Ace 50 Live

Today, the longest running independent record label in the UK announces a week of gigs in August at Camden’s historic KOKO venue. Luminaries of Ace Records extensive family of labels will takeover the venue in a weeklong celebration of the label’s 50 years.

On Monday 4^th and Tuesday 5^th August, Booker T Jones of the legendary, era-defining group Booker T and The MGs, will kick off proceedings. Considered the best instrumental band of all time, as the backbone of Stax Records Booker T & The MGs were renowned for their gritty southern soul sound, influencing an array of musicians, particularly on their ‘60s R&B classic ‘Green Onions’, which centres around Booker’s rippling Hammond M3 organ part.

On Thursday 7^th, veteran funk group Fatback Band, renowned for their ‘70s dancefloor fillers ‘(Are You Ready) To Do The Bus Stop’ and ‘Double Dutch’, will shake the venue in a celebration of Ace’s historical commitment to releasing remarkable Black American music via their Spring Records, Southbound and BGP Imprints.

Friday 8^th sees legendary, hugely influential American psych-garage group The Seeds perform their exciting brand of rock ‘n’ roll. Best known for ‘60s punk anthems ‘Can’t Seem To Make You Mine’ and ‘Pushin’ Too Hard’, the group stands prominent amongst a handful of mid-60s garage bands whose influence is palpable in rock to this day.

Support will come from The Sting-Rays. Originally signed to Ace’s garage rock offshoot Big Beat, The Sting-Rays were acclaimed for their brand of no-nonsense high energy rock’n’roll.

Finally, on Sunday 10^th August they’ll be an all-day celebration of Ace’s northern soul Kent and BGP funk imprints with DJs spinning tunes from across the labels. The northern soul room will be hosted by Ady Croasdell and feature DJ’s including Keb Darge, while the funk room will be hosted by Dean Rudland.

The same week, in honour of Ace’s devotion to crate-digging culture and deep Camden roots, with Ace founder Ted Carroll having opened his third Rock On record shop in the town in 1975, the label will be running a pop-up shop, also in Camden, at 1 Adelaide Road, NW3 3QE.

Ace at Rock On will be stocked with thousands of LPs from the label’s diverse and extensive catalogue, exclusive merchandise, and open from 11am-7pm daily. Each day they’ll be DJs in residence, playing an eclectic selection of tunes on top-notch equipment provided by Audio Gold, and some of the team from the original Rock On Shop behind the counter – including Ted Carroll.

Building further on five decades of a deep passion for and devotion to catalogue exploration, the gigs and pop-up shop are part of a wider celebration. Throughout the year Ace’s release schedule is bursting with both physical and digital new releases, elaborate box sets and exclusive reissues, including curated compilations from Bob Stanley, Tom Waits and Richard Hawley. There will also be fan-exclusive social media stories, themed DJ club events and film projects.

Full line-up of Ace Records 50^th anniversary live celebration at London’s KOKO: 

 

Monday 4^th August          Booker T Jones: https://agmp.seetickets.com/tour/booker-t-jones

Tuesday 5^th August          Booker T Jones: https://agmp.seetickets.com/tour/booker-t-jones  

Thursday 7^th August        Fatback Band: https://agmp.seetickets.com/tour/the-fatback-band

Friday 8^th August              The Seeds supported by The Sting-Rays: https://www.seetickets.com/tour/the-seeds-the-sting-rays  

Sunday 10^th August         Northern Soul and Funk All-Dayer*

*TICKETS ON SALE SOON. CHECK KOKO’S WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION

 

ABOUT ACE RECORDS

Ace was founded in London in 1975 by Ted Carroll, Roger Armstrong and Trevor Churchill and has for half a century been at the forefront of the deep catalogue business. 

The first inhouse imprint was Chiswick Records, but since then Ace has launched many more – including Kent Records, Big Beat, BGP, Globestyle and Boplicity  − to cater for specific sounds within the eclectic Ace universe: low rider soul, surf, punk, doo-wop, funk, northern soul, rock’n’roll, jazz, blues, R&B, psychedelia, folk and rockabilly. Under the Ace umbrella, hundreds of mainly American independent legacy labels, artists and estates are represented, many through long-term licensing deals, although the main part of Ace’s master catalogue (approximately 10,000 titles) is fully owned and has been brought inhouse through outright acquisitions over the past five decades. Ace also owns the publishing arm Rockin’ Music, which contains around 4,000 copyrights.

A large part of Ace’s business model has always been thoroughly researched and uniquely themed compilations released on vinyl and CD. These are curated either by the company’s experienced inhouse team of specialist A&R consultants – Ady Croasdell, Dean Rudland, Alec Palao, Tony Rounce and Mick Patrick – or by outside fans of the label, including luminaries such as Paul Weller, Jarvis Cocker, Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs, Bobby Gillespie, David Holmes, Keb Darge, Lenny Kaye, Paul Weller, Jon Savage and Richard Hawley, to name a few.

All in all, the Ace repertoire spans almost all popular music genres in the UK and the US between the 1940s and the mid-80s and its vast catalogue is home to tracks that have spearheaded many key cultural moments – some of the very first punk records, early disco classics, pub rock pioneers, the first commercially released rap record, groundbreaking blues by some of the genre’s greats, bringing world music to the mainstream, fuelling the rockabilly revival, taking acid jazz sounds to new heights, making mod jazz cool again and turning the northern soul scene into a worldwide phenomenon.

Ace is also known for the sourcing, audio restoring, repackaging and releasing previously unissued and long forgotten recordings as well as classic albums on vinyl and CD. Perfect for a generation of fans of the label old and new.