The New Cue #506 July 4: Blue Flowers' Chris Pearson, Paul Banks, Nilüfer Yanya, Cam Muncey, Laura Groves

"This very mellow, funny old chap in a far out suit"

Good morning,

Welcome to your regular Friday fix of TNC Recommender shenanigans. Today we’ve got Blue Flowers supremo Chris Pearson telling us about 20 years of the influential west London label and club night, Jet’s Cam Muncey does the Release Valve honours and Niall strings some words together about the new music picks he’d like to share with you. Ted is out of action this week, he’ll be back in the hot seat on Monday with a special delivery, though, reporting back from a low-key event in Wales as cult indie band Oasis make their long-awaited comeback. If you find yourself suffering from Oasis FOMO, there is an epic cure available in Ted and Hamish MacBain’s brilliant new Oasis book, which you can order here.

Lastly, our weekly reminder that this edition is for paying subscribers only. It costs £5 a month to subscribe, which hasn’t been adjusted for inflation or the fact that in Soho it would only get you 2/3 of a pint since we launched in 2021. Paying subscribers are the absolute heroes who enable us to make some hard-earned dosh from running the best music Substack publication in the whole wide world. Go on:

See you on Monday,

Ted and Niall

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What’s In A Label? Blue Flowers…

Next Wednesday, Blue Flowers celebrate two decades of music promotion and label releases with a special live event at The George IV in Chiswick, the West London pub the duo of Chris Pearson and Richard Brown first started putting gigs on in 2004, just for something local to do.

It's not a stretch to say that those nights informed the next decade of music in the UK and beyond, at the very least, as some of the acts that they hosted in their infancies include Jamie T, Laura Marling, Adele, Michael Kiwanuka, Mumford and Sons, Florence & The Machine, Raye and Sam Smith, all playing in a tiny pub room to an audience under three figures. We emailed Chris this week to find out how the imprint’s story, and he took a selfie outside The George for us.

Why not listen to the label playlist he made while you read?

Chris, please tell us about the name Blue Flowers.
When starting the night in 2004, we were going round the houses on some terrible names but one day Richard (Brown, co-founder) came over to my house talking about a song he’d just been listening to called 'Blue Flowers' by Dr Octagon, telling me that’s what we’re calling the night. I stuck it on and couldn't really argue with him. It became our anthem.

Looking back now, the lyrics "Blue Flowers, growing by the purple pond” build this image to me of a rare flower blossoming in an unexpected place. An acoustic night in the back room of a pub in Chiswick doesn't feel a million miles off that. To say that was intentional would be a lie, we just loved the song, but I take heart in the serendipity of it.

How did the label start?
The label came a little down the line. We flirted with the idea of it with a couple releases in the early days of running the night, but it didn't feel right at the time. I guess I didn't feel like I understood how to do it. We didn't have any other motives, just to bring people together and put on great music. In 2016 I finally decided it made sense to start a label. The idea of building a roster of artists had a certain romance to it for the first time. A few bad experiences working in the industry led me to either quitting all together or doing what had always worked best for me, trusting my own vision and doing things my way. Thankfully people still cared about what we did and we were fortunately approached to help us start up at the same time of these ideas forming.

What were your ambitions at the start? How did they develop over time?
My personal musical taste is wide so when first thinking about what the label would be, I don't think I was 100% clear but it became crystal clear the label had to be an extension of what we were doing in the room in Chiswick. “Music for the room” has been a little motto I’ve kept to myself and stood by. When Jamie T played it was just him and a bass guitar which suited the room perfectly, but you listen to his records and they’re loud! So, I guess it’s working with artists with songs and voices at the core. Can you strip it down to its bare bones and perform them to a quite intensely intimate room? If not, it wasn’t for us. The ambition was to create a label that reflected that. Over time, it’s not really changed much from that. It feels exciting to be able to take some of this music back to the room again.