Fontana

[Brett]

Is anyone here from Fontana? I know there are 4AD reps around, can’t remember who but never mind. If there are, I just wanted to say, Fontana records, you are probably one of the worst labels I can conceive of.

Spectacularly ….bad.

As well as messing up the careers of CT’s you had to go and add House of Love and Catherine Wheel to your list of f***-ups. They were all brilliant, thriving bands when they arrived with you and look at what you did. I mean, Four Calendar Café!!! FCC launched with the single Evangeline! Need I say more?

A lot of stick gets thrown at 4AD around here. Various reasons, some of which I concur and others not. I’m no absolutist but sometimes with music I can be a loyalist. I’ll always remember 4AD (with Factory) as a wonderful label with great artists and artwork. CT’s, DCD, TMC, Dif Juz. Some of my all time favourite music. I’d be prepared to forgive a label almost anything if it had a Roster half that good. .I mean HOW GOOD were Dif Juz! Nobody ever mentions them these days but they were amazing. Peerless.

Me, I’ll take 4AD over Fontana any day of the week.

[Simonp]

Whats single would you have picked to be the first from FCC? Let's face it, Cocteau Twins were never really meant to be a singles band were they?

[louis1st]

Whats single would you have picked to be the first from FCC? Let's face it, Cocteau Twins were never really meant to be a singles band were they?
Summerhead

[Brett]

Whats single would you have picked to be the first from FCC? Let's face it, Cocteau Twins were never really meant to be a singles band were they?

Are you kidding? In the early 80's I thought their EP and Singles work were delightful. 4CC is a personal least favourite album so you're probably asking the wrong guy.

[dprid]

Sadly the bands you mention were victims of a major company seeing a little success (or a similarity to another successful artist) and thinking they could turn what were obviously indie acts into mainstream. No doubt they offered the bands what seemed like a lot of money and promised them the world, but what they didn't say was there would be huge pressure from the label for the bands to produce commercial music. Then when the bands don't produce or the market proves not as big as they thought, the company shifts its priority and the band gets put on a back burner with little or no marketing and promotion.

The music industry is littered with promising artists who disappeared without trace when the major labels get involved, but the major labels want an instant return on their money and they want control. Small labels spend their money on a much more personal basis and also invest proportionately more into their bands than the majors and so are a bit more willing to stick with bands for the long haul in the hope of recouping their money and because they personally believe in them.

With Fontana you can't help wondering if they looked at the success of Enya and thought with Liz & CT they potentially had another Enya on their hands. Would certainly explain why they signed a band that were quite obviously never going to be mainstream - maybe they hoped to change their direction. Stranger things have happened.

[Quisquose]

With Fontana you can't help wondering if they looked at the success of Enya and thought with Liz & CT they potentially had another Enya on their hands. Would certainly explain why they signed a band that were quite obviously never going to be mainstream - maybe they hoped to change their direction. Stranger things have happened.

Yikes David! That actually sounds ... plausible. I always wondered why Evangeline was chosen as a single. I'm sure it's coincidence, but Liz even looks a little like Enya in the video.

[andylama]

Summerhead
Bingo. We have a winner.

Are you kidding? In the early 80's I thought their EP and Singles work were delightful. 4CC is a personal least favourite album so you're probably asking the wrong guy.
I'm the other wrong guy, who agrees on all counts, though I think I understand simonp's point of "singles" more in the traditional pop music industry sense of the term.

Might be more concise to suggest that CT were never a "greatest hits" kind of band.

[Brett]

V interesting Enya thought. As for the points prior - have to agree all. The odd thing with CT's though, Iceblink Luck charted! Not a number one a la Orinoco Flow (?) but fairly high as I seem to remember. And HOLV was successful. Both, the last single and album respectively for 4AD! So they went from a position of doing their own thing, AND providing the commercial success before joining Fontana.

Sadly there is still the romantic in me that believes good music is good music and deserves to be heard. SHOULD be heard. Who would have thought that the single which would finally 'break' REM would be Losing My Religion? After all the college gigs and radio. All the catchy singles - Stand, End of the world as we know it etc - and they break it BIG with a single that has mandolin and no guitars.

The luck factor just eluded CT's.

[etc etc]

Hey now, the guitar parts and their treatments on Evangeline are nothing short of brilliance, dare I say the oft used word 'genius' and the modulation of the whole song at the end just takes it up into the stratosphere...I fucking love the song and it was my favorite on the album from the 'get go' back in late 1993 (long before I ever knew it was a 'single')...but hey, to each his own......let's get real though CT were never meant for mass consumption...they will always be a delightful, tasty treat to discerning hearing buds...aural fois gras...it ain't for everybody!

[4CC]

The luck factor just eluded CT's.

Other than the Iceblink variety, it did. But it never stopped them from being great. Chart success is no indicator of such a quality.

[steven]

Four Calendar Café!!! FCC launched with the single Evangeline! Need I say more?

I thought I once read an interview with Simon Raymonde who remarked that it was the Cocteaus who actually wanted to release Evangeline as the first single, but Fontana wanted to release Bluebeard. If memory serves me correctly, Fontana was not very pleased, but ultimately, the twins won that battle, only to lose every other one with Fontana down the road.

I think Raymonde argued they felt Evangeline better represented the overall mood of FCC and this should be the single.

Maybe Simon will pop-in and clarify one day? :)

Steven

[ResetTwo]

steven, I recall reading the same thing.

[Brett]

Actually wouldn't surprise me much. They weren't well known for helping themselves our CT's! Awkward interviews etc. I recall they were Steve Sutherlands favourite band and he was editor of Melody Maker. They never used that to any real advantage.