Virginia Astley

Like Rat-Tail, is this man a minor London celebrity? A mid-80s NME freelancer who went too far - a shellshocked casualty of the hip-hop wars?

he told a funny story abt her swearing at a roadie, i think

Yes the world's biggest VA fan is a minor London celeb of sorts - he used to hang around the MVE shops looking for stuff by Virginia and IIRC became quite abusive on one occasion when someone doubted her genius. I suspect she was aware of him, and her solicitors were too.

Features on the awesome Vic Godard/Subway Sect track "Spring is Grey".

Here is some boring stuff about VA.

Now what you really need to know:
The Ravishing Beauties were formed in December 1981 by VA, Kate St John (later of The Dream Academy, I think) and Nicky Holland, primarily to allow Virginia to fulfil an invitation to support the Teardrop Explodes at Club Zoo. VA had always wanted to have a synthesizer group called The Raving Beauties. And when Bill Drummond said to the three, "You can play in Liverpool if you've got a name", VA said as a big joke "The Raving Beauties" - Drummond misheard this as “The Ravishing Beauties", which then stuck.

Their live shows were something else: the women wore dresses with holes in them, known as teabags, and sang sad songs - just the three of them and a Revox with the backing tracks on it, which were usually cued up wrong. Between the songs was total chaos punctuated by frequent embarrassed laughter: “getting drunk a lot and improvising” sums the trio up quite well. But while this was initially ‘natural’ amateurishness, things got more and more contrived as time went on, not helped by the fact that the group had acquired its own clique of cult followers (the original Belle and Sebastian then! ;-) ).

No records were actually released by The Ravishing Beauties mainly because VA was trapped in a solo recording contract and the other two didn’t want to get involved. Things eventually reached a gloomy stalemate and Nicky and Kate quit in June 1982.

Although the song 'Futility' featured on an NME compilation tape Mighty Reel (September 1982), credited to the band, it is not clear whether in fact all three play on the track. The trio did, however, (memorably) appear twice on BBC Radio 1 ("Walters Weekly", IIRC).

They were, of course, the best thing EVAH at the time.

A couple of years later, I did see VA play at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, which recaptured the spirit of '82 a bit. I never really rated her solo records tho'.

Hoewever, I probably would have if I'd thought of it, and I do sometimes browse "The Wire" in WHSmith & son. That wasn't me, though. Virginia Astley = 100% classic, though. Sad to say, almost nothiong by her is available anymore which is a fucker, because she made some of the most beautiful music ever. "From Gardens Where etc" is a lovely pastoral instrumental type thing, but my favourites are the 7" "Love's a Lonely Place to Be" and this comp on disques du crepescule which hads a bunch of her early stuff, incl "A Bau a qu" & some other stuff. I'm getting the chills just thinking about the music contained therein. I wish they'd do a good fucking CD reissue programme of her material for fuxake, I mean you can get nearly all of shirley collin's stuff now, and she's totally obscure. Her music is up there w/popol vuh, s & d collins, dead can dance, 11 shadows, & all that sort of spiritual-beauty type stuff. Having said that the album she did on Virgin, w/guest vocals by dave sylvian (who fuxing WISHES he had 1/10 the musical poetry of VA) was a little overcooked IIRC. Anyway, search anything by VA, because most of it, yr not likely to see more than once. It took s.th. like 8 years to locate a copy ov "A Bao A Qu" for example, during which time I had 3 copies of the "rabbi Joseph Gordan" single thru my hands, which'll give U some idea of how rare it is. Poss not worth much $$ tho'. I am knackered & losing the thread.

Although the song 'Futility' featured on an NME compilation tape Mighty Reel

If this is the track I'm thinking of, it may be the best record ever made. THX for the link, I will look out the artist label releases mentioned on the website.

I haven't investigated Virginia Astley yet. I *should*, though ...

I've only got "Hope in a darkened heart" on tape but it's a great great thing of much beauty. I really should have investigated further by now - had the tape 15 years and done sod all about it.

Those British Transport Films sound great - are they on DVD or video?

as for the BTF films, "Diesel Train Ride" (1959) is available on VHS - see http://www.bfi.org.uk/videocat/index.php/page/item_view/code/318 with further details at http://www.bfi.org.uk/videocat/more/btf/volume8.html . you can also get "Broad Waterways" (it says 1960 here, but I think it was filmed in 1959) on VHS - https://secure.iwashop.com/SHOP/Videos%20Continued.html . Astley also arranged the music for "Scotland For Sport" (1958), also available on VHS - http://www.bfi.org.uk/videocat/index.php/page/item_view/code/64 and http://www.bfi.org.uk/videocat/more/btf/volume5.html .

I have Hope in a Darkened Heart myself, and agree with Rob that it is beautiful. Ph4y describes it as a bit "overcooked" above; I'm not sure I agree -- to me, Sakamoto's thoroughly sequenced arrangements complements the apparent serenity quite nicely. (Another album which I tend to mentally group with this one in this respect is Colin Newman's It Seems, but that may not make much sense to anyone else.) "Tree Top Club" would be an absolute cert on my Top Ten Nostalgico-Pastoral Songs list, had I ever made it.

maybe,
orange
?

love ms. astley.

Can anyone recommend anything along similar lines to Virginia Astley?

-- cnwb (cnwb), Wednesday, August 2, 2006 11:49 PM (9 months ago) Bookmark Link

then - my last post. k.

i can't believe hope in a darkened heart is still OOP

i dont remember this at all

i have no idea who virginia astley is

From Gardens Where We Feel Secure is ultra classic, why did it take me 25 years to hear this?

in fact, you've been hearing it your whole life...you just haven't been aware of it...

I kind of secretly wonder if this is the "London legend" everyone is talking about:

http://rateyourmusic.com/~familycat1

imagine enya crossed with julie cruise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3H6ggryHiM

so good

uh, julee cruise

love her

only ever heard her track on that some bizarre comp w/ the freaky cover... you know the one

liked it, but never tracked down her album, guess I should

IIIRC she's kinda like a more pastoral version of what the kids today call freakfolk? or (gas) chamber music? world of skin? rasputina? who are her heirs?

what do you mean by more pastoral? more english?

i'm only familiar with hope in a darkened heart, it sounds like folk songs composed entirely on a fairlight. it has this kinda new age vibe but with these slightly cynical and highly romantic lyrics

guess there's a touch of kate bush in some of the arrangements as well

i don't know about her heirs. why don't you just listen to some of her own records first?

this japanese dude hara masumi is in a similar vein - folky new age vocal music made on synths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ectTTqIgZxo

def a "the kick inside" influence. more pastoral, less fantastical. like sunlight through a farm window in the english country.

yeah, more pastoral is a euphemism for english

no, it means it sounds like you're on an english farm

man this album is making me seriously anticipate spring

on an english farm in the spring

I thought all britishers lived on farms? at least that's the impression I got from all creatures great and small

I meant to link the blog post below here when I first stumbled across it. Oh well, better late than never.

http://fruitierthanthou.blogspot.com/2007/11/ravishing-beauties-john-peel-session.html

(NB - check the comments also)

this is the aforementioned some bizarre comp, va track was called "waiting to fall"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Ifyoucantalbum.png

Virginia Astley = 100% classic, though. Sad to say, almost nothing by her is available anymore which is a fucker, because she made some of the most beautiful music ever. "From Gardens Where etc" is a lovely pastoral instrumental type thing, but my favourites are the 7" "Love's a Lonely Place to Be" and this comp on disques du crepescule which hads a bunch of her early stuff, incl "A Bau a qu" & some other stuff. I'm getting the chills just thinking about the music contained therein. I wish they'd do a good fucking CD reissue programme of her material for fuxake, I mean you can get nearly all of shirley collin's stuff now, and she's totally obscure. Her music is up there w/popol vuh, s & d collins, dead can dance, 11 shadows, & all that sort of spiritual-beauty type stuff. Having said that the album she did on Virgin, w/guest vocals by dave sylvian (who fuxing WISHES he had 1/10 the musical poetry of VA) was a little overcooked IIRC.

Pash 100% OTM upthread

didn't she do Spring is Grey with Vic Godard?

i only know 'from gardens where we feel secure' and it's really special....hearing her sing is like woah! love that song rionat posted.

jabba OTM.

I just wish i haden't sold "Hope in a darkened Heart" her duet with Sylvian was grebt.

thanks for bumping this thread rionat, been listening on repeat since ;)

"From Gardens" was the intro music at my wedding! Wonder if I was supposed to pay a royalty for that?

def a "the kick inside" influence. more pastoral, less fantastical. like sunlight through a farm window in the english country.

― sir ilx-a-lot (cutty), Tuesday, February 2, 2010 5:54 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

lol if an english poster posted this they'd get given a kicking by their countryfolk (by which i mean townfolk). we have a fucked up country.

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/nechronical/oct2009/6/2/image-1-for-gallery-viz-comic-celebrates-30th-birthday-214754786.jpg

<3 <3 <3

yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUy_OpIpOs

<3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erFnyRhEDCQ

i love the way sylvian's voice contrasts with hers and rubs up against the music (produced by ryuichi sakamoto!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3Onw0SMtuI

also this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdaK2djnYHI

The debut sounds pretty swell in a post-election haze.

Yeah we listened to that earlier this week

i just created a sample bank using the first track from 'gardens' and pitched them down and im making a slow jam out of this, it is so beautiful

And she's on Bandcamp now

https://virginiaastley.bandcamp.com/

Cor, I was at that Riverside Studios show that’s on Bandcamp

Thanks for the heads up. I must have listened to "Hope In A Darkened Heart" a hundred times over the years. My copy is a white label without a sleeve (it was dirt cheap and I was poor) so somehow I never knew until now that it was produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto, even though now having that information it is glaringly apparent.

Very!

I just bumped the Sakamoto thread for Hope in a Darkened Heart. Really odd, peculiar record that I think anyone who is interested in that era of Ryuichi shouldn’t overlook.

There are some older posts on her FB that detail the process of making that record.

Oh good call -- there are actually a bunch of fairly recent posts describing the sessions.

Here's a B-side that a Facebook-er says John Foxx was a big champion of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67jA6xHFODQ

Thank you to everybody who made purchases last Friday (and any other day!!) and for your continued support.
Hope to put up something new very soon
VA xxx

Simon Reynolds review of IGWWFS on Pitchfork.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/virginia-astley-from-gardens-where-we-feel-secure/

Sent just now via Bandcamp message:

With great excitement and anticipation I can share the digital release of my 1996 album HAD I THE HEAVENS, an album very dear to my heart.
It will be released digital only this coming Friday to take advantage of Bandcamp's very kind offer to waive commission for a 24 hour period
I will make this album at 8am on this coming Friday morning
With great appreciation of your continued support in these trying times

:DDDD

New album!

https://virginiaastley.bandcamp.com/album/maiden-newton-ecliptic

!!!!!

aw yeah

I was... not expecting a spoken-word delivery on all of these songs

great news. been listening a lot to her this year, but didn't make the connection until the other day that she plays on a record I very much love, Anne Clark's Joined Up Writing (Clark has had some amazing collaborators: John Foxx, Vini Reilly, Patrik Fitzgerald, David Harrow...).

listening to 'Hope In a Darkened Heart' for the first time... wow

"Darkness has reached its end" is a hymn. I'm gonna play it all Christmas.

Listed with an apostrophe on Spotify which is detracting from its simple beauty.

Infuriating.

Listening to her second record makes me realize how much her voice sounds like a boy soprano.

New album!

https://virginiaastley.bandcamp.com/album/maiden-newton-ecliptic

― Ned Raggett, Friday, March 5, 2021 12:57 AM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Missed this at the time...afaik the two new albums are all material from 2006-07. Both originally sold only online but unavailable for donkeys years, so I'm glad she's finally made them available again.

A new note from Ms. A:

Bandcamp Friday has come round again and thank you to everyone for supporting me. I am up in the Highlands of Scotland visiting my lovely friend Martin Stephenson so apologies if I’m a few days late getting orders sent out. It’s beautiful up here and I hope to get some writing done while I’m here!
This month there will be an interview with Andy Beta being published on Bandcamp!

i love that this is on her bandcamp description:

Finally the manifestation of the cult classic 'From Gardens Where We Feel Secure'
Every household should have this record, every age and every culture
It is one of the most unique and visionary recordings ever to be released
Quintessential English and pioneering New Age
This is why Gini ended up working with high level artists, because she too is high level, and a true artist

And that interview with Andy Beta she mentioned is live

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/virginia-astley-discography

this is a couple of years old but I thought this was good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu4K9FFeoQg

"Magnitude of Love" from Sondre Lerche's new double album is a rather, uhm, direct homage to "Some Small Hope".

(The song is also mentioned repeatedly in a bonus track I've not heard.)