A-Side: 101 Dam-Nations
B-Side: What Is This Thing
Parlophone R 6058
Producer: Tony Clark / Haydn Bendall
Released: 10/09/82
Purchased: 29/12/82
my writing is more like James Joyce’s than Scarlet Party‘s music is like The Beatles. Trying to sound like the mop-tops is the definite kiss of death for any aspiring combo because they end up sounding gammy and nauseous and are in the waste disposal before you can say The Pleasers or The Knack or The Rich Kids or . . . (NME, 16/10/82)
PAUL DU NOYER meets EMI’s new ‘Fab Four’, Scarlet Party
US, SOUND LIKE THE BEATLES? AW SHUCKS . . . REALLY? WELL I NEVER . . .
TWENTY LONG years since ‘Love Me Do’ and EMI are making sure we don’t forget. All about the company’s HQ are posters proclaiming the anniversary. Meanwhile EMI’s newest signings — another mop-topped young quartet, as it happens — ponder their own publicity and wonder if EMI have “Got the two promotion campaigns mixed up”.
But it’s hardly EMI’s fault that Scarlet Party conjure up some Beatley ghosts. Listen to their single ‘101 Dam-Nations’ (and its uncannily ‘Revolver’-ish B-side) and cop the visuals too: spectral Lennonesque vocals, harmonies and hooks, Chelsea boots, ’66 revisited all the way. Then you read their biog: straight from school to do Hamburg’s Star Club and strip joints, signed to Parlophone, an LP in the can at Abbey Road studios.
“Coincidences, really,” shrug these East End boys —brothers Graham and Steven Dye on lead vocals/guitar and vocals/bass respectively, plus Sean Heaphy on drums and Mark Gilmour on lead guitar. They will admit to massive ’60s influences — but, Graham, what about the way you sing? Surely more than coincidence?
“Er, I’ve decided it’s cos I’ve got the same shape head as Lennon, the same ‘ooter. It acts like a sound box.” Besides, they only opted for Parlophone, they say, because they liked the colour of the label. And EMI wouldn’t let them set up their own (to be called “Scarlophone”).
Hmm. Still, much as they’ve walked into them, these Fab Four comparisons are starting to get on Scarlet Party’s wick. So let’s add that the songwriting Dye brothers are a potential hit-machine of catchy originals. EMI are certainly hoping so — new signings are a rarity there in these recession-scared stingy days. And a documentary spot on the band on Nationwide the other week helped get the publicity ball rolling.
After Hamburg, the SPs made for the London pub circuit, playing Beatles covers (“we had to, to get the gigs”) and even did a stint at Cabaret Futura. By and large, they kept outside of the new psychedelic fuss. Just how original Scarlet Party’s pop vision is remains to be seen—the first album should get released early next year. If all else fails, at least they’ll be in time to play the odd 21st anniversary party. (NME, 09/10/82)
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