Remarquable Records

REMARQUABLE RECORDS is a label dedicated to the music of JOHNNY THUNDERS. JOHNNY THUNDERS : 1978 is the banner of our first REMARQUABLE project which documents Johnny’s career-peak year with releases that reveal for the first time the extent of his studio activities accompanied by restored or previously unpublished photographs from the period, plus an ongoing narrative allowing an insight into the year that produced his personal favourite album ‘SO ALONE’ and his most popular solo single ‘YOU CAN’T PUT YOUR ARMS AROUND A MEMORY’. Original tapes have been sourced and restored and surviving participants – musicians, producers, engineers, designers, photographers, managers and record label personnel have contributed to our project allowing for as comprehensive a tale of 1978 as is possible. Who JOHNNY THUNDERS. New York Doll. Heartbreaker. Rock’n’roller. Addict. Johnny has simultaneously inspired guitarists from his own, and every following generation and conversely sidestepped inclusion in any and every Top Guitarists listing over the same period. Critical pariah, and popular hero, Johnny exalted the very essence of the classic twentieth century rock’n’roll myth. (Stick his name in a web browser if you need to know more – or check out the official 1978 biography which accompanied his ‘SO ALONE’ album and is reproduced in our forthcoming special edition re-issue). What REMARQUABLE is releasing recordings Johnny committed to tape in London, England in 1978. The sessions were almost all engineered and produced under the guidance of the empathic STEVE LILLYWHITE. From the earliest sessions in January before any record label was onboard, through to his final sessions in July. The musicians who rallied to his aid were friends. Many were from bands like EDDIE & THE HOT RODS, the ONLY ONES, SNATCH, the SEX PISTOLS, THIN LIZZY, TRAFFIC, the SMALL FACES, the AUTOMATICS and of course, the HEARTBREAKERS. Our first releases will showcase previously unreleased recordings which have been recovered during the remarquable research for this project on limited edition 10” vinyl accompanied with mostly unpublished photographs taken at the time of the music being made, with downloads as 256Kbit mp3s and FLACs available. Why Johnny Thunders is an enigma – at least we think so. In the 1970s he travelled a wayward path fuelled by charisma and wit, buffered by happenstance, informed by innate intuition yet utterly devoid of any sense of career management or plan. With a de facto reflex for excess, his personal insecurities ensured he closed the decade defeated by his addiction to heroin. Although he made an unforeseen recovery following rehabilitation a few years later, Johnny struggled to keep his monkey off his back. At the cusp of his final musical liberation from the weight of his own legacy which seemed set to finally allow him the ability to follow his career peak creativity in 1978. In 1991 he opened a new chapter relocating to New Orleans as he had originally planned to do in 1978, but died in unclear circumstances on arrival, his autopsy revealing his body had been ravaged by untreated leukaemia.