RECORDS
Independent label: Crackin' Up Records Fromer Address: 3-11 Temple Street, Liverpool. Was run by Dave Owens from Birkenhead, he operated this short-lived but important little label from Temple Street in Liverpool City Centre. There were only 3 releases on the label and a compilation cassette "Cracking Up At The Pyramid" (March 1982), a single from a band called The Frantic Elevators. The lead singer was the soon to be famous Mick Hucknall from Simply Red. The Crackin' Up 'office' was one of a number of rooms in an old grain warehouse, at different times used by Tim Whittaker the drummer from Deaf School, (he was a painter by this time), Steve Grace from Nasty Pop (making a living as a carpenter) and the later to be 'cult hero' Craig Charles, from the TV series Red Dwarf, plying his trade as a Poet. The Frantic Elevators Formed by Mick Hucknall in 1976 after seeing the Sex Pistols perform at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England, the Frantic Elevators was a punk rock band with new wave influences that had limited releases on local labels, creating nine songs in total. Although touring and promoting themselves, they received only local attention. However, the band won some critical acclaim for its 1982 final single, “Holding Back The Years”, which had a slower and more bluesy tone than many of their other songs. The group disbanded after seven years of playing in 1984. In 1985, Mick Hucknall formed the pop group Simply Red, which would have far more success. A different version of “Holding Back The Years” would later become one of Simply Red’s best known songs. Six of the Frantic Elevators’ tracks were later included on the retrospective albums ‘Simply Mick Hucknall - The Early Years’, released in 1988 through Receiver Records, and ‘Singles’, released in 2000 through Essential Records. Distributed By Rough Trade and Probe Plus.
| 81 | Frantic Elevators | Searching For The Only One | CRACKIN' UP | CRAK | 1 |
| 81 | Freeze Frame | Touch | CRACKIN' UP | CRAK | 2 |
| 81 | Traveller | I Don'T Need Anybody | CRACKIN' UP | CRAK | 3 |
