Music Reissues Weekly: Chiswick Records 1975-1982 - Seven Years at 45 RPM

Chiswick Records 1975-1982 - Seven Years at 45 RPM is a triple album marking the 50th anniversary of the first release on the titular label. That record was a four-track, seven-inch EP by the rough, Rolling Stones-ish pub rockers The Count Bishops. It came out in November 1975.

Setting the trend for what was around the corner with punk, not only was The Count Bishops EP on an independent label it also came in a picture sleeve. The label was an outgrowth of the Rock On record stall and shop. The folks behind the imprint – Roger Armstrong, Ted Carroll and Trevor Churchill – all had backgrounds in various aspects of the music business: backroom, mainstream and under the radar. Crucially, they knew what people were buying. What was hot, what was collectable and what was emerging from the undergrowth.

Their customers included Malcolm McLaren and Joe Strummer. The latter’s pre-Clash band, The 101’ers, issued their only single on Chiswick just as Strummer was absconding to the nascent and shinier Clash. Another person haunting the Rock On outlets was Jesse Hector. His trio The Gorillas also ended up on Chiswick in 1976. As did, following brushes with other labels – including Stiff, which in 1976 followed Chiswick's lead – Lemmy’s Motörhead. He was another regular record browser.

Right place, right time then? Yes, but Chiswick – initially conceived as a reissue label – had limited grapples with what could really be dubbed “punk.” There were The Radiators From Space, Skrewdriver (not on the comp due to what they became soon after their time with Chiswick) and Johnny and the Self Abusers who, in a move akin to that of Strummer with the 101’ers and The Clash, changed their name to The Simple Minds just as their sole single under the punkish name was released. It came out as by Johnny etc. Then there was Johnny Moped, a misfit outfit lumped in with punk. But, as Armstrong says in his parts of the commentary on the inner sleeves (there is also text by Ted Carroll), they were akin to outsider art.

Chiswick excelled by picking up oddities which could click. Consider The Gorillas, who had the thump of glam rock and vim of punk but were more like Small Faces than anything else trying to break through in 1975 or 1976. Still, that didn’t stop them playing the world’s first punk rock festival in Mont-de-Marsan in France in August 1976.

This follow-the-nose tendency is exemplified by Sniff ‘n’ the Tears, whose October 1978 single “Driver’s Seat” barely made any waves when it first hit shops. Record Mirror reviewed it by saying it was “breaking into the safety zone of Radio 1 playlist territory.” In Melody Maker, guest reviewer Paul Weller said “nice acoustic guitar opening. Unfortunately, after about 45 seconds it becomes monotonous.” In summer 1979, once licensed to Atlantic, the single reached number 15 the mainstream US Top 40. Around this point, “Driver’s Seat” had finally broken through into the UK Top 50.

Being on board with things which weren’t obvious contenders was a recurrent theme. When Chiswick picked up The Dammed in 1979, it was a reformed/reconfigured version of the band which had broken through with punk in 1976. No one else was interested in them. Yet there they were, demonstrating an afterlife by charting and playing Top Of The Pops with their debut Chiswick single “Love Song.”

Back in 1976, Chiswick had tried to get The Dammed but Stiff had moved faster. It was the same in 1977 with The Adverts. Nonetheless, their frontman T.V. Smith, with his post-Adverts band The Explorers, turned up on Chiswick in 1980 with “Tomahawk Cruise.” Another band Chiswick were close to securing a deal with in 1976 were The Jam. Ultimately, they went with Polydor.

Such encounters with what was on trend were not central to Chiswick. Which helps make this important label – in time, it became the still-thriving Ace Records – more fascinating than an imprint cleaving to one style or scene. There are bands, like The 101’ers and Johnny and the Self Abusers, which housed future household names: such as Riff Raff (Billy Bragg) or The Drug Addix (Kirsty MacColl: for reasons unknown they are not on Chiswick Records 1975-1982).

Then, there are records by folks who had been around the block but were still vital: such as Radio Stars (with Andy Ellison, who had been in John’s Children with Marc Bolan, and Martin Gordon, formerly a member of Sparks) or The Rings (with Twink: his CV went back into early Seventies freakiness, Sixties psychedelia and more). There are also the barely knowns: the cajun-tinged 1977 hopefuls The Amazorblades with the melodic “Common Truth.” Most of all though, it’s the hot music which grabs the ear and emotions. Take Whirlwind’s “Hang Loose (I’ve Gotta Rock),” timelessly kinetic 1978 rockabilly which still thrills.

Dig into this exciting triple album. The narrative presented might be relatively unsung, but it is as important to the understanding of the UK in the punk and post-punk eras as stories which are typically and repeatedly shouted with much more volume. But move fast – Chiswick Records 1975-1982 - Seven Years at 45 RPM has a run limited to 500 copies.

• Next week: Robyn - 20th-anniversary double-LP reissue of the Swedish pop wonder’s eponymous international breakthrough album
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