The New English | Questions and Answers

Question 1

Who were The New English?

Accepted Answer

The New English were a London indie pop band of the late 1980s. Contemporary documents name Johnny Rasheed (bass and vocals) and Shareef C (guitar), and a later account places the main period between 1986 and 1988.

Question 2

Where were The New English from?

Accepted Answer

Band publicity places Johnny and Shareef in Fulham, a Reading preview calls them a London band, a Le Beat Route reviewer wrote “the band from the East End”, and a later account says Surrey.

Question 3

Is this the same New English as other acts with that name?

Accepted Answer

No. This archive covers the late-1980s London band The New English and the later work of its members. Other acts and publications with similar names are separate, including The New English Rock Ensemble, the 2005 album New English on Popster, The New English Weekly and New English Review.

Question 4

When was the band active?

Accepted Answer

A later account gives 1986 to 1988 as the main period. The earliest dated review of the band in the archive is from 28 October 1986, and a poster is attributed to a show on 17 February 1990.

Question 5

Who were the members?

Accepted Answer

Johnny Rasheed (bass and vocals) and Shareef C (guitar) are the names that recur in the surviving documents. A photograph caption records that Joz had left, and later accounts describe Joz as a vocalist. A publicity sheet gives the name Sara Hewes, while a later account calls the drummer Sarah Hughes, so the archive uses Sara. Later accounts name Dave Beech as bassist in a predecessor project, The Fallen Idols.

Question 6

What kind of music did they play?

Accepted Answer

Band publicity describes indie pop and names the Woodentops, the Smiths and the Housemartins. Interviews discuss Felt, Morrissey and the Redskins. In a Reading preview Johnny Rasheed talks about moving towards soul pop.

Question 7

Which performances are documented?

Accepted Answer

Two fanzine reviews are in this archive: the Tunnel Club, Greenwich, on 28 October 1986 and Le Beat Route, London, on 23 February 1987. Tickets and posters advertise further shows, including the Rock Garden, Zeeta’s in Putney and Reading, and a later chronology lists more. A ticket or poster proves an advertisement, not that the performance took place.

Question 8

Did The New English appear on television?

Accepted Answer

Two band publicity sheets claim an appearance on the BBC Two programme Network East. A YouTube upload shows a band playing in a television studio, and a later account links it to that programme. The broadcast date is unresolved, and no programme listing naming the band has been read.

Question 9

What is London 1987?

Accepted Answer

London 1987 is an eleven-track digital album credited to The New English, listed with a release date of 2 January 2019 and a RipItUp Records credit. The title is not a release date. Upload notes date different versions of these songs between 1987 and 1998, and one dates a live Get Ready in Bonn to March 1990. None of these dates is confirmed, and the notes do not say which version is on the album.

Question 10

Did the band release a record in the 1980s?

Accepted Answer

No 1980s commercial release is documented in this archive. It holds a review of a two-song demo tape, and a publicity sheet offers a tape to bookers. The earliest release in a catalogue is a user-submitted Discogs entry for a 2001 CDr, which nothing in this archive confirms, followed by the 2019 digital album.

Question 11

Where can I listen to The New English?

Accepted Answer

London 1987 is on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer and Tidal. Links are in the Recordings section of the homepage, with eight videos on YouTube.

Question 12

Is Inspiration a New English album?

Accepted Answer

No. Inspiration is a 1993 CD by Johnny Rasheed on Jackfruit Music, listed with eight songs by the specialist catalogue TweeNet. Discogs credits Shareef C on guitars.

Question 13

What was The Internationalists?

Accepted Answer

A later account describes The Internationalists as an acoustic duo of Johnny and Shareef, reported from December 1991. The upload note for a Bracknell Festival video from July 1997 reads “The New English aka The Internationalists”. The archive files that performance with the later project.

Question 14

Are there videos of the band?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Eight YouTube uploads on the channel sc101101 are catalogued on the homepage, and each played when checked on 5 November 2026. The channel has not been identified as official, so recording places and dates in the descriptions are shown only as the uploader’s notes.

Question 15

Can the dates in this archive be trusted?

Accepted Answer

Partly. Documents are labelled by type of evidence, but many dates are advertised, attributed or inferred. The Zeeta’s ticket says Thursday 11 February, for example, while a later chronology gives 10 February. The research page lists the open conflicts.

Question 16

Is this archive an independent source?

Accepted Answer

No. It is a curated collection of documents supplied to it, later accounts and catalogue entries, with the type of each source labelled. It is not an independent encyclopedia and does not claim to be one.