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2009

As time goes by, so more friends die. This year saw the deaths of two people very close to Ace - not just on a professional level but even more on a personal one.

Ray Topping died in January, after a long and cruel illness. His emotional connection to vernacular American music could spill over and make him difficult, but his engagement could never be denied. Rarely has anyone pursued a passion with such singularity. That passion was indelibly stamped on Ace Records, running through the company like lettering through a stick of rock. It was Ray who introduced us to the vast wealth of the Modern catalogue and compiled it in depth across LP and CD, a body of work that is his enduring legacy. But he also worked on Starday, Ace US, Combo, Specialty, Duke / Peacock. He put together two fabulous albums of “Jump Blues” from US Decca, one of Old Town blues sides, an Atlantic set that rocked from top to bottom and so, so many others. He had a keen ear for music, matching enthusiasm and boundless interest in his subject to which he brought a great intelligence. Bless him.

2007

A year of deaths, celebration and buying catalogues.

In March, Hy Weiss of Old Town / Barry Records died in Florida. The idea of deaths as ‘burning libraries’ certainly applied to Hy, a fount of insider knowledge about the music business from the mid-50s onwards. He was frank about it being full of scams and dodges. Most of his artists we met had no illusions about him, but also real affection. Plus, he could tell you a thing or two about them, too. He featured in many books, some more discreetly than others and it is a shame he never did tell his own tale. What tales he had to tell: tall, frighteningly honest and often very funny.

Movie soundtracks and book tie-ins also began to play a definitive part in the Ace release schedule, starting in 2004 with the Pogues and Joe Strummer featuring on the original soundtrack of Alex Cox’s “Straight to Hell Returns”. Then in 2010 came a double CD to accompany Alan Govenar’s magisterial biography of Lightnin’ Hopkins. As Roger Armstrong suggested: “Read the book, enjoy the record.” Another book tie-in came with “A Rocket In My Pocket: The Soundtrack To The Hipster's Guide To Rockabilly” which accompanied the book by the same name by Max Décharné. Chock-full of classics such as ‘The Train Kept A-Rollin'’ by Johnny Burnette & his Rock'n'Roll Trio and the title track by Jimmy Lloyd, it was a pure delight.