Billiepeebup by Love Positions

All songs recorded by Nic Dalton, except "Into Your Arms", "Don't Slow Down", "Keep You WIth Mine" and "Throwaway" which were recorded by Robyn St Clare. Recorded on a Tascam 244 four track onto cassette (mostly old compilation tapes taped over!) in various houses in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney between 1985 and 1989. Mixed by Nic and John Hresc at Sound Barrier, Camperdown 1989. Mastered by Don Bartley and Rob Younger at 301. Originally released on 12 inch vinyl October 1990.

Billiepeebup was the first full-lengther released by Half A Cow but we'd had the test-pressing of it for close to a year as we didn't have any money to press it (John Needham of Citadel Records ended up putting the manufacturing on his account when I told him this!) and the "Light OF Day" single was the first seven inch released by Half A Cow. Each copy of the single was touched off by Musk oil scent and the old Hac store smelt of musk for a few weeks. We were very surprised when both album and single went in at #2 on the Aria Alternative Charts in October 1990 first week in. Rolling Stone gave it a very positive review but the Drum Media (or OTS as it may have been called then) said they were disappointed with it's sound quality - I think they expected more since it was the work of one of the high-profile Hummingbirds and one of the Plundee guys. Looking back, releasing an album of 4 track home recordings wasn't really the done thing in Australia at the time (even though across the Tasman, Flying Nun had been doing it for some time). Speaking of Flying Nun - major influence on the attitude behind the Half A Cow label and also the only label that were ever sent a Love Positions demo (we got no reply!)

Billiepeebup contains the original versions of two songs that went on to be massive hits for other bands. "Don't Slow Down" was written by Robyn and Simon Day of Ratcat and they rewrote some of the lyric and turned it into "Don't Go Now" - a #1 hit on the Australian charts for Ratcat in 1991. "Into Your Arms" was covered by The Lemonheads in 1993 and was the biggest hit worldwide that the band had - yes, bigger than the other more well-known cover "Mrs Robinson". "Into Your Arms" was the first single off The Lemonheads Come On Feel... album reaching Top Ten in the UK, New Zealand and many countries throughout Europe. It has also been covered live by such bands as Hole, Redd Kross and Eugenius. The song has been on the soundtrack for at least two Arron Spelling TV productions and two Hollywood movies so far and appeared on the Rhino Records Power Pop Compilation Volume 3. Well done, Rob!

Half A Cow is an independent record label from the East Coast of Australia. Run by musician Nic Dalton, Half A Cow has been releasing music since 1990. More releases can be found at https://viasatellitedownloads.bandcamp.com

halfacow.com.au