él Records

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él
Founded1984
FounderMike Alway
Genre
Country of originUnited Kingdom
LocationLondon
Official websitewww.cherryred.co.uk/product-category/el/

él is an English

Louis Philippe.[2] During their original run, él received much interest from the press, but not a huge number of sales, except in Japan, where the label became an enormous influence on J-pop acts like Cornelius and Pizzicato Five.[3] The label closed in 1989.[3] In 2005, it was revived as a reissue label.[2]

Overview

Alway, who cut his teeth in the late seventies working with The Soft Boys and promoting clubs and concerts in Richmond, 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 —

UK independent charts
in 1983.

Alway then misguidedly (by his own subsequent admission) formed the

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
.

él's playful humour and highly visual aesthetic spoke to the Japanese and was a significant influence on the

Keigo Oyamada
.

Although Alway had recruited a cast of performers he would describe as the best English pop writers of their generation —

The King of Luxembourg
), critical acclaim was not matched by sales and in 1988 the project was abandoned.

In 2005, él reinvented itself (again under the Cherry Red flag) with Alway applying his eclectic taste to the restoration of historic editions;

film soundtracks, jazz, and flamenco guitar, Brazilian and Indian recordings, vocal and Modern Classical
music

Nicholas aka Nick Wesolowski, drummer with The Monochrome Set (formed by members of the original Adam and the Ants) led design and layout for the label, and worked as photographer for él Records.

Selected list of él artists

Original label

Historical label

See also

References

  1. ^ El - Homepage, archived from the original on 21 February 2012
  2. ^ a b Sullivan, Caroline (10 March 2015). "Cult heroes: Mike Alway invented a parallel England with perfect eccentricity". The Guardian.
  3. ^ a b Fitzpatrick, Bob (27 November 2008). "Music to watch soufflés by". The Guardian.
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