the pastels

Filmed summer 2009 (director: Blair Young, producer: Beth Allan, Forest of Black)



This is The Pastels own myspace. It is maintained by Stephen and Katrina.



Official biog, 2010.

The Pastels are a Glasgow-based music group, which originated in ramshackle style in the 1980s, with an almost accidental sound which became extremely influential both on a local level and internationally. Singles like Something Going On and Million Tears were rough-hued 'almost-pop' and connected with a new audience of music lovers many of whom saw and heard something which offered them the possibility to become a participant, which they expressed through fanzines and their own music. The Pastels debut album, Up For A Bit With The Pastels (Glass, 1987), was a spectacular triumph, wildly moving from garage pop-punk through to lush synth orch ballads. The Pastels featured on the NME's C86 compilation, but in interviews distanced themselves from both shambling and twee scenes. Their second album, Sittin' Pretty (Chapter 22, 1989) was a slightly straighter rock and roll record, anti-climatic according to some reviews. Soon after reports started to appear in the UK music press that the group was splitting up. Eventually it became clear that a new line-up was configuring around original members, Stephen McRobbie and Annabel Wright (Aggi), now joined by Katrina Mitchell. This line-up is probably the best known of The Pastels' various phases, and often featured either David Keegan (Shop Assistants) or Gerard Love (Teenage Fanclub) on guitar. They signed with the emerging Domino Records and eventually completed two albums, Mobile Safari and Illumination (1995,1997) which came to be regarded as their strongest, best music. A remix set, Illuminati (1998) followed featuring My Bloody Valentine, Jim O'Rourke and others. In 1999, The Pastels established their own Geographic Music imprint via Domino, with the intention of releasing unknown, beautiful music into the world. So far artists on Geographic have included Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Bill Wells Trio, Empress, International Airport, Future Pilot AKA, Directorsound, Kama Aina and The Royal We. In this phase the only new Pastels music was a soundtrack for David Mackenzie's The Last Great Wilderness (Geographic, 2002); which made for film or not, is one of the most completely realised Pastels records. In 2006, The Pastels developed and partly performed new music for a theatre production by Glasgow based company, 12 Stars. Recently The Pastels released a collaboration with Tokyo's Tenniscoats, Two Sunsets (Geographic, 2009), and are surrently working on a new album for Domino. The Pastels are partners in Glasgow's Monorail Music shop.