You are quite correct in surmising that the Sarah Records roster was generally favourable to my ears, though not all of them. I was never a great fan of Amelia’s vocals, though I liked the more recent stuff she did as The Catenary Wires. As a Belfast resident sadly many bands still give us a swerve and I tend to reserve visits to Dublin and across the Irish Sea to those must-see acts.
The Sugargliders are one of the Sarah bands that I have explored as they morphed into The Steinbecks (well worth getting to know). They in turn led to the introduction to a number of Aussie Indie bands through exposure to the Popboomerang and Lost & Lonesome labels, including, most notably the wonderful Lucksmiths.
Yep, I don’t think too many Sarah acts toured Ireland back in the day, presumably with the exception of Dublin signing The Harvest Ministers. Also hailing from Dublin, Brian is the Sarah act that never was, depending on whether you believe the legend that frontman Ken Sweeney turned down a phone offer to record for Sarah on the assumption it was a prank call.
I have a few Steinbecks tracks but still prefer the plenty-from-little ingenuity of the Meadows brothers’ Sugargliders incarnation, to the tune of owning all six of their Sarah 7″s, the Marineville-released single which preceded those, and the International Pop 7″ EP to which they also contributed a track.
Plenty of Lucksmiths in this household, too, and my brother and I were in the audience for their last ever English gig (and penultimate UK one) back in July 2009. London Scala the venue, support from Allo, Darlin’ and Daniel Kitson, the last-named their most dedicated and obsessed fan. IIRC Daniel split the sets from the two musical acts with a stand-up set with more poop gags than you might expect from such a cerebral performer.
Tali White of the Lucksmiths is a cousin of Sugargliders/Steinbecks siblings Josh and Joel Meadows, I understand. Small world!
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.