Raw Records

‘Dedicated to all the small labels, who are in it for the fun and the glory – not just for the money.’

It all begins for Lee Wood with a band, collecting obscure records and starting a shop…

The history of Raw records stems back to around 1973 when I was playing in a Cabaret band (shock, horror) around Pontins holiday camps. The money was good but my heart wasn’t really in it. I grew up in the 60’s and had always had a passion for music with energy. That’s why I loved punk so much. I played in bands called The Antlers, The Pype Rhythms, The New Generation, The Sex, (why didn’t we add Pistols?) and LSD.

I had always bought lots of obscure records and as I  toured the country in the Cabaret band I always visited junk shops to purchase vinyl. Usually these shops had records scattered all around in no order. But prices were usually between 10p and 25p each. I thought that if I opened a shop with all the records in sleeves and in good condition, people would be prepared to pay between 50p and £1 each. So I opened a stall in an indoor market. This expanded and I opened a shop at 48 King Street in Cambridge called “Remember Those Oldies”. This was around 1974. We sold 60’s stuff plus re-issues of early Bowie, Roxy Music, Led Zeppelin and other stuff.

Also in 1973 I had read about an American fanzine called “Who Put The Bomp”. I managed to get hold of a couple of issues and this turned me on to what was happening in the New York, CBGB’s, Bowery scene. (It had a lot more but that’s irrelevant to this story)!

Punk comes to Cambridge!

Over this time the shop began to incorporate the new music as well as the 50’s/60’s stuff. I met Mark Perry who put together Sniffin’ Glue fanzine and we stocked it from the very first issue. We stocked Stiff records from the very first release. In fact we were the very first shop in the world to sell New Rose by The Damned. The record was going to be released on Friday. I visited their offices on the Wednesday morning and found Rat Scabies sitting there, putting the records into the sleeves by hand. I pushed Jake Riviera into giving me 20 of the giant posters promoting the single. By lunchtime I was back in Cambridge and the record was on sale. The first 20 people got a free poster. The best seller prior to this had been Eddie and The Hot Rods – Live At The Marquee EP. I used to lock people IN the shop and say “you’re not leaving until you hear this. Then I’d turn the stereo up full blast! We stocked all the early punk records. The Saints, The Buzzcocks – Spiral Scratch EP, Eater and so on.

Spaceward Studios was located in Cambridge, in the basement of a small house. I’m sure it was a Sunday when we recorded there. We did four tracks. Three in the normal way of laying down backing tracks and then overdubs and vocals. Louie Louie was recorded 100% live, exactly as on “Raw Deal”. No overdubs, nothing added at all.

After the recording session I contacted a pressing plant to have the records pressed. Green as a cucumber they gave me the name of a guy who “cut the masters” and I duly sent the tapes to him. 2,500 records were delivered to my shop a couple of weeks later. I called the guys. We listened to the record and could tell something was wrong. I phoned the pressing plant and I sent a copy to Ted Carroll of Chiswick records (sort of my Mentor). He told me about George Peckham at The Cutting Room. He was the guy who cut all the best records. If you look on the run out groove of most punk records you’ll see the legend “A Porky Prime Cut”.

When we had listened to the original record and all our faces dropped I decided there and then to have it re-mastered and re-pressed – even though this meant I would have to pay for everything again. We all agreed to this.

We had more records pressed and put adverts in the local paper and in fanzines. Review copies were sent to John Peel, the music papers and fanzines. The record was recorded in March 1977.

Changing the subject slightly. The name Raw Records came mainly from The Users love of Iggy Pop. They wanted the record to sound like an out-take from Raw Power. First we considered Raw Power records. Originally we had discussed this as a one-off project with the four members of the band and myself splitting everything five ways. When I thought about the label having other bands signed, I decided on Raw records.

Another problem for Lee was the world of contracts

Being naive myself I had managed to obtain the recording contract used by Chiswick Records. It was pretty heavy reading and aimed at a long-term deal. I’m not surprised a lot of people didn’t want to sign it. But I didn’t have anything else and Lawyers were as greedy then as they are now!

It was contracts that did for the Soft Boys and Lee’s only second local Cambridge band on the label and a second single for them.

I think it was only about a year ago I went through my “disagreement” with Robyn Hitchcock in my mind and finally realised it was all my fault (well 90%).

In the early days I didn’t know record contracts allowed you to deduct the cost of recordings before paying royalties. Then Ted Carroll of Chiswick gave me a copy of their contract. The Soft Boys were due to go into the studio the following day to record the follow up and I phoned Robyn to tell him on this record I would be deducting the recording costs. He didn’t agree, we started raising our voices and eventually, like a spoilt brat, I put the phone down on him. For all those years I thought I was in the right. Sorry Robyn.

I went to see lots of bands. Both in Cambridge and elsewhere. London had such a great music scene. I’ve had nights were I started at the Roxy Club, then went on to The Marquee and later made my way to Dingwalls. The scene in Cambridge. Was about average to any town/city of the same size. I think The Users were probably the best band in town. When their record came out, I must have had about 200-300 really cool looking people coming in to buy their single who I had never seen before.  

The wide mixture of our roster was really down to me. I didn’t have a business plan. Or any other plan come to that. I liked Rockabilly. I liked the 60’s.

I think word got round I was a soft touch and I started getting these types of bands approach me. Some of them coming from the adverts I had placed in Melody Maker. I’m sure Danny Wild sent me his demo this way.

Another departure was to record several of the Rockabilly Bands on the scene. The main one was Matchbox. I released one single on Raw. Matchbox were recommended by one of the people who came into the record shop. They were very professional and of course as you can clearly see – it fitted perfectly with the Raw Records plan (yeah right).

It did really well. I paid for a publicist and things with the band began to take off. It started with them on tour with Carl Perkins and Bo Diddley. One step away from Elvis! Meeting such Rock’n’Roll legends was for me, one of the highlights of my life.

The ONLY record I actually made a profit from. That is 100% true.

One of the never released Rockabilly bands recorded four tracks at Spaceward, which were planned as a four track EP called “Red Hot Blue Rock”. I can still remember the chorus of the main song (and the tune in my head) to this day. It goes – “she gives me blow jobs, blow jobs, blow jobs all the time”. I can’t imagine why that has stuck in my mind all these years?

I’m sure the bands wondered about being on the same label and that is probably why I did the Black and Silver Rock ’n’ Roll labels based on the design of London Records in the 1950’s.

The Ones That Got away…

Raw Records received many hundreds of demo tapes during the period 1977 and 1978. I kept them all for many years before having a clear out. Looking at the names of the bands as they went into the bin, only one name had become famous from these many hundreds.

The band was called Warsaw and were from Manchester. If you heard the tape you would have passed on them too. It’s a shame they didn’t wait a year and send me a demo tape after they changed their name to Joy Division.

You may recall my mention of Leonard Vice and the song “Elevenpenny Plums”? I actually found the lyric sheet to this. It was recorded at a studio in Soho and the drums were actually Leonard, using a Tea Chest. The sound amazed the studio engineer who was very sceptical to begin with.

I recall Leonard lived in Skegness and I took him for a photo session to a photographer in Colchester. It’s a great shame I never had the chance to realise it.

Thanks for remembering the band whose name I couldn’t “Johnny Curious and The Strangers”. Their four-track set of demos should really see the light of day. It’s nearly 30 years since I heard it, but it still has an impression in my head!

John Phillips: “I was idly searching around on the net the other day when I came across your  entertaining site. I was particularly taken by a paragraph from the Lee Wood interview as he pretty much sums up the very small history of a combo I was once a member of, and which has all but disappeared from history. Lee remembers: “”The one regret I have. I visited Spaceward studios one day and they played me a tape of a band called “”(sorry, I’ve had a mental block on their name. I’ll let you know)””. The recordings were STUNNING. Especially “”Back In Pissheadsville Again. I approached them but they had a manager called Sue Black who only wanted them signed to a big label. In the end they re-recorded the four songs and released in on Miles Copeland’s label. The re-recordings are total shit compared to the originals.”” The name that Lee has justifiably forgotten is “”Johnny Curious and the Strangers.””

The Raw Labels and picture sleeves

My record shop was at 48 King Street and at 93 was a print shop. I got to know the graphic designer there, David Jeffrey, and he started to design everything. He had a friend, an Italian photographer called Mario Pancerra who took all the photos in the first year or so. Up until – and including The Soft Boys cover (photographed at the designers studio)

He changed the label designs and came up with the razor label and also (for some strange reason) added my name so it read Lee Wood’s Raw Records. He thought it would help promote the label and (well, I’m not really sure). I didn’t crave the limelight and just sort of went with it. I did that a lot in those days.

I do recall that as 1977 ended I decided to add 78 to the label to indicate it was recorded in 1978. For the Rockabilly Bands I asked the designer to replicate the 1950’s London Records label of black and silver.

Spaceward Studios

Spaceward was started in 1974 by 2 ex Cambridge Students, Gary Lucas and Mike Kemp, who graduated from supplying PA systems to a 16 Track Recording Studio. In 1977 their biggest customer was Lee Wood & Raw Records. In the Cambridge University paper ‘Varsity’ November 12th Mike talk about the Punk bands.

The relationship with bands was pretty informal. Lee bore the cost of recordings. Not all were destined to have singles made as it was just too costly so they were collated onto a mid price compilation album.

You have to bear in mind there was no plan with Raw Records. I liked the idea of helping bands and so every Sunday I booked Spaceward studios and let the bands record a few tracks – usually four tracks. I produced some of them, others were produced by Gary Lucas and Mike Kemp, who were really good.

Acme Sewage sent me a demo and it went from there. Yes, I think they are underrated and we should have released a single but recording costs and the manufacture of records were not cheap. Even in the boom times of New Wave, records only sold a few thousand copies.

Then one day I had the idea for the Raw Deal album. It seemed to fit the bill of letting all these bands have an outlet and their music be heard.

Mike Kemp (Spaceward Owner & producer) Philanthropic? I am not sure that’s the right word. He was keen on the music (of course). From what I read he did not make much money, but I imagine he would have hoped for some big returns. You have to take those risks to get anywhere don’t you? And you never knew what the band would come out of the studio with.

There was also the classic issue of band Royalties

I noticed your interview with Acme Sewage Company and they mentioned Raw was not good at paying royalties.

I have to admit this was very true. I just wasn’t good with paperwork. Having said that, apart from The Killjoys I don’t think any of the other record sold enough to cover the deductable costs like recording, etc.

Lee Wood: The Users are entitled to their opinion. I certainly don’t recall any court action. What was the outcome? I do recall the father of Chris Free coming and looking over the accounts (at my request) then walking out of the office saying “no, no” and walking out without any discussion. When I say office – it was the room above the shop with a desk on!

They may well of been due a small amount of royalties in the end. By small I mean less than £100. We only sold about 6,000 copies. In those days records sold for 70 pence. 10% of 70 pence is 7p x 6,000 = £420. Less recording costs of around £340 = £80.

As far as them saying their first record was released without them knowing – that is total rubbish. I also have a blue scrapbook with a couple of adverts plus a ticket for the gig to promote The Users first single on the day it was released. So they played at a gig to promote the record they didn’t agree to be released!!!

Lee’s probably missing out a few things here as well, such as freebies sent out, breakages, returns, cost of sleeves and any promotional activity paid for. Let’s face he probably didn’t even think of half of these things to strip bands of their royalties. But as he admits he was crap at being transparent

Sure, I was very lax when it came to paperwork and that caused problems. If they were owed money they had every right to expect it. The only trouble is – most people think they were owed thousands of pounds when it was probably less than £100. The only exception would be The Killjoys. This was our best selling record by far. About 18,000 copies.

We should have sent the bands royalty statements, which we never did. I’d like to think things have improved over the years and I’m more mature (I certainly should be at my advanced age) and today I think I’m more responsible.

While Raw was on their uppers the office moved to London

For a few months Raw Records moved office to in Kensington Park Road, in Notting Hill in London. Charlie from The Sick Things was my secretary. Why I decided to move things to London I’m not sure. Just another whim!

We only had one unreleased artist who should have made it. A guy called Leonard Vice with a recording called “Elevenpenny Plums” ( are you sure about this Lee ????!!!). It was stunning. I was silly enough to lend my only tape to a friend.  

The end is nigh late in 1979 as money problems hit and Lee’s inexperience around promotions and marketing hit home.

The main problem with Raw was my naive belief that the people who write for the music papers actually care and spend time finding new talent. WRONG! I thought the papers would phone us and ask for interviews with the bands. At that time I didn’t realise that you had to hire PR companies and bribe journalists to write about your bands (good or bad). Sadly because of my inexperience at that time, many of the bands who should have been bigger never got the backing they deserved.

Raw Records always lost money. The record shop supported it for as long as it could afford. I never took a wage from the label. We spent too much on recording costs.  Raw policy: To sign bands I believed in. I must admit I went off the rails a bit.  

In 1979 I was losing too much money from the label and things couldn’t go on. We simply ran out of money and I guess my interest had moved on. My attention span is not one of my strong points!

The last release (in number order) was Ersatz. RAW 35 I think?

And that was it….

I think they are wrong. I agree with Mike Kemp from the time; there’s a rawness (sic!) and an enthusiasm full of spunk and swagger about these early recordings that makes the singles and the tracks on the compilation albums just pure punk. I don’t think any other label has the amount or quality of bands that meet this criteria.

There’s also an air of collectability about them, as these really were the short sharp shock bands, not destined for any kind of longevity but to burn bright and fade fast.

The review for ‘Raw Deal’ hits the nail on the head. Raw, and other labels like them, needed to exist to capture these bands or they would have been lost forever.

It’s labels like Raw that kept (keep) music alive. 

Lee Wood: I love making lists. So it’s no surprise (to me) I had the record releases planned for months ahead. ZigZag asked for a list of forthcoming releases and got the full monty! After RAW 18 it’s more fiction than fact!

RAW 1 THE USERS  Sick of You/I’m In Love With Today Released 6.5.77
RAW 2 HAMMERSMITH GORILLAS You Really Got Me/ Leavin’ Home Released ??.7.77
RAW 3 THE KILLJOYS Johnny Won’t Get to Heaven/ Naive Released 27.7.77
RAW 4 THE CREATION Making Time/Painter Man Released ??.8.77
RAW 5 THE SOFT BOYS   Wading Through a Ventilator /The Face of Death/Hear my Brane  Released – 10.10.77
RAW 6  THE UNWANTED Withdrawal/1984/Bleak Outlook Released – 15.10.77
RAW 7 SOME CHICKEN New Religion/Blood on the Wall Released – 21.10.77
RAW 8 LOCKJAW Radio Call Sign/The Young Ones Released – 11.11.77
RAW 9 MATCHBOX Rock Rollin’ Boogie/Troublesome Bay Released – ??.11.77
RAW 10 DOWNLINERS SECT Showbiz/Killing Me Released – ??.11.77
RAW 11 THE RIOT ROCKERS Tennessee Saturday Night/Some Kinda Earthquake
RAW 12 DANNY WILD WITH THE WILDCATS Mean Evil Daddy/Old Bill Boogie Boogie/ Released – 10.3.78
RAW 13  SOME CHICKEN Arabian Daze/Number Seven Released – 10.3.78
RAW 14 THE GORILLAS It’s My Life/My Sons Alive Released – 21.1.78
RAW 15 THE UNWANTED Secret Police/These Boots Are Made For Walking Released – 10.3.78
RAW 16 The EYES I Like It/Once Ain’t Enough
RAW 17  SOME CHICKEN Arabian Daze/Number Seven Same as Raw 13 for superstitious buyers
RAW 18 –  SALT  Keep Your Mother Worrying/All Wired Up / Key to the Highway /The Cobra’s Melody
RAW 19 LOCKJAW Journalist Jive/I’m a Virgin/A Doonga Doonga Released ??.11.78
RAW 20 PAUL GEE AND THE ROCKETS Gotta Keep Playing that Rock ‘n’ Roll/Pearly Lee
RAW 21 MYSTERY TRAIN The Sun Story/A Song For Gene
RAW 22 NISA: I Ain’t No Angel/I’m Leaving
RAW 23 MATCHBOX Gunnin’ for the Dog/Put the Blame on Me
RAW 24 DOWNLINERS SECT Blue Night/(title unknown)
RAW 25 THE TROGGS Just a Little Too Much/The True Troggs Tapes?
RAW 26 THE GORILLAS Message to the World/Outa My Brain
RAW 27  FARON’S FLAMINGOES Bring It on Home to Me/C’mon Everybody
RAW 28 SICK THINGS: EP
RAW 29 THE EYES Once in a Lifetime/Hello Love Yo
RAW 30 THE UNWANTED Memory Man/Guns of Love
RAW 31 THE NOW Into the 80s/Nine o’clock Released November 1979
RAW 32 KARL TERRY & THE CRUISERS 2 Hound Dogs/ Sea Cruise (Dec 1979)
RAW 33 DANNY WILD: (titles unknown)
RAW 34 TONY McPHEE’S TERRAPLANE
RAW 35 ERSATZ Motor Body Love /1 Good Reason/Gimme A Chance

Lee Wood: Did I actually promote the 12″ singles with those high figures? You need to take a zero off all of them to be closer to the truth. I know you are a completist.

 “Somewhere” I have a sheet with all the figures from this time of how many records were actually pressed and sold by Selecta. The low figures will amaze you.

Full Price Albums

RWLP 101 MATCHBOX Settin’ The Woods On Fire Released 1978 on Chiswick Records with A Raw code
RWLP 102 DANNY WILD WITH THE WILDCATS Wild In the Country Released 1978
RWLP 103 THE GORILLAS: Message to the World RWLP Released – 24.02.78
RWLP 104 VARIOUS ARTISTS: The Mersey Survivors Bob Wooler, The Gibson James Band, Faron’s Flamingoes, Karl Terry & The Cruisers, The Pawns, The Dimensions The Renegades, Groups IncReleased 1978
RWLP 105 KARL TERRY AND THE CRUISERS Cruisin’
RWLP 106 DOWNLINERS SECT Showbiz Lee Wood: I also recorded an album with them. I paid many thousands of pounds and then they “stole” the tapes from the studio and sold the tapes to a German record label. That’s gratitude for you!

Mid Price Albums:

RAWL 1  VARIOUS ARTISTS: Raw Deal Released 9.12.77 The Users, Acme Sewage Co, The GTs, The Bloodclots, Sick Things, Psychos, The Killjoys, Zhain
RAWL 2 VARIOUS ARTISTS:(Oh No It’s) More from RAW (lst anniversary album) Released 23.7.78 The Unwanted, The Users, The Hammersmith Gorillas, Some Chicken, The Gorillas, The Soft Boys, The Killjoys, Downliners Sect
RAWL 3 VARIOUS ARTISTS RAW Rockabilly Danny Wild with the Wildcats, Mystery Train, Karl Terry & The Cruisers, The Riot Rockers, Matchbox

Some Chicken were supposed to do a 20 minute set but were on stage for so long The Killjoys, who were top of the bill had their set cut short when the manager of the venue cut the power at midnight.

But it was a great event. Punk77 Interview

That was nearly the story as the review says. In fact what happened was when Thunders didn’t show Lee sent the Nipple Erectors out to do half their set again for no understandable reason. and which incensed Kevin Rowland of The Killjoys who remomstarted with Lee Wood. By thge time Some Chicken take the stage its gone 11.20 and the Killjoys are on at 11.45 which

Raw Records. First Anniversary. CAMBRIDGE CORN EXCHANGE

Even five bands in four hours is pushing things a bit, but it could have been accomplished quite easily if Lee had taken a firmer hand in organising the proceedings.

Instead he made the liberal, but misguided, decision to let each band have a full ten- or fifteen-minute soundcheck, which meant that the punters had to hang around outside for well over an hour and a half before the doors were finally opened.

The first band to play were Dolly Mixture. A trio of schoolgirls (they claim an average age of 16 1/2 but look far younger), they come from Cambridge and have been together `two terms’. At present they only have a bass and two drumsticks to their name, but tonight’s gig, their fourth ever, was one of the weirdest I’ve seen. During their delicate 15-minute set they played, all more or less at the same halting pace, five soft-pop originals, and covers of Tommy Roe’s “Dizzy” and The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, so how’s that for extremes?

At the moment they can barely play, and often it was only the sheer volume of Debsie’s bass that prevented the whole thing falling apart. Be that as it may, everyone was impressed by their bravado, and they were granted fairly rapt attention. Whenever they made a mistake, which in retrospect wasn’t all that often, they simply stopped and began the piece again. Rachel the guitarist also sang lead, and in places her voice bore a remarkable resemblance to Patti Smith’s, although the quavering uncertainty was probably due more to nerves than lack of talent.

The Nipple Erectors (horribly contrived name) were a surprise. From what I’d read about them I expected some kind of third-rate punk band with Ted pretensions. It took just one number to shatter my preconceptions. “Fuss And Bovver” captures most of what’s good about the Erectors: hard, fast, tight to the point of suffocation and instantly memorable. They sound like nothing so much as “Stranded”-era Saints, and rock out harder than a chisel on concrete.

Shane, who handles vocals, does have a totally over-the-top Ted persona, all sneers and exaggerated Cockney accent. He curls his top lip and chews gum, doing his best to look mean and bored. The others aren’t quite as concerned with visuals, and compensate with musical firepower: Shanne, standing stock still with her bass and looking almost removed; Roger, a three-chord archetype in the J. Ramone tradition (i.e. it works); and Jerry on drums, facial expression one of manic intensity as he batters his kit several feet into the stage.

They have lots of good numbers, the best of which is “Maida Ada”, a frantic rhumba for which Shane joined forces with a pair of furious maracas. Halfway into 1978 it takes a great deal of panache to play a set that sticks rigidly to the conventions of ’76/’77 emergent punk. Fortunately the Erectors have that panache.

Lockjaw unfortunately do not. Their kind of music has been played so often, to better effect, by so many other bands, that the audience yet to hear it must be small indeed.

Their contribution to the Raw catalogue, “Radio Call Sign”, is one of their few strong songs: the rest are simply clichés of varying lameness, and from a band who’ve been together two-and-a-half years, I expected a little more.

Balanced against that is my conviction that they have the ability to become a worthwhile band, if only they are prepared to think about writing songs worth more than a quick pogo.

Throughout all of this, the audience were remarkably well behaved. Having been locked out for an hour, you’d think they’d have been raging for some action, instead they seemed content to laze around in corners and against walls, letting events shamble along. Must have been the heat.

Kevin & Gem of The Killjoys – short and sweet set

Lockjaw finished at twenty to eleven, and with the twelve o’clock shut off in view, some hasty decision-making was going down in the dressing room.

There would just be time for Some Chicken and The Killjoys to play forty minutes each, with no time spare for changeovers. Just as Chicken were about to walk out, in strolls Lee Wood to announce that The Nipple Erectors were going back on. Remonstrations were in vain. Wood simply ignored the midnight deadline and sent the Erectors out to reprise 50% of their original set. Like I said, I enjoyed them, but their reintroduction was simply unnecessary.

With only fifty minutes left, Some Chicken took the stage knowing that the evening was now quite possibly theirs for the taking. They pulled out one of the hardest, most convincing sets I’ve seen them do in a while. Six months ago I would have levelled many of the same accusations at them as I did at Lockjaw; that is no longer possible.

They have realised the inescapable fact that in order to expand you must become more musical, and though this will lose them some home supporters (the ones who never want the set changed one iota) it should attract a far wider field of interest. As their talents increase, so the ideas in their songs become more complex: the flattened bar-chord intro to “Diary Of A Madman”, the carefully dischordant middle section to “March In Confusion”, and the continuously evolving vocal cadences on “Master Foolish Dreams”.

Subject matters are increasingly off-beat as well. “Number Seven”, the next single, deals with the incarceration of Rudolph Hess, and his disturbance on learning that GIs were kept amused by pornography in Viet Nam. Some Chicken are not `happy’ entertainment. Their music is intense and oppressive, seemingly always on the verge of exploding with its own inbuilt tension. The songs are full of obtuse imagery and heavy descending chord patterns.

As it stood then, Chicken had no competition, although things might have been different had The Killjoys been given a chance to prove their worth. No chance. They managed to complete “Wooden Heart” in promising style, then bang on twelve and complete with melodramatic hand countdown, the Council boys waded in to remove the plug.

Had I trudged out mainly to see The Killjoys I think I’d have felt mighty cheated.