Is it really 20 years ago since Ted Carroll and Roger Armstrong (with Trevor Churchill joining a little later) launched Chiswick Records from a market stall selling second-hand records in Soho? Today, all three are directors of what Chiswick has since developed into - Ace Records Ltd one of the premier reissue labels in Europe. Back then, though, with Chiswick, they were part of the wave of change that was running through British pop music as the pub rock of the 1970s faded and punk, power pop and heavy metal surged forward to take its place. Among the ninety-nine 45 rpm singles and thirty-two albums that Chiswick recorded between 1975 and 1984, are hits with Rocky Sharpe & The Replays, The Damned, Sniff 'N' The Tears and career debuts from Joe Strummer, Kirsty McColl, Billy Bragg and Jim Kerr (with The 101'ers, Drug Addix, Riff Raff & Johnny & The Self Abusers respectively).Good Clean Fun tells the Chiswick Story in one incredible value CD package of 22 tracks available in the shops for around the suggested retail price of £2.99.
Starting right at the beginning with Beautiful Delilah from The Count Bishops' Speedball EP of November 1975, the celebrations take in Motorhead's killer version of Tiny Bradshaw's Train Kept A-Rollin', The Damned's anarchic Smash It Up, previously unissued live versions of Whirlwind's Tear It Up and The Radiators From Space' Enemies, culminating in The Radio Stars stab at direct selling Buy Chiswick Records! In fact 8 tracks are exclusive to this CD.Music fans who bought our earlier vinyl samplers will probably recognise the artwork to this CD release as being a somewhat modified version of the vinyl sampler Long Shots, Dead Certs And Odds-On Favourites. Quite a lot of people who should have been featured on the original cover (either they didn't make the photo session or were hidden from view on the print used) have now been added to the class photograph courtesy of an awfully clever computer montage technique.
