Today, we make an archaeology exercise again looking for the memory of other insignificant group which has been lost in time, rarely vindicated, It seems that people have forgotten them, but they are still alive in the memory of those who knew them during their existence as a group. Because Strawberry Story was one of the most famous group in that prolific universe of British Indie Pop in the last 80’s and first 90’s. One of the most generous in publishing recordings thanks to their participation in twenty compilation tapes and shared flexis.

Stylistically, Strawberry Story represent the most amusing, uninhibited and joking facet of Indie Pop, when other generation colleagues as The fat Tulips or The Haywains fundamentally used sweetness and innocence (the fist ones) or pure fun and kind melodies (the seconds), Strawberry Story played beautiful choirs with sonic velocity thanks to their distorted guitars which sounded with double volume and the unsurpassable voice with childish and noisy tone of Hayley, their tiny singer, together with her, Rex and James played the guitars and composed songs, whereas Paul, the fourth member, played the drums.

The History of Strawberry Story begins in 1988, thanks to Thinking of Julie, the first 7” published with their own label, Daisy Chain Records. The group has a bad memory of this record, they omit its existence when they talk about the records they have released and they even obviated all the songs recorded in this 7” when they drew up a balance of their career with the compilation Cd, which was published by the powerful label Vinyl Japan. So, the true starting point in their musical production is 1989 and 1990 when they recorded their flexi The Literary Achievement of Soft Fruit and the 7” Easy Peazy Lemon Ep, both of them for Daisy Chain Records, although, In Spain, Elefant Records published some copies of this flexi.

Easy Peazy Lemon Ep gets hooked up the first time you listen to it, Gone Like Summer begins sweetly with a childish voice, when she ends the countdown, guitars break into the record grooves, Hayley sings (sometimes she nearly screams) while the hammond and an impish drums mark up the song rhythm, It’s impossible to cause a bigger effect with only three minutes which end with a peaceful guitar. Kissamatic Lovebubble repeats the formula and distorted guitars sound together with the unusual voice of Hayley.

The Literary Achievement of Soft Fruits was published the same year, the result is the different from the previous record, but it is equally brilliant. Two songs, Buttercups and Daisys, with the usual stile but more “civilized”, guitars continue distorting but with less volume and percussion instruments add new elements to their music. The great surprise comes thanks to Midsummers Daydream, a quiet and beautiful theme with acoustic guitars with the same level than their future label companions; The Fat tulips.

Time passes and, in 1991 and 1992 Strawberry Story recorded two 7” for two of most famous label in Indie Pop at that moment, Parasol and Heaven Records. In the first one, Caroline, with three songs which invert the balance, now It seems that the group has matured and Ashlands Road is the hit in this record.

With Heaven they published Small and Slightly Rounded, their best record, with four songs, Chicken Biscuit is another quite song with beautiful orchestration , percussion instruments and bongo drums are the gracefulness of this song, pure syrup. The others three songs show the most noisy facet of the group, with Twenty Six, this song will be one of their most famous themes.

Thanks to this record published by Heaven Records, a more important label, Vinyl Japan, will pay attention to the group. Just at this moment, the group retires from music momentarily, after publishing their new work with the new label, the Cdep The Man With The Stereo Hands, which will confirm that these are not the crazy past years. You will enjoy listening to Precious, that great ballad, five minutes that close the record, or I Never Loved You, with noise explosions which alternate with inoffensive strophes.

Lucky Aubergine closes the group career in 1994, other Cdep, I could repeat the same comments for the previous record, no stylistic change and the only novelty we can find is The Last Thing That You Say, in this sign boys of the group share take vocal importance together with Hayley.

But, one year before, Vinyl Japan had published the compilation Clamming For It, thanks to this record, we find in digital format all the songs published in vinyl until the moment, excepting the first “damn” 7”. We also find three extra themes extracted from some compilation tapes where Strawberry Story had taken part, and Tell Me Now, this song had appeared in one of the flexis of the Woosh label.

Nowadays, nearly all the works of Strawberry Story are sold out, but It’s not difficult to find some 7” or the cd Clamming For It, and also Their Cdep’s with moderate prize, if you find some of them, just buy it, fun without expire date.