Miscellaneous - Interview

  by Olga Sladeckova

published: 23 / 2 / 2002

intro

Both a label and a club, the Track and Field Organisation is one of the most prolific of the current British independent indiepop labels. Co-owner Steven Drew talks to Olga Sladeckova about both its history and its future.

The London based indie label Track & Field appears at first view somewhat inconspicuous . Steven Drew and Ben Clancy , who are the main players in its history , first introduced themselves to the public at large in 1996 when they ran a club Beat Happening. The club, which would regularly play records by the likes of the Go-Betweens, East Village and Brenda Holloway, and which would throw in a dose of Northern Soul for good measure, attracted a lot of attention , including the interest of Paul Wright, who one night decided to check it out and ended up eventually joining the Steven-Ben team. The boys, remaining faithful to their policy of playing indie music and Northern soul and anything else which you don't hear on the radio but which sounds great, later exchanged Beat Happening for another club Happenstance, and then moved on again to form their third and latest club, the Betsey Trotwood which is based in Farrington Road in London. Ben eventually decided to resign, leaving Paul to become the core of the company together with Steven. After having run a club twice before, Paul and Steven were finding it less of a challenge and decided to solve the problem by forming their own record label. Since it opened its doors for the first time, in May 1999, the Track & Field Organisation, which encompasses together both the club and the record label, has added to its catalogue such great artists as Dressy Bessy and Saloon (who were featured on one of John Peel’s sessions). In an interview with Pennyblackmusic, Steven talked about the label's history and about he and Paul run both the club and the record label while holding on to day jobs. PB: When did the Track & Field organization form and how did this come first about? SD: We formed in April 1999 as a club night through frustration at a lack of places where the DJs seemed to truly believe in the spirit of pop music. Most places we came across only seemed to play the records they were sent by PR companies. Everyone wants to be genre specific which is easier to package and so things either become too snobbish or they're lowest common denominator. With Track & Field it was a case of anything goes, but we wanted to provide something that was hopefully a bit more challenging. We used to have a slogan on our flyers which read "the club for music that they never play on the radio" because no one seemed to play the bands that we wanted to hear. So you'd get the Apples in Stereo and the Shangri Las followed by the Four Tops and the Make Up followed by the Action followed by Saint Etienne followed by the Pastels. Ultimately it's all pop music and hopefully the people who come to our nights can see the link between guitar pop, motown, 60s psyche and Northern Soul. We talked to people at thevery first Bowlie Weekender and we knew that there were other people who felt the same way as we did. So we put the word out and less than a month later the first Track & Field night sold out in half an hour. Once the club became established we started promoting bands and then we thought the natural extension to it all was to put out a single. And it's just gone on from there. It's a bit of a hand to mouth operation sometimes but we're answerable to no one but ourselves which means if we like it we try to make it happen. We only put on bands we like personally which means we've turned down the chance to have one or two successful bands playing our nights. But they wouldn't fit the Track & Field aesthetic so that's just too bad. PB: How many people are involved in the day to day running of T&F? SD : T&F is runjust by myself and Paul . But we both have day jobs too so we're also more than happy to abuse the good will of our friends and families when required! PB: What artists are currently on your roster? T & F: Dressy Bessy, Saloon, Great Lakes, I am the World, Kicker and The Loves PB: Best moment so far in running the organization? SD : The Pow! To the People 2 all-dayer at the Monarch (Easter 2001).It was just one of those magical days... In a two hour spell we had Belfast hip-hop madcaps,Olympic Lifts followed by the Aislers Set, The Tyde and Beachwood Sparks one after the other.It was such brilliant music and an incredible atmosphere. Anyone who couldn't enjoy that is clearly deaf. Other highlights would be the UK tours by the Tyde (who were on the early Track and Field roster-Ed)and Great Lakes and the Pattern playing their first UK show for us at the Arts Cafe - completely mental and probably illegal but a good laugh! And at the second Bowlie we threw an after hours chalet party. The place went berserk and was the talk of the site for the rest of the weekend. We were eventually closed down by the security at about 6am and reports even made it into the NME and MOJO after rumours that thing had got rather out of hand for several people. Of course, we can neither confirm nor deny any of those stories. PB: What has been your most difficult hurdle to overcome with running T&F? SD : I think certain agents have been a bit wary of us because we're not part of the established circuit. We like to use venues that are a bit different and I think this has gone down well with punters and the more independently minded bands.But if we've wanted to attract a bigger name to a show it's often been met with initial scepticism. But hopefully once people have worked with us we can show that we're professional and do a decent job. Time is also a problem. As we have day jobs it's often difficult to find time to do everything at the standard we'd want, make calls, send out mailings, etc. It often means sitting up till 3am stuffing envelopes. Not particularly glamorous but a necessary part of making everything work. PB: What are your plans for the future? SD : LPs from Dressy Bessy, Saloon, I am the World, Kicker and Great Lakes are planned for this year. We're also compiling an LP of tracks by bands who have played T&F shows. Hopefully this will include the likes of The Tyde, Ladybug Transistor, Butterflies of Love, Aislers Set, Fonda 500, Beachwood Sparks and many more... We've also got the annual Pow! to the People all-dayer planned for Easter Sunday. This will include performances from the Butterflies of Love, Camera Obscura, Black Nielson, Saloon, Cane 141 and Woodchuck... PB: Which records are you currently listening to? SD F: New stuff... "Know By Heart" LP - American Analog Set LP, "Oh, Inverted World" LP - The Shins, "Once We Were Trees" LP - Beachwood Sparks, "You Don't Need Darkness To Do What You Think Is The Right Thing" LP - Geographic label compilation, "Smash the System" LP - Saint Etienne Old stuff... Best of Martha Reeves & the Vandellas LP, "Sunflower" LP - Beach Boys, "Scott 4" LP - Scott Walker, "Forever Changes" LP - Love, "On Fire" LP - Galaxie 500... erm, sorry bit of a long list... we like records. PB : Thank you

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