Website: http://www.acerecords.co.uk/

The Ace Records story begins in 1971 when Ted Carroll opened the Rock On market stall in London selling second hand records. Soon one stall became two, and then a shop in Camden, which quickly became the main supplier to a huge array of different, perverse tastes in music, not only to the established tribes but to the burgeoning punk rock scene.

Soon after, Chiswick Records, a label that spun off from the retail outlets, was founded, putting out both re-issues and new recordings. A license was struck for the pop end of the label with EMI in 1978, which meant a new imprint had to be established for the re-issues. As Ace Records (of Mississippi) was one of the label's licensors, Chiswick plumped for Ace. In the early 80s, Ace decided to devote themselves full time to the pursuit of catalogues.

At first there was only a demand for rocknroll, R&B, Blues and Oldies on Ace. But soon 60s soul was added with the Kent label and as the years went by we diversified into World Music with GlobeStyle, started BGP as jazz dance turned into Acid Jazz and took on board various historic imprints like Stax and Westbound. We struck a deal with Fantasy Records, the largest independent catalogue company in America, which gave us access to their enormous jazz catalogue.

The label was firmly established by the end of the 80s and consolidated with the label's trademark compilation series and some fine box sets through the 90s. Ace's catalogue now extends to over 1500 items, and is growing all the time.