, on the east coast of England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District, wi ...

which sold new and second hand records, distributed

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

s such as

New Crimes New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

Vague In linguistics and philosophy, a vague predicate is one which gives rise to borderline cases. For example, the English adjective "tall" is vague since it is not clearly true or false for someone of middling height. By contrast, the word "prime" i ...

, Vox, Flipside,

Juniper beri-beri Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

, Blam!, and D.I.Y magazines/

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

including the very first copies of '' Viz''. It also distributed leaflets for various causes such as "anti-

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

" and "anti-

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal test ...

", music and politics being interlinked at the time. It had a roster of several bands on its own label, such as the insane picnic ''(sic)'', Standing Ovation and

Spasmodic Caress Spasmodic Caress were an English post punk/ new wave band, formed by Peter Masters, that played many gigs along the East Coast in Essex, Ipswich, Colchester and London between 1979 and 1984. They recorded a track for the 4AD Records 12" compilatio ...

, as well as cassettes and some vinyl it distributed for other D.I.Y cassette labels including

Cause for Concern Causality is an influence by which one Event (philosophy), event, process, state, or Object (philosophy), object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cause is at l ...

, Subway, Adventures in Reality, Music for Midgets, Third Mind and Colortapes. Many notable bands were distributed by Falling A, including The Cleaners from Venus featuring Martin Newell, the Modern Art, Attrition,

The Pastels The Pastels are an indie rock group from Glasgow formed in 1981. They were a key act of the Scottish and British independent music scenes of the 1980s, and are specifically credited for the development of an independent and confident music scen ...

The Membranes The Membranes are an English post-punk band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1977, the initial line-up being John Robb (bass guitar), Mark Tilton (guitar), Martyn Critchley (vocals) and Martin Kelly (drums).Larkin, Colin: ''The Guinness W ...

and

Wavis O'Shave Wavis O'Shave is a surreal English musician and comedian, who regularly appeared on Channel 4's music show, ''The Tube'' (1982–1987). Description Wavis O'Shave performed many original comedy characters including the cult figure "The Hard", a ...

(also known as Foffo Spearjig). Some exclusive material was recorded for Falling A by The Cleaners from Venus and Foffo Spearjig among others. In 1985, the cassette culture was threatening the fabric of the established music industry, and Falling A's profile was such that it received the largest write up in the annual ''Music Week'' directory of UK record labels,''Music Week'' directory of UK record labels 1985 even more words than

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

. The label is still in existence as of July 2021. It is currently reissuing back catalogue on CD while releasing new music and creating a vast archival resource from all the memorabilia, ephemera and past product in its vaults.

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Cassette culture 1970s–1990s British independent record labels

See also

References

External links