Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers

Experimental and noise label founded in 1989 in Madeley, Cheshire, UK by Phil Todd (2). Ran until 2001, when Todd switched to Memoirs Of An Aesthete after a rest. Betley... took its name from a road sign in the small village of Betley, Cheshire, about a mile from Todd's home. This can still be seen to this day, if you ever happen to find yourself stuck on a bus from Newcastle-Under-Lyme to Crewe. First release was a compilation of demos Todd had been sent whilst running his fanzine Asbestosis. He selected tracks in which he heard something individualistic, quirky and out of step with the clichéd 'punkoid' fashion of the late 80s. Finding he had far more material he wanted to release than would fit on one comp, Todd realised he had a label on his hands. The label was responsible for putting out early European releases by artists including Melt Banana, Pain Jerk, Universal Indians, Wolf Eyes, Carlos Giffoni, Birchville Cat Motel, Thirdorgan and Cock E.S.P.. Later, when Todd started making his own music, BWCD became a document of the underground groups coming out of Stoke-On-Trent in the 90s, such as Ashtray Navigations, Inca Eyeball, Dogliveroil, Green Monkey, A Warm Palindrome, Wagstaff, Subs and Tea Culture. Betley had close links with Oska, E.F. Tapes, Giardia, Jazzassin Records, Face Like A Smacked Arse, Blackbean And Placenta Tape Club, Destroy All Music and other labels which shared Betley's absurdist, eccentric and decidedly homemade approach to music production. This led to a musical dialogue opening up with these labels and the groups surrounding them, and this was particularly strong between Betley, E.F. and Oska. Betley would often club together with these other labels to shoulder the costs of putting out more ambitious and costly releases. As Todd deliberately set out to have no catalogue numbers and releases are often not dated, it's very difficult if not impossible to establish what order things were released in. Only the 'Are You Sane Enough To Drive?' series (So named because they all come in unusual packaging), the CD series and co-releases with other labels were given cat #s. Betley branched out into distributing a wide range of experimental labels, and in the pre-interent era was almost the only place you could contact in the UK to obtain noise and other musical oddities (saving the mighty Fisheye). Unfortunately mounting financial pressures and an inability to secure and sustain adequate distribution from a largely disinterested independent sector brought about its premature demise. One of the last Betley releases, 'All Aboard The Good Ship Marginalia' by Jarvis/Joincey/Todd was a retort to a prominent 'independent' music retailer when soliciting them to stock his music. Showing no interest in stocking the first UK release by Wolf Eyes the shop manager dismissed him with the comment 'This stuff is all very marginal.'