Malco, Emery and Mallia release threEPeople – YEAH!

We’re not trying to get you to spend ALLLLLL your money. Honest! But the gods of late August/early September have let it be known that they prefer a primarily Alcopop diet – and a damn fizzy one at that. See, not only are we mere days away from announcing another Johnny foreigner release (srsly im lrning lex spk too) – but we have perhaps one of our lovliest offerings in some time… Out today!

To sum up the story behind it (in a nutshell), our lovely new lady Katie Malco was keen to get out and see the sites during a summer tour of gardens, small festivals and such – so we hooked her up with two of our most beautiful boys in Warren Attika State and Matt Emery Stagecoach – booked a few shows and sent them packing. So far they’ve met ferrets in Capel, battled football hooligans with melody in Kingston – even partying in Bristol with spaghetti a-plenty.

To celebrate such endeavours, all 3 of them got together, recorded some lovely lo-fi songs with the help of Warren’s cat (seriously, you can hear her on the end of Warren’s Frank Turner esque belter 6 shots) – commited them to CD and digital locations – whilst all 3 artists and I (with Lady PoP) hand painted 25 sleeves each for putting them in. All individual, you’ve got owls, flags, kittens and even a picture of Warren looking very much like a sugarpuff monster. Voila! The threEPeople (clever name huh, yeah.. Thanks Elliott Morris)

You don’t know what you’re going to get – but you do know it’ll be bloody lovely! Available now from the PoP Shop for just 3 sheets, you can’t lose… You really can’t! Special Matt Emery related prize to anyone who snares the owl cover art (below).

ALCOPOP! TURNS 50 with a jacket and compilation

So – even though it kinda seems like yesterday that Kev and I got home from watching Midget in Stamford and kicked off Alcopop! Records – bizarrely… We’ve been going a whole 49 releases (and 5 years to boot). This is, quite frankly, wonderful and truly humbling for us, and its with great thanks to all you awesome people who regularly support us and the stonking bands we’re putting out – that we’re about to hit the 50th milestone… Alcopop050 down, and plenty more to come!

It’s been a really nice time for us, sitting back and taking stock on what’s been before, going through all the old photos and generally recapping on everything we could remember in the last five years – but we’ve got a massive year ahead, so there will be a few moments of nostalgia before hammering on with details of ALCOPOP050 baby! Up for sale now!!!

First up – names and deets – basically this badboy is coming out on CD and Jacket (yeah, physical wear it out summer jacket) and is called ‘We grew up on a diet of Jurassic Park and Sensible Soccer (and all we have left is this lousy record label)’, It contains 17 tracks from just some of our awesome bands from the very beginning (Emily by Encyclopedia) to the present day (including the as yet unreleased A Casting Call by LightGuides). Full track listing here. All up in the shop now and artwork features (as you’d expect I guess) dinosaurs, Streetfighter II and Sensible Soccer – and also has loads of photos on the inside of well – Team PoP! Bands, Kev and I, you lot – and one of Lomana Lua Lua for reasons that will become clear ☺

CDs are cool and all, but because we bloody love exciting stuff too – we’ve taken a nod from our (well, Jack PoP anyways) fabourite label ever Fierce Panda, and created our very own Alcopop050 jacket. They’re being produced as we speak so excuse the crap artist rendering in the shop (that was mine – ahem) but they’re made by Dickies, hand embroidered with the Alcopop logo, as well as featuring a New York Cosmos style Alcopop Records patch. They’re very limited to 50 and available in S, M, L or XL.

They will be fairly pricey (£30 with comp CD) but these are real expensive to make, and are ace quality… However, because we love you guys we’re also offering a ‘I’m a bit skint’ version too – where we’ll be offering the jackets + CD pack for exactly cost price. It’s not a limited discount, just to make sure that whether you’re skint or rich – if you want a PoP jacket + comp CD, you can damn well have it ☺.

Other than that can we just say, thanks for sticking by us for 50 releases – and here’s to 50 more!

Lend us your face! (for our compilation)

Ah a blog at last, and with it…. Some begging love letters. We need you! So please indulge us dear Popping heroes.

See, We’ve been going almost 5 years now (seems like yesterday we started) and in June time will be releasing our 50th release! This is exciting for us in all sorts of ways, and so we’ll be putting together an aweeeesssoommme compilation called We grew up on a diet of Jurassic Park and Sensible Soccer (and all we have left is this lousy record label). And we need you.

Inside the CD we want to include photos of Team PoP (AKA YOU) being ace. Ideally they’ll be pop related (spinning a frisbee, wearing a tee, dancing to My First Tooth or drinking a Hooch) but if not, just your handsome visage is enough. We’ll slap them all on the inside of the case, and forever and a day you can show your friends and say… Dear brother, I was there!

So if you want to be involved, send us a pic to info@ilovealcopop.co.uk. We’ll do the rest

2,500 followers on Twitter = Gifts for all :-)

Oh my! Just realised last night we were a mere 7 shy of 2,500 followers on Twitter… And so, with the magic of the night time and a few new followers (including the awesome @jackhayter – ex violinist of Hefner and current solo star on Audioantihero Records)… we’ve only bloody gone and got there!

Seems reason enough for a celebration to me – so being a penniless indie who don’t have the resources to print 2,500 gaudy tees proclaiming you’re in the pop gang, we’ve instead procured an exclusive track from Stagecoach (Giles remix by Rob Lintott that sounds like a spicy lemon jelly!!!) and got a rather tasty 15% discount voucher for you for the PoP Shop from this link here - just in case you fancy a flutter on any of our fine goods over the next couple of weeks. Plus the first 5 orders we receive today will all snare themselves a 4 track Candle Thieves Sunshine Song promo.. Just for fun you know

But the main thing today – is just to thank you all for being involved. We really appreciate your support, love and continuous kindness towards the label.. Rockin

Stagecoach Huw Stephens Radio 1 session…

We’ve always loved Huw Stephens here at Alcopop. Maybe it’s his edgily beautiful face, genuine passin for the music or the fact that he seems to hold us in some high regard (that and he’s a genuinely lovely guy) – but he really did exceed himself last Wednesday when bustin out some serious Stagecoach in session larks! Camping in at Chop’s (Mandolin) extravagent Londonshire pad armed only with chicken and the odd booze or two we got going with some strong Radio 1 action.

Ah it was awesome! And true to form, Coach boshed out some cracking tracks – and got all of that raucous rock down baby! Giles, Tazers, Ice Age and ouch! A brand new one called Tony Hawk…

Listening is believing yes - so follow the link for TIMES. Chapter 2 is the bit all about our lovely Dorking darlings, or listen to the whole show for a 2 hour treat.

Thanks Huw, you’re the best…

Alcopop sign Johnny Foreigner

Been a real strong year thus far, but would you believe – it’s about to get stronger… As I can proudly announce that Alcopop Records have signed the magnificent Johnny Foreigner! ‘Ave it….  Welcome sweet Alexei Berrow, Kelly Southern and Junior Elvis Washington Laidley to Team PoP – where they will be releasing a brand spangly new EP come November entitled ‘There When you Need It’. It will be on 12” (so much vinyl – yum) and digital, and look like a groove-riders wet dream I promise you.

What’s more *deep breath* is that they’ll be teaming with our very own Stagecoach to hit the road in November in a mammoth tour of the UK – accompanied with a <this news is being announced in a week or so… Sorry> which is so awesome it will have to be heard to be believed. I’ll say no more at this stage, other than to say that I never realised Little Matty Coach sounded quite so much like Kelly.

A band that need no introduction I’m sure, we’ve long been big fans of JoFo (in fact we were chatting way back when before that TV/ massively funded record label thing got in the way) – so it’s an absolute delight to start working with them now. They have lots of fans with tattoos and stuff who make JoFo cakes and things… This is ace, and I hope they’ll all be happy wondering through the world of Alcopop too on their never-ending JoFo adventure. Yo! Hello… Do treat em’ good lovely poppers J

Customary to the way we like to do things here at Alcopop, look out for a nice free track for you over the next week or so, but in the mean time – why not watch Salt, Pepper and Spinderella…. And know that the new stuff a-coming is perhaps even better. So excited!

There’s a PoP storm a coming! And penguins chasing butterflys

After the hailstorm of releases on the good ship Alcopop in May, June and July it may seemed to have fallen a little quiet in the month of August. But fret not good poppers, for while Kev and I may have all the appearance of having chucked our lot in for the summer to take well earned breaks of booze and burnt BBQs, nothing could be further from the truth – well… It could, but not many things.

You see, we’re actually busily preparing for what could possibly be the 3 busiest months in our history, and while it’s not all ‘out there’ yet – I can confirm *deep breath*… We’ll have two new really, REALLY exciting signings (at least), be releasing our first ever 12” record, putting out 2 full length albums, one each from My First Tooth and The Attika State – sending nearly all our bands on tour, getting a new website, booking some December shows, running a stage at Southsea Festival, and adding the odd single, EP, T-Shirt and 7” to that lot too.

So excited!!! And I do hope you fancy crashing along for the ride with us sweet poppers…

So, in homage to the chaos that is currently ensuing at PoP HQ – I’d like to share with you this marvelous video that for me, makes life that little bit more ace on this balmy Monday evening. A video of Penguins chasing butterflys… Ace! I’d love to be hanging out with this lot…

Have a look, then pop below to see the Attika State tour dates too which are looking grand, grand, grand!

THE Jimmy Greaves loves a bit of Alcopop

Or something like that… i had the great pleasure of meeting England’s third highest scorer of all time – and he was lovely enough to record this (hilariously cheeky) trail for the good ship Alcopop. Watch, love and realise how ace he is – then do as he says!

Alcopop Christmas message > the Queens

So this is Christmas *jinga jinga jing* and what have we done, another year over *dadadada* and a new one just begun…

Well, not technically. While Christmas is indeed as good as upon us, there’s still a big week to fill between the festive season and New Year where anything can happen. Of that, there’s no question.

So I won’t start on the year run down just yet (although no doubt that will be coming soon… Sorry), but safe to say – as decades go, this one ‘aint been not bad’. I kicked off the year 2000 after a sleepless night of reckless abandon (no doubt ending the night rocking out to the chronically overplayed Killing in the Name Of – how things change), and meandering my hungover way to my job in the kitchen of an old folks home. I won’t lie – being greeted by a calamitously fat chef (with party hat) brandishing two dead-eyed fish for chopping at 8.30AM was a hideous beginning to the noughties and well, I promptly vomited.

However, since then I’ve grown a beard, got through university, been played on Headbangers Ball and begun this incessantly life-affirming labour of love indie label with good pal Kev – which as things go, works pretty well for me. And you can rest assured that this year, if all goes to plan, there will be no dead fish in sight come New Years day morning… In fact, I won’t even see New Years Day morning at all. Win!

So what’s the point in this meandering message? Well… (and I know it’s an overused sentiment – but I truly mean it), it’s really just to thank you all from the very bottom of my heart for being involved with all things Alcopop… Supporting, digging and getting involved with all the things we do… We really do owe our continued presence on this earth to all of you who have come to a show, read the blog, covered our releases and (perhaps most importantly of all) the magnificent poppers who have purchased our offerings.

So thanks once again for sticking with us, and keep an eye (or two) out for a big 2010… Our first new signing of the year is being announced at one minute past midnight on New Years Day (although a number of you may have already heard them… shhhh), and I promise you.. .They’re setting the tone for what is gonna be a damn fine year!

So make sure you clean your teeth heartily in the next week all – because 2010 is going to be internationally known as the year of the Alcopop!

You’ve been amazing… love you all a-plenty xxx lv Jack PoP and Kev BSM

Coming to America with Eddie Murphy and me

Right poppers – am off to the U.S of A for the week, so shall be leaving the blog in the able hands of handsome Kev (pictured on the left below). If anyone who digs this label is over in NYC, gis’ a shout and we’ll have a beer or something.

Eddie Murphy here I come!