Rocky at Rock On

CRATE digging – the vinyl-lovers pastime of delving into boxes of disorganised records, flicking through shelves of LPs to uncover a hidden gem, a much-loved rarity, or something you never knew you needed.

It’s a music-lover’s time, and arguably invented by Ted Carroll, the founder of the seminal Camden Town record shop, Rock On, and the Ace record label.

Next month, Ted – who now runs a small record store in Lincolnshire – returns to Camden Town for one week only, setting up a temporary record store to mark Rock On’s 50th anniversary.

And it was his love of simply anything music-related that set him off into a life of a record dealer, band manager, tour agent and label owner.

“I had always been interested in rock and roll and music from the 1950s and 1960s,” he told Review. “When I was at school, my cultural reference points were Radio Caroline and the American Forces Network radio in Germany.”

Ted grew up in Dublin and came to England aged 15 for a summer. He found work in Bournemouth as a bus conductor’s apprentice, and he returned the following year to continue. It was 1959 and Bournemouth attracted many famous acts on tour.

He recalls catching the singer Vince Taylor, whose record Brand New Cadillac Ted would later release as a reissue.

Living in Dublin, Ted became an agent, booking groups and arranging tours in Ireland.

In 1968, he returned to Bournemouth – this time to work as a bus driver to help pay his way, but with the aim of scouting emerging talent. He would book the likes of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

It was a really exciting time musically, something great to be a part of,” he says. “I saw some great bands – Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green, who were just  fantastic live. I remember seeing one line-up with a band called The Nice, playing with Status Quo and The Floyd.”

And it was work as a bus driver that inadvertently saw him become a record collector and dealer.

Steve Bob and Ted in the store

“There were around 50 routes in the Bournemouth municipal area, with a series of tortuous backstreets to negotiate,” he remembers.

“I noticed all these little tucked away junk shops on routes and I’d go back and visit them. They were full of records.

“A 45 cost six pence, an LP a shilling. I’d buy whole collections and scour them for any good rock and roll.”

A job as tour manager for the band Skid Row took Ted to America in November 1970, a trip that saw him do his fair share of crate digging.

“When I was there, I found so many great records – rock and roll by the likes of Eddie Cochrane, Joe Turner, Little Richard, Gene Vincent that you would never find in England,” he says.

“I found a fantastic shop in Boston which just sold 45s – I loved it and it became a model for Rock On.”

Ted moved to London and found a part-time job with London Transport, allowing him to concentrate on working in the music industry, which included managing the band Thin LIzzy.

In August 1971 he went along Golborne Road in Notting Hill.

“I was living in Belsize Park and I caught the No 31 bus,” he says. “Golborne Road was full of stalls selling all sorts of junk.”

He found a six-foot stall on a flea market and his taste in collecting soon saw musicians flock: the likes of Lemmy and Jimmy Page would pop in to browse.

“It was hip to go and hang out in Portobello at the time on a Saturday and we’d get lots of musicians, lots of music journalists.

“There was a branch of Record and Tape Exchange and they would send albums recorded in mono. People were buying new stereo record players and they weren’t sure if their old mono records would play well – so I’d buy up albums for 25p a throw, spend a fiver on 20.

“I’d take them home, and divide them into piles – keep, sell and not sure.”

During the week, he ran a music agency from Dean Street.

Rock On’s original shopfront in Camden Town

“I had always wanted to run a record shop,” he explains. “I had considered Upper Street and asked an estate agent. In July, 1975, they told me to look at No 3 Kentish Town Road. I knew Camden really well because I lived in Belsize Park. I’d been to gigs at Dingwalls, the Camden Palace, drank in the Dublin and other pubs. There were gigs happening but there was only one mainstream chart record shop on the high street. I thought Camden Town would make a natural home for Rock On.”

Rock On was never going to be your average, chart-stocking outlet – and it found a natural fit with Camden Town’s burgeoning music scenes.

“I wanted to run a shop that stocked rock and roll, blues, jazz, reggae, country, rockabilly, British Beat and American garage bands,” he said.

“I used to import American singles – I would search for records I knew were available there and then buy a thousand at a time.

“Many were new, left-over stock, or produced for juke boxes.” An importer based in Dunstable noted the rise of Northern Soul and would buy 100,000 45s at a time from American dealers. I’d go every Wednesday and sift through hundreds of singles, then buy around 300 for 10p a throw,” he remembers.

In the mid-1970s, he decided he should run his own label, too.

Ted Carroll

“I kept getting asked for certain records,” he says. “I knew the major labels had no interest in re-releasing these works – it wasn’t done. My idea was to licence singles we knew were in demand.”

Ace was founded in 1975 by Ted and his business partners, Roger Armstrong and Trevor Churchill. It included the Chiswick Records imprint and others dealing with genres that ranged across soul to surf rock, punk to doo-wop, funk, northern soul, rock’n’roll, jazz, blues, R&B and psychedelia. Ace signed up licensing deals with US labels who owned original recordings.

“We had all this knowledge of what worked by the straightforward fact we had experience selling records on the shop floor to punters,” he adds. “We became the first really indie label in England.”

Today, the record-dealing buzz remains strong. Ace Records was sold three years ago – Ted continues to write sleeve notes for releases – but he still sells records.

“I moved to Rutland, just north of Peterborough,” he says. “I was in the town of Stamford and I saw a small shop for sale. I thought to myself: that would make a good record shop.”

He stocks around 16,000 45s and 2,500 LPs, and at home he has enough quality music to last several lifetimes.

“I have a chapel full of vinyl from the original Rock On stock,” he reveals.

“It’s the 50th anniversary – and that is reflected in what my collection contains.”

• Ace Records returns to Camden on August 4 for one week only, at a pop-up shop at 1 Adelaide Road, NW3 3QE