By the summer of 1992, Silverfish and Therapy had both gone onto bigger labels. The American bands of interest were now really different, less industrial/noise based, more interested in inventive songs, like Beat Happening, Royal Trux and Bikini Kill. At that time Wiiija received a couple of ultra-low-fi four track demos from some regular Rough Trade customers who called themselves Huggy Bear. The demos were a breath of fresh air, as were their gigs, and the first single came out the day after that years Reading, a line up of boring U.S. grunge acts that showed why the u.k. needed new and excitng music to shake it up.



At the same time Cornershop played one of their first gigs, at the Square, Harlow and were so electrifying that they were signed almost straight away. The first Jacob’s Mouse single also came out that autumn, which completed a rosta of three new bands all singing about everyday British life from three different perspectives, but all dealing with alienation of one kind or another.

January 1993 saw the Cornershop debut single get rave reviews, and racism was dealt with by the press once more. February 1993 saw Huggy Bear explode on the Word with their performance of Herjazz, to be followed by their U.K. tour with Bikini Kill. Suddenly there were a million new bands all playing music, often for the first time, which Wiiija tried to reflect in the four band double pack featuring Comet Gain, Pussycat Trash, Skinned Teen and Linus, and in our two Blood Sausage releases that featured members of Huggy Bear, Tindersticks and Cee Bee Beaumont.



That Autumn, as Wiiija licensed the debut Bikini Kill full length from Kill Rock Stars, it seemed that America was catching onto what was going on, word of mouth spread after Wiiija bands played with Pavement, Sebadoh, Sonic Youth etc, and became fans of the label. At the same time everyone was paying outside the U.K. Jacob’s Mouse went to America, Huggy Bear went to America and Japan, Cornershop went to Europe and then recorded their debut album which kickstarted 1994 with another rush of attention.