Welcome to my on-line tribute to the London based Chiswick label. Started in 1975 and, under various guises, still going strong to this day, Chiswick put out some of my favorite records ever. Here you'll find an ever growing collection of info, record sleeves, old advertisements and whatever comes to mind. So dig in and enjoy!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Johnny Moped album Hip Pocket edition released

"Basically, it’s better that being hit round the head with a mace…

The pride of Croydon’s one and only album has long been among the most defining artefacts of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it era that spawned the full-on punk explosion. Johnny Moped - both the band, and their chummily eponymous frontman – were and still are the epitome of what was at the vanguard of early punk. Along with two Berks and a Slimy Toad, JM purveyed a skewed stance on cranked-up R&B that made him and his colleagues heroes of the early punk elite and also of quite a few pub rock fans who didn’t much like the hardcore 1-2-3-4 stuff but would, depending on how many pints you got inside them, grudgingly admit to liking the Mopeds and others of their fairly unique ilk.

Not all of the best punk-era bands were recorded, but through the farsightedness of Ace’s precursor Chiswick Records, Johnny Moped happily were. Thirty years on, “Cycledelic” wears its dumb brilliance well, from the castrato attack on Mr Berry’s Little Queenie to the shoulda-beena-smash singalong stupefaction of Darling, Let’s Have Another Baby. Johnny Moped’s era ended all too abruptly when his missus wouldn’t let him go out and play with his mates anymore, but we’ll always have “Cycledelic” – handily preserved in its entirety in this new super duper Hip Pocket edition – to fight their corner in the battleground that was, is and forever will be punk rock."


By Tony Rounce

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Radio Stars reunion!

BlowUpMetro, 19-23 oxford st. london w1 ... newsflash 13.11.07

**just announced - on sale now**

MARTIN GORDON
friday 29th february 2008

RADIO STARS
saturday 1st march 2008

Sparks, Jet, Radio Stars, Rolling Stones, Kylie Minogue, Tiger Lillies, Sezen Aksu, the Mammal Trilogy – it was a long and winding road which led to Gordon’s solo debut in the USA in 2007, a mere 34 years after becoming a professional musician. Despite this, bassist/ composer/ producer Martin Gordon makes a rare appearance on Feb 29th 2008 at the Blow Up Metro club in Oxford Street. And, in blatant contradiction to his evident strategy, he repeats the process the following night at the same venue with a one-off performance by his temporarily-reformed band Radio Stars.

martin gordon show info...

radio stars show info...

advance tickets - yes! buy now! >>
Martin Gordon - www.ticketweb.co.uk 08700 600 100 (all subject to availabilty)
Radio Stars - www.ticketweb.co.uk 08700 600 100 (all subject to availabilty)