Think Croydon and a few things come to mind; Kate Moss, punk band The Damned, Crystal Palace football club, Peep Show  and of course Dubstep, the now world conquering music genre that will forever be linked to the south London suburb. What you never hear though, is any mention of Tech House, another world conquering music genre. And to be honest we’re a little bit peeved about that. Because if Tech House has a spiritual home it’s Croydon, and that is due mainly to Swag Records and the people that gravitated towards the humble West Croydon record shop and studio.
Swag began in late 1992 and within a year it has positioned itself as the leading store to buy the strange new, stripped down, trippy, driving brand of house music being played at underground parties in and around south east London. On any given day you could walk in and find Terry Francis, Dave Mothersole, Grant Dell or Richard Grey serving behind the counter, Eddie Richards, Colin Dale or Mr C buying records and Matthew B, Gideon Jackson or Affie Yusuf at the helm in the studio upstairs. The building shook night and day with the throbbing, bass heavy grooves and the beat never stopped – or so it seemed. And now all these years later some of those records made in that little room at the top of the old Victorian building that housed the Swag headquarters are finally starting to get the recognition they deserve. Back when those tunes were cut, in the late 90’s and early 00’, pretty much the sole intention was to have something new and exciting to play at parties like Wiggle, Heart & Soul, Whoop Whoop and Kerfuffle. Now they’ve become highly collectable for those who recognise the huge part they had to play in defining the tech house sound.  None more so perhaps than Sound Of The Suburbs ‘I Won’t Stop’, which is now fetching up to £100 on Discogs. And that’s why we’ve decided to release that as the lead track on Swag Classics – so people can buy it again, on vinyl, at a fair price.
Produced by Pete Hurst and Paul Stubbs under their Sound Of The Suburbs moniker, it sounds as fresh today as it did back in the day, more so perhaps. Meanwhile on the flip side there’s a previously unreleased track from Pete aka Sloth UK titled Mr Eko
Hope you enjoy it. This is the first of many vinyl only releases, which will come from the hallowed Swag vaults. All compiled and selected by Liz Edwards who dedicated around 14 years to Swag Records behind the scenes and financially.
Hand-stamped and Limited to 200 copies only, now sold out. Repress later this year 2018
The next 3 releases are forthcoming this Spring 2018, and will be distributed by Eds Vinyl, then available worldwide.
Your feedback is most welcome; liz@edsvinyl.co.uk
Viva Croydon!
Words by Dave Mothersole
Dj support so far from Alex Arnout, Craig Richards, Ralph Lawson, Adam Shelton, Archie Hamilton.........

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