Ace Records (UK)

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A Brief History of Ace

Ted Carroll started it all in 1971 when he opened the Rock On market stall in Londons Golborne Road selling second hand records in front of the Elvis wallpaper. He managed Thin Lizzy and was immortalised in their 1973 single The Rocker. Having quit the management game he expanded his retail empire, opening a second market stall in Soho. Roger Armstrong manned the counters there from around late 1974. Teds two Rock On market stalls, and eventually the shop in Camden soon became the main supplier to a huge array of different perverse tastes in music, not only to the established tribes but to the burgeoning punk rock scene. At first Chiswick Records, the label that spun off from the retail outlets, mixed re-issues with new recordings. Trevor Churchill joined as the first salaried employee of the new record company. He too had, on occasions, served time behind the counter, but more importantly had a background in proper record companies. A license was struck for the pop end of the label with EMI in 1978 and so a new imprint had to be established for the re-issues. As Ace Records (of Mississippi) was one of our licensors, we plumped for Ace. For a while pop success was just around the corner, well maybe the next one. But despite worldwide licensing deals and the occasional international hit record, Chiswick Records was inevitably a phenomenon of its day. Thankfully the oldies division stayed healthy until we finally dropped out of the wacky world of Middle of the Pops around the early 80s and devoted ourselves full time to the pursuit of catalogues.

At first there was only a demand for rocknroll, R&B, Blues and Oldies on Ace. But soon 60s soul was added with the Kent label and as the years went by we diversified into World Music with GlobeStyle, started BGP as jazz dance turned into Acid Jazz and took on board various historic imprints like Stax and Westbound. We struck a deal with Fantasy Records, the largest independent catalogue company in America, which gave us access to their enormous jazz catalogue.

The label was firmly established by the end of the 80s and consolidated with our trademark compilation series and some fine box sets through the 90s. During this period we increasingly purchased catalogues as well as expanding our licensing base. The catalogue now extends to well over 1500 items.