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
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

SC001 - A - SWAG CLASSICS - VOL 1 - Sound of the suburbs - I won't stop

SCOO1 - B - SWAG CLASSICS - VOL 1 - Mr Eko

The work of Adam Collins and Marky Star, one side here is taken from a couple of different releases on the legendary Swag Records labels. The other side is a more recent excursion from the Adam, who now lives in LA and Mark Hobold aka Marky Star has resided in Tokyo for sometime. If you wanted to buy the two tracks on the 'A' side they would cost you close to £100. Such is the demand for the authentic sound of the underground. Old school tech house, yo!
Handstamped white label, limited repress, vinyl only release

B1 - Adam Collins - Flat Fat Fish

The work of Adam Collins and Marky Star, one side here is taken from a couple of different releases on the legendary Swag Records labels. The other side is a more recent excursion from the Adam, who now lives in LA and Mark Hobold aka Marky Star has resided in Tokyo for sometime. If you wanted to buy the two tracks on the 'A' side they would cost you close to £100. Such is the demand for the authentic sound of the underground. Old school tech house, yo!
Handstamoed white label, limited repress, vinyl only release

A2 - Omni AM - Last Call

Swag Classics 002

The work of Adam Collins and Marky Star, one side here is taken from a couple of different releases on the legendary Swag Records labels. The other side is a more recent excursion from the Adam, who now lives in LA and Mark Hobold aka Marky Star has resided in Tokyo for sometime. If you wanted to buy the two tracks on the 'A' side they would cost you close to £100. Such is the demand for the authentic sound of the underground. Old school tech house, yo!
Handstamped white label, limited reoress, vinyl only release

A1 - Omni AM -Acid Peace

Originally released on the seminal London Housing Benefit imprint,straight out of Swag Records many labels, Swag Classics 003 is the work of Eddie Richards and Gideon Jackson. Since it's 2001 debut the 'A' side Biscuit Barrel Blues has steadily become what you might call a bonafide, 100% kosher tech house classic. Delighting clued up clubbers the world over with it's laid back, but strangely compelling, effortlessly driving groove, it's a track that's grown in stature with each passing year. The other side Pull Tab To Open (bit of a fast food theme going on here) is another dance floor gem in the original tech house style. Now available again on vinyl for the first time in 17 years.
Handstamped White label, limited repress, vinyl only release

B Eddie Richards & Gideon Jackson Pull Tab 2 Open

Originally released on the seminal London Housing Benefit imprint,straight out of Swag Records many labels, Swag Classics 003 is the work of Eddie Richards and Gideon Jackson. Since it's 2001 debut the 'A' side Biscuit Barrel Blues has steadily become what you might call a bonafide, 100% kosher tech house classic. Delighting clued up clubbers the world over with it's laid back, but strangely compelling, effortlessly driving groove, it's a track that's grown in stature with each passing year. The other side Pull Tab To Open (bit of a fast food theme going on here) is another dance floor gem in the original tech house style. Now available again on vinyl for the first time in 17 years. 
Handstamped white label, limited repress, vinyl only release
Words by Dave Mothersole

A Eddie Richards & Gideon Jackson Biscuit Barrel Blues

Handstamped white ;label, limited repress, vinyl only release

B Gobstopper - Housey Doingz

Back in the early 90's Dave Coker, Justin Bailey and Laurant Webb set up a music production studio a stones throw away from the famous Cutty Sark in Greenwich, along with Dave " Deptford " Pine as one the founders of the aforementioned studio. They called themselves Strangeweather, worked on different dance music styles and formed the fabulously awesome, but slightly ill fated band Wubble U. Around the same time Justin struck up a friendship with Nathan Coles, a then madly enthusiastic young DJ who was starting to make a name for himself on the thriving underground house scene. Nathan introduced Justin to Terry Francis and the rest of the crew and collectively the formed Housey Doingz. They released two records on the Bush subsidiary imprint Green Grass and as if by magic tech house was officially born.

Fast forward a couple of years and the boys replaced the 's' with a 'z' and struck out on their own. This is a re-release of the first record on the label they named after the now legendary club night Wiggle. Two sides of proper, UK style tech house - a sound that's been copied, plagiarized and endlessly imitated. But never bettered.
Hand stamped white label, limited repress, vinyl only release
Words by 
David Mothersole

A Curly Wurly - Housey Doingz

The next release on LIZ EDWARDS – SWAG CLASSIC LABEL is from LEN LEWIS. Len needs no introduction as he was one of the true originators of the early Tech-House sound. Releasing many classics on labels like SWAG – POODLE and his own imprint JOMO. The two cuts featured on this release are – DARK CAVERN. Which originally came out on Poodle Records in 2002, and was recorded upstairs at SWAG records, in the SWAG studio, and was a firm favourite of DJ MATTHEW B. It was also bit of an anthem at all those early London parties and clubs, Like THE END – WIGGLE & KERFUFFLE. The next cut is BAR-B-QUES & BALLGAMES. This came out on SWAG RECORDS in 1999 and was one of Len’s first releases. Both of these tunes, together, would set you back about £60 on Discog’s for a mint copy, but here we have them both on one 12’ - both re-mastered and sounding better than ever. Only 300 pressed so don’t sleep on this.

Len Lewis - BAR - B-Q'S + Ballgames

Len Lewis - DARK CAVERN

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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