Some Records was a British

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 ...

owned by

Stevo Pearce Stephen John Pearce, commonly known as Stevo (born 26 December 1962), is a British record producer and music industry executive, best known as the owner of indie record label Some Bizzare Records. Biography He was born in Haverhill, Suffolk. He ...

. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of ''

Some Bizzare Album ''Some Bizzare Album'' is the first compilation album issued by Some Bizzare Records. It was released in January 1981 as a sampler of the label's musical ethos. The acts were not signed exclusively to the label at the time. Information The album c ...

'', a compilation of unsigned bands including

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher (musician), Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists ...

Soft Cell Soft Cell are an English synth-pop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. The duo consists of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball (electronic musician), David Ball. The band are primarily known for their 1981 hit versio ...

The The are an English rock band from London, formed in 1979 by singer-songwriter Matt Johnson, the only constant member, and often the sole member. achieved critical acclaim and commercial success in the UK, with 15 chart singles, seven reaching ...

Neu Electrikk Neu Electrikk are a British experimental music group that were based in Croydon, England, and who formed in 1978. Band history Neu Electrikk stood apart from many of the synth dominated bands of that era. Their inventive approach touched on ...

and

Blancmange Blancmange (, from , ) is a sweet dessert popular throughout Europe commonly made with milk or cream, and sugar, thickened with rice flour, gelatin, corn starch, or Chondrus crispus, Irish moss (a source of carrageenan), and often flavoured wit ...

History

1981–1989

One of the first bands that Some Bizzare worked with was

B-Movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

. After working with B-Movie the label achieved notable success with Soft Cell, an electronic duo whose ''

Mutant Moments ''Mutant Moments'' is the debut EP by synthpop duo Soft Cell. Only 2000 copies were pressed, originally by Big Frock Records, then later by a Japanese fan club, making the record extremely rare and prized by collectors and fans alike. The duo, wh ...

'' EP

had championed in '' Sounds''. After Soft Cell signed to Some Bizzare, he went on to manage them, under a deal with

Phonogram Inc. Phonogram Incorporated was started in 1970 as a successor to Philips Phonographic Industries, a unit of the Grammophon-Philips Group (GPG), a joint venture of Philips N.V. of the Netherlands and Siemens AG of Germany. It was a holding company f ...

Their cover of "

Tainted Love "Tainted Love" is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of American group the Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1964. In 1981, the song attained worldwide fame after being covered and reworked by British synth-pop du ...

" topped the charts. In the early eighties, Stevo Pearce gained a reputation for being a maverick. He licensed The The's ''Soul Mining'' album to three different record labels: after delivering the album to Phonogram he then took it from them and sold it to

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

, then sold it on again to

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. The one recording was sold to three companies, each time signed off for the best deal by the companies mentioned. ''Soul Mining'' was eventually released in 1983. The The released further albums with Some Bizzare, including '' Infected'' in 1986. Matt Johnson from

also recorded with Some Bizzare act

Marc and the Mambas Marc and the Mambas was a new wave group, formed by Marc Almond in 1982 as an offshoot project from Soft Cell. The band's line-up changed frequently, and included Matt Johnson from and Annie Hogan, with whom Almond worked later in his solo ...

. Later acts on the record label's roster included Cabaret Voltaire,

Psychic TV Psychic TV (aka PTV or Psychick TV or several other aliases) were an English experimental music, experimental video art and music collective, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and Scottish musician Alex Fergusson (musician), Alex ...

Test Department Test Dept, sometimes credited as Test Department is a British industrial music group from London, England, that was one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by the use of "found" materia ...

Einstürzende Neubauten (, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimental music group, formed in West Berlin in 1980. The band currently comprises founding members Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals, guitar, keyboard) and N.U. Unruh (custom-made instruments, percussion, ...

, Coil,

Swans Swans are birds of the genus ''Cygnus'' within the family Anatidae. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometim ...

, and Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel. Many of these bands were included on the label's 1985 compilation album ''If You Can't Please Yourself, You Can't Please Your Soul''.

1990–present

Some Bizzare built a reputation for madcap behavior. For example, during the nineties Stevo Pearce's offices, based in Mayfair, included a private

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

and

confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of people – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information that ...

box for would-be-signings to go through the solemn hand-over of demo tapes. Stevo was also partial to aggressively insulting young record shop employees at this time, should they be unfortunate enough to be working in a shop that sold Coil's recordings (the recordings that they made money from at that period in time). 2001 saw

compile a new compilation album titled '' I'd Rather Shout at a Returning Echo Than Kid Someone's Listening''. It included the

track "God Shaped Hole", recorded by the newly reformed band. The compilation also saw the inclusion of two tracks recorded by Cabaret Voltaire's

Richard H. Kirk Richard Harold Kirk (21 March 1956 – 21 September 2021) was an English composer, musician and producer. He is best known for his work in electronic music, and for co-founding the influential music group Cabaret Voltaire in 1973. As a solo art ...

. Between 2001 and 2005, Some Bizzare's output was minimal. In 2006, Some Bizzare signed acts

the Dark Poets The Dark Poets are an industrial music group who originally rose to prominence with their soundtrack for Alex Chandon's cult horror movie ''Cradle of Fear''. The ''Cradle of Fear'' soundtrack was released by Silvascreen Records in the UK and Sil ...

, Monkey Farm Frankenstein, Meka and Mainstream Distortion. The compilation album ''Redefining the Prologue'' was released in October 2006 to mark the label's 25th anniversary and provides an overview of the label's output. This album coincided with a Some Bizzare exhibition at the

Horse Hospital The Horse Hospital is a Grade II listed not for profit, independent arts venue at Colonnade, Bloomsbury, central London. Its curatorial focus is on counter-cultural histories, sub-cultures, outsiders and emerging artists. It organizes undergroun ...

arts venue in

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The exhibition included original artwork from bands like

and

. 2007 saw Some Bizzare Records sign some new acts, including

Pedro INF Pedro INF (born Pedro Granja De Carvalho) is a Portuguese electronic music artist, currently signed to Some Bizzare Records. Background Pedro INF is an alterego of Pedro Granja De Carvalho, a musician whose main style can be categorized as ID ...

, a Portuguese dance music producer, and UK artist

Kontour Kontour is an English electronic music artist, signed to Some Bizzare Records. Background Early work included recordings of distorted telephone calls and late night television. He uses a range of vintage recording equipment and analog synthesise ...

, releasing the album ''

Scanners ''Scanners'' is a 1981 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan. In the film, "scanners" are psychics with unusual telep ...

''. These new artists were featured on the ''Some Bizzare Double Album'' compilation released in 2008. The album featured 32 new artists discovered on

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

. Other acts included Risqué, who were a French/Welsh electronic group made up of Nathalie and Huw Williams. Their music consisted of robust driving rhythms and ethereal vocals. They record their music in a studio based in Barcelona. Huw Williams is a well established producer working with bands like "Rubikon" and "Rookie". The album ''Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down'' was released by Some Bizzare in August 2009. The band

actively discourages purchasing any of their releases from Some Bizzare or their American licensee, Thirsty Ear, as they have been and continue to be sold without paying any royalties to the band. The label is now effectively defunct. The website has been offline for several years and there have been no releases. Pearce's whereabouts are currently unknown. The label's catalogue is now sold through

One Little Indian One Little Independent Records (formerly One Little Indian Records) is an English independent record label. It was set up in 1985 by members of various anarcho-punk bands, and managed by former Flux of Pink Indians bassist Derek Birkett. In t ...

. Stevo has since resurfaced alongside the new Some Bizzare Book "Conform to Deform", written by Wesley Doyle which released in February 2023. It has been said multiple times in recent times by Stevo that the label is due a revival via a new development which is being created internally by a team of developers.

Name

The second word of the name is spelt "Bizzare", not "Bizarre". Pearce said: "I like ambiguities. It's Some Bizzare, spelt B I Z Z A R E. The idea of the label was to be aware of people's expectations and do the opposite almost."

Some Bizzare artists

Agnes Bernelle Agnes Bernelle (born Agnes Elisabeth Bernauer; 7 March 1923 – 15 February 1999) was a Berlin-born actress and singer, who lived in England for many years, then Ireland. She appeared in over 20 films and also made stage and television appearanc ...

Bizarre Inc Bizarre Inc were an English techno/house group. Formed in 1989 as a duo between English DJs Dean Meredith and Mark "Aaron" Archer (not to be confused with the film producer of the same name), they later re-formed as a trio consisting of Me ...

* Coil * Dave Ball * Echo City *

FM Einheit Frank-Martin Strauß, better known as F.M. Einheit and also known as Mufti, (born 18 December 1958, in Dortmund) is an industrial and electronic musician and actor from Germany. While primarily known for his percussion work with the influentia ...

Foetus A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Prenatal development is a ...

Marc Almond Peter Mark Almond (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist of the synth-pop/ new wave duo Soft Cell. He has a distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He has had a diverse career as a ...

* Satanicpornocultshop *

Test Dept Test Dept, sometimes credited as Test Department is a British industrial music group from London, England, that was one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by the use of "found" materia ...

The Dark Poets The Dark Poets are an industrial music group who originally rose to prominence with their soundtrack for Alex Chandon's cult horror movie ''Cradle of Fear''. The ''Cradle of Fear'' soundtrack was released by Silvascreen Records in the UK and Sil ...

* Wiseblood * Unmen

Discography

Footnotes

; Explanatory notes ; References

Bibliography

* * {{Authority control British record labels Record labels established in 1981 Electronic music record labels Industrial record labels Synth-pop record labels New wave record labels Post-punk record labels