“All these albums were key to help spread enduring British subcultures around the globe: teddy boys, rockabilly, mods, Northern soul and acid jazz…”
Anyone with a keen grasp of music history will be aware that Ace Records celebrated their 50th anniversary this year with a series of concerts and innovative events centred round their traditional home district of Camden Town, north London. Yet the genesis of the UK’s most successful reissue label is somewhat more complicated. In RC576, Michael Heatley takes a deep dive…
The name of Ace didn’t actually appear on a vinyl record label until 1978, when a group of music enthusiasts decided to separate their reissue activities from the other labels they jointly ran. They borrowed the name from a famous American label run by Johnny Vincent in Jackson, Mississippi.
The story had its roots in London’s Portobello Market, when Ted Carroll had sold records from a stall under the Rock On name in the early 70s. Listen to Thin Lizzy’s The Rocker and you’ll hear Phil Lynott holler: “I get my records from the Rock On stall… Teddy boy, he’s got them all!” (Carroll was the band’s co-manager until 1974).
Carroll takes up the story: “In August 1974, I decided to open a second branch of my oldies business, Rock On, this time in Soho Market. About a month later I asked Roger [Armstrong], who I had known for about two years, to manage the stall for me. Roger took to working at Rock On like a duck to water and so, after a couple of months, I invited him to join me as a partner in the reissue record label I was planning to launch sometime in the near future. Meanwhile, I opened a third branch of Rock On Records in Camden Town in August 1975 in partnership with another friend, Barry Appleby.”
London in the mid-70s was, of course, a hotbed of musical activity, and it was inevitable that current acts – especially those who looked to traditional sources for inspiration – would wend their way to Rock On. First to benefit were The Count Bishops…
ACE RELEASES
Count Bishops Speedball EP (Chiswick SW1, UK, 7” EP, 1975)
These London pubrockers put the Chiswick label on the music map in 1975 with a four-track EP recorded at the princely cost of £92 at Pathway Studios. It’s since been reissued on vinyl and, with 11 extra tracks, on compact disc. Joe Strummer was a fan… enough said!
Current Market Value: £10
Motörhead Motörhead (Chiswick WIK 2, UK, LP, 1977)
Our first success with recording a band, even though it sort of happened by accident,” Armstrong admits. With a legendary logo from Joe Petagno and sleeve layout from Phil Smee, who designed countless Ace LPs, this salvaged Lemmy and co’s career. Armstrong adds: “Has anyone else noticed that the title track swings like fuck?
Current Market Value: £1500
Various Artists Ace Story Vol. 1 (Ace CH 11, UK, LP, 1979)
Having borrowed the name of the label from Jackson, Mississippi, it was appropriate that five volumes of musical homage should result. Ray Topping, the original Ace compiler who Ted Carroll called the Blues Detective, was instrumental in bringing these New Orleans recordings to a wider audience, and names like Frankie Ford, Huey Smith, Jimmy Clanton and Earl King have become legend.
Current Market Value: £5
Funkadelic Maggot Brain (Westbound WBCD 2007, UK, CD, 1989)
One of Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time an influential on Living Colour, Ween and others, Funkadelic’s third LP and the last by the original line-up remains unsurpassed. This seminal 1971 release on Westbound mixed psychedelic rock, funk and soul and has since appeared in several versions, including a 50th anniversary edition.
Current Market Value: £10
Various Artists Take Me To The River – A Southern Soul Story (Kent KENTBOX 10, UK, 3CD, 2008)
Ace labels have firmly explored and catalogued the music of the American South, and this award-winning 3CD set told the story of Southern soul in 75 tracks from Fame, through Stax and on to Hi. It would spawn a wider-ranging sequel in Back To The River – More Southern Soul Stories 1961-78, released in 2015.
Current Market Value: £20
Stanley & Pete Wiggs English Weather (Ace CDCHD1484, UK, CD, 2017)
RC’s own Oregano Rathbone rhapsodised about this compilation in early 2017, in which Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs assembled a collection of tracks from the late 60s that “looked out onto a new decade with a mixture of melancholy and optimism”. It also set the template for similar genre-inspired compilations to come.
Current Market Value: £5
The full article, and our rundown of 40 ace Ace releases, appears in Record Collector November 2025 issue (RC576), and can be purchased from our online shop.
