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Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Only Love Can Break Your Heart Quotes

"Saint Etienne’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart came out 35 years ago today. It’s so long ago it feels like the days before electricity. January 1990, we were in Ian Catt’s bedroom studio after six - after six! We hardly ever did that again! - with Harvey Williams playing that ground-shaking bassline and Ian splicing the quarter inch tape. Getting a finished copy felt like we’d built a bridge, then crossed it." Bob Stanley (May 2025)

"It's so long ago it feels like the days before electricity. I can still remember clear as day working in Ian Catt's bedroom studio after six - after six! We hardly ever did that again! - with Harvey Williams playing that ground-shaking bassline and Ian splicing the quarter inch tape." Bob Stanley (May 2025)

"When the elements of 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' came together it genuinely felt like some kind of magic had taken place, it had been a dream to make a record and this sounded like one" Pete Wiggs (May 2025)

"It was a game changing record that perfectly defined the era, the kind of record that pauses time for a few minutes as it plays. Released the same summer that the Roses and the Mondays broke huge, Only Love was like a summer breeze blowing a nearby nocturnal sound system through your open window. Although not the first release on Heavenly (a nod to Sly & Lovechild), it’s the record that helped truly define what the label was, is and always will be - playful, forward thinking and universal for all those who wanted to get on board. So on a very happy anniversary, a massive cheers to Bob and Pete (and Sarah) - a band still changing the game three and a half decades on." Heavenly Recordings (May 2025)"

Charts

Charts
UK

1990-07-07 (1 Week)
Position: 95

Note: Due to unreadable barcodes, the single did not register at the retail tills and sales numbers were not accurately captured hence it not charting till a month later when a work around was created. This is the reason why it did not chart in the first 4 weeks of release.

Promotional Material

Countries
UK

Promotion UK
Radio & Television PR: Nicki Kefalas (Out Promotion) - 83 Clerkenwell Road, London
Radio & Television PR: Steve Morton (Out Promotion) - 83 Clerkenwell Road, London
Club Promo: The Pop Group
Press: Jeff Barrett (Founder of Heavenly Recordings)
Scale Out: De Mix (Note: Dance Department of Rough Trade Distribution started by Joey Negro)

Distribution
Revolver - 3 Dove Lane, Bristol, BS2 9HP

Revolver was part of The Cartel which was a co-operative record distribution organisation in the United Kingdom, set up by a number of small independent record labels to handle their distribution to record shops.

FORMAT: Sticker

Out Promotion

Artwork & Info

FORMAT: Press Sheet

De-Mix / Rough Trade Distribution

Artwork & Info

FORMAT: One Sheet

Cartel / Revolver Distribution

Artwork & Info

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