Clash Music will welcome Heavenly Records as curators of their stage, as the label brings a diverse mix of music, ranging from folk at one end, through to straight-up dance music legends at the other. Saint Etienne almost personify this range.
Initially formed by suburban London teenagers Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs in the mid-‘80s, Saint Etienne took off a few years later, with clubland hits like their ethereal, minor-key take on Neil Young’s ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ reached the lower reaches of the top 40 as one of the first releases on Heavenly, while ‘Nothing Can Stop Us’ hit the top of the US dance charts, and was the first single to feature the new permanent lead-singer Sarah Cracknell.
Since then, they’ve played their never-never pop around the world, released a string of anthemic singles and hit albums. With Cracknell’s vocals like a sweet, strong whisper, allied to euphoric piano-house soundtrack, they’ve been playing around with the cliches of euphoric dance-pop to provide a bittersweet soundtrack to the dance-floor for the best part of two decades.
Saint Etienne are a group whose history is intertwined with Heavenly records, and there couldn’t be a more fitting finale to a day’s worth of Heavenly music.
