Brand new label founded by Acclaimed Writer & Broadcaster Pete Paphides
Quite simply, there’s a bunch of records I really want to have in my collection. And the only way for that to happen is to press them up and give them the release they always deserved.
Needle Mythology
co-founder Pete Paphides
April 2019 saw the first two releases on a brand new record label founded by music writer and broadcaster Pete Paphides. Needle Mythology started with an exchange that took place in the upstairs room of West End patisserie Maison Bertaux.
En route from his weekly Soho Radio show a couple of years ago, Pete bumped into a fellow record collector and product manager, Will Harris. Nestled between the vinyl albums in Pete’s record box that morning was a CD of Tales Told by Ian Broudie – an album released by The Lightning Seeds’ frontman back in 2004. This record had somehow escaped the attention of Will. This was a totally unacceptable state of affairs for Pete, so he handed the CD over and demanded that his friend listen to it.
But not before the conversation broadened out into the wider subject of classic albums that – as a result of having been released in the years during vinyl’s “demise” – never saw a vinyl release. Pete set about drawing up a wish list of records that deserved the “courtesy” of a proper vinyl release. “I think at that point,” remembers Pete, “we were both thinking this should be a record label, but I don’t think either of us formally said that until we were on our way out of the café.”
I’m proud that Tales Told has been chosen as one of the records to launch Needle Mythology.
Ian Broudie on Tales Told belated vinyl debut
High up on Pete’s wish-list was I Love My Friends – the album of tender mid-life confessionals released by Stephen Duffy in 1997 – and Finn, the inspired collaboration released by Neil and Tim Finn in 1995. “To be honest,” says Pete, “I’m constantly making these sorts of lists, but the exciting thing about this was the realisation that I was able to work with someone who actually knows how to put a record out.”
I’m delighted that people will finally get to hear I Love My Friends as it was originally meant to be released.
Stephen Duffy
Named after a Stephen Duffy song, Needle Mythology started to take shape in earnest after speculative emails to Ian Broudie and Stephen Duffy resulted in the blessings of both artists. A couple of weeks later, Neil and Tim Finn also gave their blessings to the first ever vinyl release of Finn. Other releases from a diverse range of established artists are in the pipeline.
Read more about Pete’s inspiration and intentions for Needle Mythology
As with all Needle Mythology releases, both Tales Told and I Love My Friends are released on 180g vinyl, mastered by Guy Davie at Electric in West London especially for the format, with new artwork, lyrics and a bonus disc of music. The records are manufactured at the old EMI pressing plant in Hayes, now operated by The Vinyl Factory.