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THE
LA’S
La's, The – band (1984-91) feat; Chris Sharrock (drms) (ex Cherry Boys, Icicle Works, later Dave Stewart, World Party, Lightning Seeds), Lee Mavers (voc,gtr), Mike Badger (gtr,voc) (later Onset), John Power (bass) (later Cast). Signed to Go Discs & the well known There She Goes took an age to make the charts. Many line up changes after 1986 incl Paul Hemmings (gtr) (later of Onset, Lightning Seeds), Ian Templeton (drms) (ex Streetband), Barry Sutton (of Marshmallow Overcoat & Walking Seeds, now of Mirrorball)
To be precise La's, the
band never called themselves The La's that was promoters / record
companies etc. Formed in St Helens in the spring of 1984 by songwriters Lee
Mavers, and Mike Badger (ex Kindergarden Paintset, later Onset),
with the addition of John Timson (Drums). A very rare recording of this set up
with the track Don’t Like Hanging exists on the long deleted compilation
LP 'A Secret Liverpool'. The sound was beefed up with the addition of John
Power (Later formed Cast) (bass) and Paul Hemmings.
Power and Badger apparently took an instant dislike to each other, this was
resolved with the swift departure of Badger, who later took to painting. This
second line up gigged regularly in Liverpool, particularly at The Pen & Wig
in Harrington St. They attracted the attention of a number of record A&R
men and subsequently signed with Go! Discs at the start of 1997. The first
release, a 7' & 12' single 'Way Out / Endless' arrived in October 1987
(GOLAS 1) but did little to alert the world.
John Timson departed and was replaced by Mark Birchall (ex Rafique, Lloyd
Collection), then Chris Sharrock (ex Icicle Works) before
a follow up 'There She Goes / Come In, Come Out' was released in November 1988
(GOLAS 2), this made the charts, but peaked at # 59, before dropping away.
Undaunted recording of the first album continued, with a two tracks 'Timeless
Melody / Clean Prophet' being proposed as the third single. A release date of
May 1989 was set in addition to a catalogue number being given (GOLAS 3),
however the single was withdrawn and never released.
During the protracted album recording Chris Sharrock left to be replaced by
Barry Sutton, while John Power departed to be replaced by James Joyce. The
rapid turn around of band members being often put down to Mavers almost
pathological attention to detail, with endless re-recordings of tracks, this
also began to worry Go! Discs as they were footing the rapidly rising bill. In
an effort to recoup some money Go! Discs finally released 'Timeless Melody' in
May 1989 (GOLAS 4) Friction with the label continued until things came to a
head when Go! Discs took the recordings and released them as the album 'The
La's' in October 1990. Also at this time they released a new version of 'There
She Goes / Freedom Song' (GOLAS 5). Both the album and the single were highly
praised and performed well with the single reaching # 13 in the UK national
charts, and the album making the top 30; as a side its arguable that the
success of 'There She Goes' was in fact due to the then Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher. Not due the fact that The La's were flag waving Tories, but that at
this time Thatcher was ousted as the Conservative Party leader and the news
media picked up on the song title and used to accompany numerous soundbites.
The success of the album prompted tours of America and Japan during 1991.
Whilst the band were (Feb 1991) away Go! Discs issued a further single, both
tracks 'Feelin / Doledrum' (GOLAS 6) being taken from the album. The single
didn't match the success of 'There She Goes' but did reach #43 in the UK chart.
Almost immediately and without explanation the group disbanded / lengthy
holiday, Go! Discs did however release 'There She Goes' in America, peaking at
#49 on the Billboard chart.
Nothing being heard from the band until they
supported Paul Weller on a short tour in 1994, which was
universally considered to be a disaster, and from this point its generally
considered that The La's split up.
Mike Badger eventually emerged, though only
faintly, as a solo artist with an album 'Volume' on the Liverpool based Viper
label at the start of 1999. The album was produced by original La member Paul
Hemmings.
Viper released a posthumous compilation 'Breakloose' (Lost La's 1984-86) in
October 1999 (VIPER 2CD/LP), followed by a further round up 'Callin All' (Lost
La's 1986-97) in July 2001 (VIPER 8CD/LP)
'There She Goes' remains the La's finest and most successful moment, still generating regular airplay, and also being covered by US act Sixpence None The Richer, who took the track to the upper reaches of the Billboard chart. At the time of writing (04/04) there are subdued rumours that Mavers and Power have resolved their differences and are planning to enter the studio.
Li’l Nick (drms), now of The Pedantics also played for a reformed version of the band.
Contributers:
Phil Newall, Neil Crud, Peter Dulson
This page was last updated on 17.02.06
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Bye
Maggie
(c) Crud World Domination Enterprises 2006
