Heavenly

Whether they burn out or fade away, most bands have a relatively short lifespan, and ’90s pop act Heavenly were no exception.

After a four-album career from 1989 and 1996, the band wound up, pretty much, aside from a short stint as Marine Research following the untimely passing of drummer Mathew Fletcher.

That said, guitarist Peter Momtchiloff and particularly singer Amelia Fletcher are as well known in academic circles as Cathy Rogers was on TV as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, while it’s bassist Rob Pursey who, along with Fletcher, set up the Skep Wax indie label, and performed together under various guises over the intervening years.

But, perhaps unexpectedly, Heavenly have garnered a whole new generation of fans. Perhaps not on the level of Kate Bush’s ‘Stranger Things’ success, but similarly to Life Without Buildings’ route to a new cult following, it was Tiktoks based on ‘P.U.N.K Girl’ and liked by millions of teenagers, leading to that early single alone accumulating over seven million Spotify streams.

All of which has led to demand for back catalogue, meaning the band’s third album, ‘The Decline and Fall of Heavenly’, will be re-released by Skep Wax.

Their third long-player saw the more delicate, more decorative arrangements of the band’s first two albums left behind – their days as part of the “tweepop” scene (as pre-Heavenly act Talulah Gosh) or even the jangly C86 movement left behind as the band slotted in nicely to the “Riot Grrrl” scene brewing on Olympia in Washington State (they joined the likes of Beck and Modest Mouse and Bikini Kill on legendary K Records, who released ‘P.U.N.K Girl’ and ‘Atta Girl’ together on one 10” EP.)

The album veers confidently from high speed indiepunk (‘Me And My Madness’) to cool surf instrumental (‘Sacramento’) and back again to the sweetest indiepop (‘Itchy Chin’).

All the anger is there, the politics are direct and crystal clear – yet the whole thing is still delivered with the sweetest pop melodies, Amelia Fletcher and Cathy Rogers confidently sharing vocals, showing confidence the band were deriving from their involvement with Riot Grrrl.

Setting them up nicely for the second lease of life that this set of re-releases will offer.

This article originally appeared in the Lancashire Post.

<a href="https://heavenly.bandcamp.com/album/the-decline-and-fall-of-heavenly">The Decline And Fall Of Heavenly by Heavenly</a>