Loud and Quiet have written this great piece on Rocket here, there are a few misquotes and we hoped it would feature '20 releases' and not 10 but it is a great read and we thank L&Q for all their support and to the lovely Dafydd Jenkins who conducted the interview.
Also, Chris has been pulled-up about some facts regarding the start of the label. Apparently it was after a Lillydamwhite show at the Ropewalk when the idea of the single was birthed and Wayne from The Heads was there and suggested the split. Then a couple of months later the band played together. Tbh, we can't remember, but we do know our first 7" came out in March 1998! :)
It reads:
The 20 year story of Rocket Recordings told via 10 essential releases
A brief history to the heavy ‘n’ heady sounds of one of the UK's most prolific underground labels
“Rightly or wrongly, we’re generally thought of as a psych label”, Rocket Recordings co-captain Chris Reeder tells me over Skype from his London flat. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a lot of friends involved in those scenes, but it just seemed like a fairly narrow conception of what Rocket is about”.
Rocket are, and always have been, more than harbingers of heavy ‘n’ heady grooves – that’s only a part of their prolific output as one of the UK’s busiest underground labels. Since their humble inception in 1998, Rocket have been responsible for some of the most forward-thinking British (and international) records of recent years, committing to wax the wonderment of astral rejecters Gnod, the ephemeral adjacent post-rock of Teeth of the Sea and the ecstatic trance of Goat. This is to mention nothing of the one-off collaborations, and the extra-curricular jams of “supergroups” like Temple of BBV. Rocket are a whole eco-system of cooperation, always ready to champion inter-label envelope-pushing. Through the commercialisation and reduction of UK indie music to a donkey ride seaside attraction (thanks The Libertines) Rocket have maintained a steadfast constitution in the mould of properly independent US imprints like early Sub Pop, Wax Trax! and SST...
Read the rest here: Loud and Quiet
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