Artist Roster
A bit of background
Bev Benfell
Bev started her musical journey in the early eighties as lead singer with Brighton New Wave band The Voices. As part of the Voices she signed a publishing deal with Heath Levy Music, one of the most influential independent music publishers of the time who quickly secured a major recording contract with Phonogram records in 1983. Since this time Bev has continued as a songwriter and artist with various collaborations through the years. She was also a founding member of cult ‘art’ band The Swarf Sisters and later on joined the 3rd Gen Ska band Skalette O’Hara with whom she performed and wrote many of their releases. In recent times Bev has done many vocal sessions mainly for Burning Girl records who have also released albums for her in her own right. She has also collaborated on albums and tracks with Tim Barton and released Waterfall on Daughter records. Bev is now reviving her solo career through the newly formed label Ruclona Records. Bev has had many influences in her music from Indie Girl classics through to 60’s Pop chanson psychedelic pop. It is in this 60’s style that Bev has written her latest batch of songs for upcoming release. Comme Ci Comme Ca is the first in this genre inspired by holidaying with fellow musicians in the South of France and contains all the hallmarks of ‘Film Noir’ soundtracks from that period.
Trindel
I
Trindel works to carve out musical landscapes with her compositions, to paint auditory scenes that are unique to each listener that digests them. She offers you her pieces to absorb, translate and use in a way that is bespoke to you. Her avant grade musings have clear inspirations from pioneers of the electronic and ambient scene whilst remaining entirely fresh; her work has a newness to it.
Russ Pay and Yoshika Colwell
What can I say about Russ .........a fine musician as well as my current producer in crime and key contributor in helping me in getting the Ruclona stone rolling ......Russ has been making countless but often unrecognised contributions to music for a long time now....so I feel privileged to have had the opportunity of releasing a small portion of his work on Ruclona, namely the single Child in the Car with Yoshika Colwell another criminally overlooked artist who should really be dominating listening pleasure for all of us....Child in the Car may have been a one off for Ruclona but be assured that I will be snatching hands off, should I get the chance on any new stuff from these two.
Lady B
The Bloomsbury Set noun. name given to a coterie of English writers, philosophers, and artists who frequently met between about 1907 and 1930 at the houses of Clive and Vanessa Bell and of Vanessa’s brother and sister Adrian and Virginia Stephen (later Virginia Woolf) in the Bloomsbury district of London, the area around the British Museum. They discussed aesthetic and philosophical questions in a spirit of agnosticism and were strongly influenced by G.E. Moore’s Principia Ethica (1903) and by A.N. Whitehead’s and Bertrand Russell’s Principia Mathematica (1910–13), in the light of which they searched for definitions of the good, the true, and the beautiful and questioned accepted ideas with a “comprehensive irreverence” for all kinds of sham...............
.........in your dreams........
BUT I DIGRESS
LADY B or Lady Bloomsbury to give her full title, grew up in in Kent, and a life of poetry, holistic medicine, weird music, meditations and a bunch of other things made her 'the lady' she is today.....oh screw it! ....I'll let her tell you......PRESS THE LADY B BUTTON.....!.....NOW!
x-blu
x-blu was formed in 2021 and are avant-garde post-punkists with influences including Velvet Underground, Sam Fender and 70’s disco/funk and who play out like Joy Division meets Nico.
Originating from Thamesmead, South East London, they are a band from diverse backgrounds with equality and diversity at the heart of their ethos. They have built a reputation for passionate live performances and the innovative use of digital media.
The band members are Gary Parker (guitar, keyboards, vocals and production), Dani Tagen (vocals, production and Creative Director) and Sybil Mayard (vocals, keyboards, production and Digital Director).
The Swarf Sisters
The Swarf Sisters were conceived in the late eighties during a 'menage trois' one drunken night in a one bedroomed flat. Fed up with waiting , Beverley Sister and QWEH decided to induce the birth with a one-off gig, supporting Mid-Sussex legends Karen D'Ache.
Surprisingly, the absent father Swarf, accepted his full responsibility for his offspring and was happy to take Junior on many outings. These trips included the Boardwalk in Manchester and a church Covent Garden with the then famous, Band of Holy Joy. The three proud parents further encouraged the child's development with a trip to the studio, where it's first record was created, 'Palestine'. The rest of it's childhood was happy but uneventful, but during it's adolescent years the band grew from a shy 3-piece into a strapping, stroppy 5-piece. The addition of Lady B and Silverback gave it the brazen confidence to unleash it's first album 'Midwife Crisis' on the world. Considered a genius work by some, The Swarf Sisters attracted many would be mentors including Cherry Red, Dressed to Kill and Burning Girl records.
Sadly, like many genius prodigies the band fell apart and became painfully reclusive. Swarf has done his best over the years to get his tortured progeny into the fresh air and sunshine. The latest attempt, aided by QWEH resulted in the 3 track EP Coco Robicheaux.......
let us hope that the experience didn't damage the band beyond repair.......
Pussy Revolution
So here's the 'bobby' on Pussy Revolution…………
Originally formed to pay homage to their sisters everywhere, trying to make music in oppressive regimes, then quickly signing to Burning Girl Records for their first album 'RIOT' in 2013 which made a global impact with their no nonsense punk versions of classic and not so classic rebel anthems……
It’s 2021, and they're back with a reformed and revolutionised line-up......
Bombeverlina - Vocals
Clawdine - Vocals
Tim Tyger - Bass
Dave 'Cat Nap' Vale - Drums
Puss Ray - Guitar
Steve 'Doonicat' -Guitar.
Teaming up with her old pal Clawdine from the Lunachics and after an excruciating audition process, Bombeverlina (BB for short) now has a live band ready willing and able to back up her new assault on the ears of the record buying and gig going proletariat………
The new album due for release early 2024 will be mainly original material written by BB and Clawdine but will have a couple of classic punk covers in keeping with the Pussy Revolution tradition…including the first Ruclona single 'New Rose’ which hit all the digital platforms on 30th November 2021. 2023 saw 2 releases from these crazy cats, 'Into the Fire' and their latest release in August, 'Violet' which is a hard hitting original song with hard hitting themes with an even harder hitting backing track from the band.
Be prepared for some Pussy Revolution gigs also, you never know where they’ll strike next!
Purrfect!
Kevin Pointing
"But it was a start. I believe in starts. Once you have the start, the rest is inevitable." Thus spake Joey 'The Lips' Fagan in the Commitments.......
So if you were a young budding musician in the mid/late 70's and early 80's in Mid-Sussex, where was your start? I believe many would say the Haywards Heath 6th Form College 'Electric Evening', a once a year event for young bands to show off their talent.
And who do we have to thank for this?, Kevin Pointing of course, he was the man who started it, badgered the teachers to make it happen etc. etc.
Kevin was a veritable legend to us young wannabes in those very early days. Together with such notables as Paul Fowler, Carl Gorham, Paul Waring, Ian Day, Perry Linsley and many others, he formed Trax. Sometimes known as 'The Kevin Pointing' band, Trax were the ultimate local inspiration for us starry eyed youngsters.....top billing at such venues as The King Edward Hall, Lindfield, they even supported Roogalator at Scaynesfest and of course were resident headliners at the aforementioned Electric Evening.
The Electric Evening continued long after Kevin and I left the college and continued to inspire and motivate young musicians in the area for years to come.
Kev, you can now rest in well deserved peace, knowing you made your mark on all of us.
QWEH
QWEH is the Artist/Producer profile for Lee Benfell. Lee has been producing music all his adult life as an Artist, Producer and Songwriter in the 70's, 80s and nineties with Brighton New Wave bands, The Decoys and Exclusives and Phonogram artists The Voices. He is also a founder member of The Swarf Sisters and produced and co- produced many of their releases. His production credits also include Rupert The Bear and dance hit Pick Up The Pieces by Twinbeat. Lee spent a brief period of time working in the independent music industry as Label Manager for Pinnacle Records in the mid 80's and is also the author of the book Virgin to Angel, an auto-biography documenting his early days in music.
Ten Pound Tourists
For the majority of working families in England in 1969 the system only seemed to allow just enough time to work just enough hours to earn just enough money to survive and keep going, family and leisure time was very scarce in those days. English culture took very little account of how hard one worked and talent when it came to awarding standards of living and it seemed positively against allowing any of the masses to drive their way out of this poverty trap. Anyhow, some of them realised that if they were to spend the rest of their lives struggling, they may as well do it somewhere where it wasn't pissing with rain for 11 months of the year. At this time, Australia was crying out for people to come and join their burgeoning economy and unlike England they had a lot of space and not many people. The Australian government was even prepared to offer a discounted fare of £10 to get there! ...and so were created a tribe, The Ten Pound Tourists. In the eighties, 2 of these Tourists had returned to the land of their births via very different journeys. However, Tim Barton and Lee Benfell both discovered that the English culture of ignoring the hard work and talent of the working classes was still prevalent, especially in the record business.......so the collaboration began.........
Cars That Collide
Peter C-Swash originally signed with Phonogram Records and Heath Levy Publishing before touring extensively in U.K. and Europe and getting Cars That Collide "on the road" in 2020.
The journey, via opportune meetings with Chris Difford, Ray Davies and Nile Rodgers (who he joined on stage at The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York), includes Radio One airplay, radio jingles, TV shows (including a half hour special of U.S. show "The Song" dedicated to Peter's music) and mulltiple appearances at the famous Glastonbury Festival
Peter is also quoted extensively in Lee Benfell's' outstanding book Virgin to Angel and the band feature on the 2020 release by QWEH "Never Break"
ARTISTS
More Coming Soon
QWEH, Bev Benfell, Kevin Pointing, The Swarf Sisters, The Voices, Lady B, Silverback, Pussy Revolution, Cars That Collide, The Ten Pound Tourists and many more............
All featuring in Virgin to Angel