Electric Honey (label)
Electric Honey | |
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Parent company | Glasgow Kelvin College |
Founded | 1992 |
Founder | Stow College |
Distributor(s) | Cargo |
Genre | Alternative |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Location | Glasgow, Scotland |
Official website | Electric Honey |
Electric Honey, founded in 1992, is Glasgow Kelvin College's in-house record label run by Ken McCluskey (The Bluebells), Douglas MacIntyre (Creeping Bent)[1] and formerly Alan Rankine (The Associates) along with students from the HNC/D Music Business course. The label continues to support an artist each year.
The label was described by Uncut magazine as being "The most successful student-run label in the world",[2] thanks to the history of artists having releases with the imprint, including Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol and Biffy Clyro.
Affiliate labels were also run under Electric Honey for a period of time. Gdansk, which released electronic based artists and Root 8 which specialized in world music.
Early years
The label was founded by staff at Stow College with the idea of creating a platform for students in the HNC/D Music Business course, to gain the experience of working first hand with record company operations, while also having a hand in the creation of a thriving music scene within Scotland by releasing local artists. The first release was in 1993 with Baby Chaos, later known as Deckard, and their Buzz EP. Baby Chaos would then go on to receive considerable recognition from their releases with their 1996 album Love Your Self Abuse, being named one of Kerrang!'s 100 Greatest British Rock Albums Ever.[3] The 1995 release of The Moondials, featured Stevie Jackson on guitar, who would go on to join Belle & Sebastian alongside Stuart Murdoch later that year.
1996/2000
Belle & Sebastian
Electric Honey's first success came with the release of the label's first album release in 1996, Belle & Sebastian's Tigermilk, named after a track originally written for, but left out from, the album. Formed by Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David, later joined with Stevie Jackson, Belle & Sebastian formed in Glasgow in early 1996, recording their first demos in Stow College. Murdoch was involved early on with the University of Glasgow's Subcity Radio. Originally limited to 1000 copies on Electric Honey, the album was picked up by Jeepster Records who re-released it in 1999, and is now often cited as a classic influential album,[4] with "The State I Am In" being placed at number 17 on Pitchfork Media's top 200 tracks of the 1990s.[5] Belle and Sebastian recently played a special gig at Winfield House- the London residence of the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Snow Patrol
Originally called Polarbear, Snow Patrol are the most successful of Electric Honey's signings having sold ten million albums worldwide. The band formed in Glasgow while front-man Gary Lightbody worked in the Glasgow venue Nice 'n' Sleazys. Starfighter Pilot came five years before their big selling[6] album Final Straw, and featured Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch on piano and backing vocals.
Starfighter Pilot was later featured on the band's debut album Songs for Polarbears and re-released as a single through Jeepster Records.
Biffy Clyro
Biffy Clyro were signed to the label while they were students at Stow College. In 2000, they released their debut EP Thekidswhopoptodaywillrocktomorrow through Electric Honey, featuring the tracks "57" and "Justboy". Both tracks reappeared on the band's debut album release, Blackened Sky, through Beggars Banquet Records.
Artists
Present
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Past
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Discography
Albums
- Belle & Sebastian - Tigermilk (June 1996)
- State Broadcasters - The Ship and the Iceberg (February 2008)
- Wake The President - You Can't Change That Boy (January 2009)
- Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers - Home and the Wild Hunt (April 2010)
- White Heath - Take No Thought For Tomorrow (June 2011)
- French Wives - Dream of the Inbetween (May 2012)
Compilations
- Various Artists - Big Issue EP (January 2004)
- Various Artists - Thank You For Being You (May 2007)
EPs
- Baby Chaos - Buzz (February 1993)
- Snow Patrol - Starfighter Pilot (June 1997)
- Biffy Clyro - thekidswhopoptodaywillrocktomorrow (June 2000)
- Pupkin - Morning Light (June 2001)
- How to Swim - The Littlest Orgasm (January 2006)
Singles
- "Eight Miles High" (1994)
- Moondials - "Can You See?" (1995)
- "Flow" (1998)
- "Rob Alexandra" (1999)
- Policechief - "Coup De Grace" (2002)
- Odeon Beatclub - "Behind My Eye" (2003)
- Poor Old Ben - "Another Day" (2004)
- Clearfall - ".Sculpt.Paint.Sketch." (2005)
- Wake The President - "Sorrows for Clothes" (2007)
- Wake The President - "Mail Alice" (2007)
- Wake The President - "Remember Fun?" (2007)
- Wake The President - "I'm Sorry" (2008)
- State Broadcasters - "Let's Make T-Shirts" (2008)
- Wake The President - "You Can't Change That Boy" (2008)
- The Kingfishers - "Make Me Sad" (2008)
- Wake The President - "Miss Tierney" (2008)
- Je Suis Animal - "Fortune Map" (2008)
- Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers - "Besides The Point" (2010)
- White Heath - "7.38am" (2010)
- Miniature Dinosaurs - "Fight or Flight" (2011)
- Wake The President - "Elaine" (2011)
- Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers - "Twisted Mile" (2011)
- White Heath - "GG" (2011)
- White Heath - "When The Watchmen Leave Their Stations" (2011)
- French Wives - "Numbers" (2011)
- French Wives - "Younger" (2012)
- Young Aviators - "The Question Is" (2012)
Gdansk
Artists
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Discography
Compilations
- Lato 001 (2003)
- Lato 002 (2004)
- Lato 003
- Lato 004
- Lato 005 (2006)
Albums
- Mellow Sub Machine - Los Machinos Mellos (2005)
Root 8
Artists
- Koshka
- Mungo's Hi-Fi
- Lee Patterson
- Red Road Global Music Collective
- Zuba
- Roddy Hart
Discography
- Welcome (2005)
See also
References
- ↑ "The Creeping Bent Organisation". Creepingbent.org. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ↑ "Belle And Sebastian Say Thank You". Uncut.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ↑ "Kerrang! - 100 British albums by the readers". Muzieklijstjes.nl. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ↑ "Tigermilk". Belle and Sebastian. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ↑ "Staff Lists: The Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s: 20-01 | Features". Pitchfork. 2010-09-03. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ↑ "Final Straw | Get Snow Patrol". Getsnowpatrol.wordpress.com. 2003-08-04. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
External links
- Electric Honey on Facebook
- Electric Honey on Twitter
- French Wives
- Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers
- White Heath
- Stow College