The Farm – Spartacus

Pre Order 17th October

To celebrate National Album Day and the 2026 theme of 'Icons', Demon Records are

proud to present the reissue of the Number One debut album from The Farm featuring

the Top 10 singles 'All Together Now' and 'Groovy Train' on it's 35th anniversary.

The Farm had long been fying the fag for terrace chic, anthemic street poetry, training

shoes and street fashion for many years since the mid 1980s, before the music press

fnally decided at the start of the 90s that with upstarts like The Happy Mondays it

was de rigueur. Peter Hooton the front man and lead singer had been at the forefront

of music, politics and football fanzine 'The End' where he honed his writing skills

writing poems.

Finally the world was catching up; The Farm had been banging their drum from the

start, and now their time had come with all the key pieces falling into place with the

band's infuences from the likes of Buzzcocks, the Clash and the Jam melding with

dance and acid house-infuenced grooves.

Originally released fully independently on their own label, Produce Records, the album

was recorded with Madness frontman Graham "Suggs" McPherson as producer, with

another track 'Tell The Story' produced by the Housemartins members Paul Heaton

and Stan Cullimore and guest vocals on a number of tracks from Pete Wylie. Terry

Farley a founding editor of Boy's Own magazine and regular acid house DJ who'd

collaborated with Andrew Weatherall mixed the album.

Not only was competing at the highest level on an independent label hugely unusual

at the start of the 90s, 'Spartacus' had to see off competition from the current No.1

Chris Rea's 'Auberge' and The KLF's 'White Room'. It was to be an Ibiza clubbing

documentary The Farm had been prominently featured in, 'A Short Film About Chilling'

that helped get 'Spartacus' all the way to No.1 - a feat that bands like Primal Scream,

Happy Mondays, EMF and Electronic, and even U2's 'Achtung Baby' had failed match

in 1991.

1991 saw The Farm selling out live shows, appearing on TV and featuring on the

covers of the NME, The Face, Vox, Sounds and Record Mirror with 'Spartacus' making

'Album of the Month' in Select and included in the NME and Vox magazine's '50

Albums of 1991' lists. Finally the world HAD caught up