Él Records
| él | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1984 |
| Founder | Mike Alway |
| Genre | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Location | London |
| Official website | cherryred |
él is an English independent record label based in London that was founded by Mike Alway, later becoming a subsidiary of Cherry Red Records. Their musicians were characterized by a strong English sensibility, as well as the French influence stemming from in-house writer/producer Louis Philippe. During its original run, él received much press interest, but little sales—except in Japan, where the label became an enormous influence on J-pop acts like Cornelius and Pizzicato Five. The label closed in 1989. In 2005, it was revived as a reissue label.
Alway, who cut his teeth in the late seventies working with The Soft Boys and promoting clubs and concerts in Richmond, south-west London, joined Cherry Red Records in 1980 to work alongside the company's founder, Iain McNay.
Over the next few years he signed many of the artists who would become most closely associated with the label — The Monochrome Set, Felt, Everything But The Girl, Marine Girls, Fantastic Something, Eyeless in Gaza etc. This was widely recognised as a golden period for the label, culminating in the release of "Pillows & Prayers", the budget priced compilation that encapsulated the label's emerging style. It dominated the then prestigious UK independent charts in 1983.
Alway then misguidedly (by his own subsequent admission) formed the Warner Bros. Records-backed Blanco Y Negro with Geoff Travis of Rough Trade, taking several Cherry Red artists with him, notably Monochrome Set and Everything But The Girl. The relationship with Warner Bros. did not gel, however, leading to a return to the Cherry Red family and the high concept él Records, which he had founded as a subsidiary outlet while at Blanco, became his new focus. él combined the technicolor exoticism of Powell and Pressburger with the escapist fantasy of The Avengers. The stylised visual aesthetic of The Prisoner with the dry-witted late seventies British television comedies The Good Life and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Richard Briers and Leonard Rossiter were, to Mike Alway, what Malcolm McLaren was to Alan McGee.
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