Stiff

Stiff Records: The archetypal independent Record Company upon which much of the Punk and New Wave revolution was built, from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, when it closed down.

Being an avid NME reader, I was well aware of eth progress of the various Stiff Tours in the mid to late 1970s, packaged tours, much like the Motown tours in 1960s USA, where Acts signed to Stiff Records were showcased.

Stiff signed various punk and new wave acts such as Nick Lowe, the Damned, Lene Lovich, Wreckless Eric, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, and Devo. In the 1980s, with most of their early signings having moved on, the label found commercial success with Madness, The Pogues, Tracey Ullman, The Belle Stars, Kirsty MacColl and others.

The first great British Hits Factory and you'll find many of their acts on this blog...

Here are a selection of some of the best Stiff signings, that may or may not get a post of their own at some point!

Lene Lovich with 'Lucky Niumber'

The magnificent Wreckless Eric and 'Whole Wide World'

Kirsty McColl with 'They Don't Know'

The Belle Stars with 'A Sign of the Times'

Of all the records released by Stiff Records, about one quarter charted, a remarkable success rate.

Elvis Costello with the sublime 'Alison'

Ian Drury with 'Sweet Gene Vincent'

I'll leave it with the fabulous Pogues and 'Dirty Old Town'

For full Stiff Records Discography look HERE

The Monkees

I loved The Monkees , as a young kid I used to watch their show on TV, as a teenager I realised that what had started out as a 'plastic' band put together by a record label actually developed into a really good, outfit. In my opinion thus is the reason that they broke-up, unable to develop further within the confines of the role that TV & record Labels had placed them in. I have their Greatest Hits album! An American rock and pop band originally active between the mid 1960s and early 1970s, their original line-up consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork with British actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was conceived in 1965 by television producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider specifically for a Sit-Com series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968. The band's music was initially heavily supervised by the TV company. Following the television show's cancellation in 1968, the Monkees continued to record music until 19...

The Adverts

The Adverts were an English punk band who formed in 1976 and broke up in late 1979. They were one of the first punk bands to enjoy chart success in the UK. The band was formed by T.V. Smith (Tim Smith) and Gaye Advert (Gaye Black), both originally from Devon but relocated to to London, the two young punks recruited guitarist Howard Pickup (Boak) and drummer Laurie Driver (Muscat), and the Adverts were born. Their 1977 single " Gary Gilmore's Eyes / Bored Teenagers " reached No. 18 in the UK Singles Chart. The Adverts played at the Roxy Club, London no less than nine times between January and April 1977, the first of which they supported Generation X, their third gig was supporting the Damned and they soon signed a recording contract with Stiff Records. In April 1977, the Adverts recorded the first of four sessions for John Peel at BBC Radio 1.Days later, on 29 April 1977, their debut single " One Chord Wonders " was released by Stiff. After the tabloid-fueled ...

Brinsley Swartz

Brinsley Schwarz were a 1970s English pub rock band, named after their guitarist Brinsley Schwarz . With Nick Lowe on bass and vocals, keyboardist Bob Andrews and drummer Billy Rankin . They were later augmented by Ian Gomm on guitar and vocals. I got hold of a live album of theirs around 1976 or 1977 and oved it, it had a number of moderate hits on it which are detailed below. Again never saw the band live but they were influential on my musical tastes and also on other bands coming out of the Pub circuit during this period. In no particular order, these are my favourite Brinsley Swartz tracks, first up are ' Hooked on Love ' & ' Surrender to the Rhythm ' from the Old Grey Whistle Test, on BBC2. I actually remember seeing them play on thi sprogram - assume this is the film of that session The other clip I have here is ' What's so funny about Peace, Love and Understanding ', this song was recorded...

Bow Wow Wow

Bow Wow Wow were an English new wave band, created by manager Malcolm McLaren in 1980. McLaren famously recruited members of Adam and the Ants to form the band behind 13-year-old Annabella Lwin on vocals. At one stage John O'Dowd (later Boy George) was a co-vocalist in the band. They released their debut EP ' Your Cassette Pet ' in 1980, which I played endlessly from this they relased their first single, " C·30 C·60 C·90 Go !", shortly thereafter.Initially released only on cassette, it was the world's first-ever cassette single (a 7" vinyl version was released several months later). EMI did not promote the "cassingle" due to its lyrics, which promoted home taping at a time when music piracy was a hot issue. In 1981, after splitting from EMI, Bow Wow Wow signed with RCA Records. In October of that year, their first full-length album was released: ' See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy! ' The cove...

Big Country

Big Country were a Scottish rock band formed in Dunfermline,in the early 1980s, Big Country comprised Stuart Adamson (formerly of Skids, vocals / guitar / keyboards), Bruce Watson (guitar / mandolin / sitar / vocals), Tony Butler (bass guitar / vocals) and Mark Brzezicki (drums / percussion / vocals). The height of the band's popularity was in the early to mid 1980s and the band incorporated Scottish folk and martial music styles, and they engineered their guitar-driven sound to evoke the sound of bagpipes, fiddles and other traditional folk instruments. Their biggest hit and my favourite track is ' In a Big Country ', also 'Look Away' and their first single ' Fields of Fire '

Muzical Mystery Tour

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