Amelia Fletcher

When I was 16 a friend of mine played me a song by Talulah Gosh, a song also called Talulah Gosh, this big slice of twee indie was unlike anything in his record collection, a record collection that leaned heavily on Howard Jones and The Thomson Twins, little else actually, but perhaps as my own leanings as a 16 year old were The Wedding Present and The Housemartins, he perhaps knew that I may enjoy this single.



Talulah Gosh by Talulah Gosh


I did enjoy the single, it took what The Smiths were doing and made it good, it was at that point unlike anything I had heard outside of The Wedding Present, that record really was the start of my love affair with Indie that continues off and on to this day.



Getting Better by The Wedding Present Ft Amelia Fletcher

The singer in Talulah Gosh for 30 something males of a certain musical persuasion is their pin up, their heroine, the object of their desires, they have grown up with her, and in a time when girls in woolly tights, flowery skirts and brilliant corners t-shirts didn’t exist much, she was always around.
You see Amelia Fletcher has been doing what Amelia Fletcher does for well over 20 years, 23 years to be exact, and she still does it today.



Our Love Is Heavenly by Heavenly

Amelia Fletcher is the indie Kirstie MacColl, she is actually more than that but she has been described as that, contributing her backing vocal talents over the years to The Wedding Present, The Brilliant Corners, The Pooh Sticks, The 6th's and Hefner, and those are just the ones that immediately spring to mind, during a period at the back end of the eighties Amelia Fletcher was best described as ubiquitous.



Good Fruit by Hefner Ft Amelia Fletcher

Amelia also has been a member or is a member not only of Talulah Gosh, but also Heavenly, Sportique, Marine Research and Tender Trap, the girl, it has to be said, musically, gets about.
The thing with her, and I think this is her appeal is that her vocals are rather sweet, even now I hear her and I can’t help thinking, aaah, she is two parts kitten to one part furby, metaphorically speaking of course, the anti Helen Love it may seem but they do plough the same furrow, but where Love sings of Punk boys, Fletcher tells of Beatnik Boys. It is still boys though.



Queen B by Marine Research

Fletchers appeal over the years as heartthrob to boys and role model to girls doesn’t appear to wane, even with motherhood, even with the respectable job, she still has the potential to make grown men blush.



Face of 73 by Tender Trap

These days, as well as playing indie festivals and the like, she was, a lecturer at Oxford University and did something like advise the Dti on money things, Wikipedia will I am sure elaborate on that. You look it up, that’s probably a direct quote there "Amelia Fletcher did something like advise the Dti on money things"

Recent years has seen my love for all things Fletcher die down a little, during my formative years, Heavenly were perfect but as my tastes have got more aligned to Californian Punk, the summery sunshineyness of her resultant bands have washed over me a little, particularly as John Peel is dead and the kind of place they play, and the kind of people they play to, it makes me want to drop bombs, not beats. That’s not to say she isn’t much cop, its me, not her.

I am sure one day, for her services to money stuff the queen will award her an MBE or a Dame hood, but it would be nice to think it was for services to shaking a tambourine.

Amelia Fletcher, singer, songwriter, knows an awful lot about money stuff.