NEWS ALERT: Heavenly Vinyl Reissues Coming And First Heavenly Concert in 28 Years Happening Next Year!

This year has brought us the very pleasant surprise of a wonderful new album from The Orchids, and now's here some more great news from the same label. The Heavenly albums are going to be reissued on Skep Wax starting with Heavenly vs Satan this November.

The reissues will continue in the near year or so following that 1991 classic, with 1992's Le Jardin de Heavenly coming in summer 2023, and 1994's The Decline and Fall of Heavenly and 1996's Operation Heavenly coming in 2024. There will be t-shirts and updated booklets with each release too. For some of these, this will be the first time the vinyl will be readily accessible.

Now, if all that wasn't enough to be excited about, the band's performing live for the first time in 28 years next May in London. Amelia Fletcher, Peter Momtchiloff, Cathy Rogers, and Rob Pursey will be joined by drummer Ian Button. Original member Matthew Fletcher took his own life in 1996. The May 20, 2023 concert at London's Bush Hall will find Heavenly conjuring up their indie magic again, and that might just be reason enough to get me to visit the U.K. again.

This band was special, and these reissues should bring attention to their output, a catalog of releases that virtually redefined indie in an era when grunge was edging out sharper and smarter brands of independent music from the marketplace. Amelia Fletcher did so much, and shaped so much of what we think of when we say "indie", that sometimes it feels like Heavenly have been taken for granted. They were great, and maybe going back to the original records via these reissues will be a crash course in so much of what made Heavenly so special. Take a gander at "I Fell in Love Last Night" below for a refresher. That single will be added to this new iteration of Heavenly vs Satan.

Heavenly vs Satan is out via Skep Wax in November. More details also on the Skep Wax Bandcamp page.

[Photo: Skep Wax]