Chiswick Part 2

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How did you get into punk ?
It sort of arrived on our doorstep. We had cut the 101ers single and though it might not seem that adventurous now it was a record that paved the way for punk. Malcolm invited Ted and I to go see his new band at some gig in Chelsea. Basically it was about a dozen drunk students, Malcolm, Vivien, Ted maybe Bernie and a couple of others and me, with John taunting the students and getting beer cans thrown at him – most impressive. Before that one night at Upstairs at Ronnies Malcolm had already bent my ear about whether the lead singer of the Count Bishops, Mike Spenser would be right for his new band. Fuck off Malcolm we’re making a record with them.

Mike Spenser.
Could have been a Pistol!

The idea of getting into punk never occurred to us at the time. There were a bunch of bands and me and my friends went out to see them. We knew a lot of the musicians and so went to support them. It wasn’t a case of getting into them, they were just there and we went to see them, sometimes recorded them and were generally out to enjoy ourselves. I was already pushing 30 so it was my 2^nd childhood – and last given that next up were the new romantics!

They were never going to sign to Chiswick!

Nearly on the Chiswick Label!

I also heard that the Pistols might have signed for Chiswick but viewed you as too small. What's the story ? Were the Count Bishops really rivals for the Pistols
Neither Malcolm with the Pistols or Bernie with the Clash (or for that matter Andy with Gen X) ever had any intention of signing with an independent label. We just did not have the money or the muscle and we couldn’t be wound up the way the majors could. The Pistols weren’t going to come round a spew up over our carpets – wasn’t worth it they were messy enough anyway and they would have been told to fuck off. They (Malcolm) needed something to rail against and Ted and I did not fit the bill. We nearly signed The Jam. The day before we had a meeting set up with Paul and his dad/manager John, Chris Parry at Polydor heard that Bernie had shafted him and taken the Clash to CBS, so he rang The Jam and said they had a deal and they blew us out. Probably just as well all round.

Looking at their roster that had signed a lot of these high charged R& B acts. As punk broke the rush for the bands came . The majors cherry picked made a few ballsups and in the wake of Chiswick's example formed their own record labels for one offs etc. Basically I see that Chiswick just released stuff they liked.