The Chiswick Story

The first of the new wave of indie labels in the mid-70s was Chiswick Records of Camden Town, a centre of Irish entertainment in North London. Ted Carroll had been running the Rock On market stall in Golborne Rd since 1971 and had expanded his empire with a stall in Soho and then a proper retail outlet in N5. Roger Armstrong ran the Soho location and had aspirations to produce records. Eventually the two of them turned up North London’s finest Polish, New Zealand, American, English R&B outfit who were renamed the Count Bishops and cut a hot and sweaty EP on a very hot and sweaty summer evening in Stoke Newington. And so a label was born. Ted and Roger soon recruited third partner Trevor Churchill who had real record company experience in abundance. Through Trevor’s contacts, the great British rock’n’roll record ‘Brand New Cadillac’ was licensed from EMI and garnered a lot of radio play.