Back in the 1980s, Beautiful Pea Green Boat released a couple of albums and several singles on their own Slaughterback label in conjunction with Third Mind Records which became known for their ethereal female vocals and mixture of electro, indie and melodic, neo-classical torch songs. Nobody was quite sure if it was synth pop or goth but it didn’t seem to matter. They made a video which few people have seen, and played a mere half-dozen concerts, but thanks to various licensing deals, gained quite a reputation, especially in Europe and on the American college radio circuit.

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Beautiful Pea Green Boat started in Edinburgh in 1984 with Ian Williams and Lewis Edwards who were joined by Heather Wright on vocals, and this line up recorded and released the 12” EP ‘Chance’ in December of that year. Sadly, guitarist Lewis, a scouser reading Classics and writing poetry, died suddenly of leukaemia a few months later just as the single was being promoted in Europe.

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It took the band a while to get over this shock, but eventually Heather and Ian made the album ‘Obsessions’, which was released in 1987 to general acclaim - even the legendary DJ John Peel would spin the occasional track.

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In 1988 Ian and Heather released a follow up album, ‘Get Religion’, which comprised three tracks re-recorded from ‘Obsessions’ along with new material. The sound was bigger, bolder and more commercial, and led to a compilation called ‘Still Life’ being licensed to the C’est La Mort label in America. Several remixes also found their way onto various compilations around the world.

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Heather also released an album under the name God Said with her brother Mervyn called ‘Off The Plot’, and a single, ‘Ride Away’, as part of Doris (with Zerocrop’s Parker), both on the Slaughterback label.

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Meanwhile, Ian released two more 12” singles as Beautiful Pea Green Boat with different singers: Clio Padovani on the orchestral Italian folk song, ‘Maremma’, and Juley Smith on the club-friendly ‘Every Night With You I Die A Little’. Soon after, Ian and Juley changed their name to Cloud Horses and released another 12”, ‘Descent’. There was an album too, but until now it has yet to see the light of day.

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Sadly too, we lost Heather to cancer in 2014, but we think making these releases available is a nice way to remember her.