Various Artists - Burning Ambitions [A History Of Punk]

Possibly the first serious attempt by Cherry Red at gathering some of the best bands from ’77 through to ’82 who wore the grubby T-Shirts of punk, in one seminal gatefold double album. As noted by many commentators who love to state the obvious, no shows by The Clash, Sex Pistols, Banshees or The Ramones for a history of punk seems more like lawyers from the big labels getting involved. Although prominently a collection of UK bands there are a few classics from the colonies with The Saints, The Heartbreakers and Dead Kennedys keeping it real. Some of the other personal highlights hidden within the soft folds are The Adverts, Swell Maps, The Lurkers, Spizzenergi, Killing Joke and Vice Squad. If you want a quick and entertaining education covering some of the best music from the punk era, Burning Ambitions has it all, well almost!

Various Artists - Labels Unlimited (The Second Record Collection)

Following hot on the heels of the semi successful Business Unusual compilation, Cherry Red decided to try again, this time aiming for the Christmas market of 1979. 16 tracks (15 from other indie labels) this time pushing the envelope to even more extraordinary lengths. New wave, Industrial, Experimental, Electronic and Girlschool. A mix that yet again doesn’t appear to work on paper but somehow gels well as yet another cross section of the indie music scene in 1979. The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM), Anarcho Punk, Zoo Liverpool and Spizz Oil to name but a few of the genres represented here make listening quite interesting. Welsh band Llygod Ffyrnig sing about the N.C.B. in Welsh, as you’d expect. I’ve no idea what they’re singing about, but it doesn’t really matter.

Various Artists - Business Unusual (The Other Record Collection)

Back in 1978, independent record label Cherry Red saw a gap in the compilation album market, no one was compiling independent single releases. And so after contacting a number of fellow Indies 14 tracks were assembled (including Cherry Red’s own The Tights) into a bulging monster. The artists included ranged from Punk and New Wave through to Experimental Industrial and Electro. Some of the artists will be known to many of you who stop by here, some will be listened to for their first time. It’s an interesting mix of genres that on first listen doesn’t work, but I never thought it was meant to. As a historical artefact chronicling music during a time of flux in the industry, it is absolutely spot on. Get your headphones on and wind up the volume, pain is the least of your worries.

Pillows And Prayers

Today a compilation of oddly eclectic new material by a record label would be lucky to get a passing mention in the music press, never mind become a touchstone of pop culture. But Cherry Red records managed this feat in 1982 by the simple yet very effective ploy of putting its 17-track Pillows and Prayers compilation out at the same price as a chart single - 99p - which was cost price.

At one-quarter of the average price of an album at the time, Pillows and Prayers rapidly became a must-have for students, and any teenager who possessed a charity shop raincoat and a passing acquaintance with crimping irons. It sold 120,000 copies in the year of its release and topped the independent chart for four months.

The price drew people in, but it is remembered because it offered something for everyone who had ever caught a John Peel show, offering a seemingly scattergun approach rather than the regimented image that other independent labels fostered at the time.