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Emma Sharpe • vocls
Dave Edge • drums
Bruce Maine • bass
Andy Miller • guitar
Alan Hall • guitar
The Emma Sharpe project all started in 1979, after a home made minimalist punk/rock guitar vocals track was played on local radio by Vince Geddes. Alan and Emma Sharpe aka Luana, were the songwriters of the project and through a lot of local interest to see the band live, a band, the Features, was hastily formed.
Our repertoire of only seven or eight fast and furious 2/3 minute songs meant that our live set was short and sweet, and audiences didn't quite know what had hit them, as usually we left the stage in under 30 minutes.
The track 'Motorway' was featured on Vaultage 80 and interest started coming from further afield. John Peel phoned us up to discuss a BBC session at the famous Maidavale Studios (previous visitors, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Beatles etc). In the end we did the session at Maidavale for the David (Kid) Jensen Show that went out between 7 and 10 in the evening just before the Peel show.
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The Evening Argus music journalist Tim Curran gave the band favourable press and by 1981 we signed to the independent label Mean.
A single 'I'm a millionaire' followed, which received very good Radio One play and good reviews in the music press. Guest appearance on the single featured Wesley Magoogan from Hazel O'Conner's band, famous for his haunting sax on 'Will You'.
He played a lyricon on side A, and a fantastic sax performance on the B side 'Wonderland'. The single was recorded on the Rolling Stones Mobile they used for recording in the late 70's in the South of France, we met it one cold night in Harlesden 1981.
The first single created a lot of music biz interest and by 1982 we signed to EMI records. Our A&R man was ex-bass player Dave Ambrose from Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger Trinity ('This Wheel's On Fire'). A single, 'Remember My Jealousy b/w The City' was released.
Again, good airplay and reviews but things went weird at Manchester Square and I can't say exactly what went wrong for legal reasons (joke). Stuart Jones was heard on Radio Brighton to say he didn't know what had happened to Emma Sharpe & the Features "They're probably locked down in the vaults of
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EMI cellars." Yeah something like that!
Some years later when the appetite returned, Alan and Luana started writing again, mostly just using acoustic guitar and Teac four track. In the late 90's the duo went out and did gigs all over the south coast as Just Fontaine.
From this, web sites were launched on the internet, and the band now have a world wide fan base. The band name had to be shortened as other acts disputed ownership of the name and we are now known as Fontain.
To all the buoys that helped us on our way:
Howard Berman, Mark Beglin, John Rolf, Bruce Lindfield, Steve Tatler, Miller Anderson, Steve Botting, Mark Botting, Stuart Jones, Vince Geddes, Tim Curran, David Jensen, John Peel, and last but not least, all at Attrix Records.
• Emma Sharpe mp3's can be found on the punkbrighton jukebox
• Emma Sharpe on myspace
• Just Fontaine on myspace
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