Buy Me Sell Me / The Little Dippers
Back in the day when going to Rough Trade, Kensington Park Road, W11 was the equivalent of riding a donkey to Tokyo for a young Penguin, Small Wonder, Hoe Street, E17 was the shop that got my pocket money on a Saturday afternoon, that was if Tottenham Hotspur FC were not playing at home! Pete Stennet would normally look slightly hobbit like behind his counter, most of the time with a colourful woolly hat on…Of course this shop was not just a shop, it was a record label also, with a clutch of artists included such bands as The Cure, Bauhaus, Crass and The Cravats. Patrick Fitzgerald was also on the label, this is the single after ‘Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart’, and is well worth a listen. This artist it may be of interest for you to know was one of the 100’s of people that auditioned for The London SS in 1975, whose members (and auditioned members) were the backbone of the original London based punk scene. Patrick Fitzgerald was also present on some of the Here And Now / ATV free festival gigs in 1978.
Pete Stennet at Small Wonder record shop – photo sourced by Sabenji.
Simon
January 10, 2008 at 1:14 pmOmg! the mention of Small Wonder brings back memories! I too remember Pete Stennet, he of the dark green bobble hat! I used to visit then work in Walthamstow and was a regular at the shop to feed my vinyl addiction…Pete once told me off for sniffing in the shop and I only had a cold! Also one time I bought a Crass record he said to his partner in crime Colin Faver, “Right little anarchist we’ve got here!”
Another time I passed the shop and Pete grabbed me and insisted I went down to the Walthamstow Assembly Hall to do some roadie work, it was for those classic goth’s Bauhaus, got some more work after that too, rather embarrassingly also worked at a Haircut 100 gig!
Ahh the good old days!
Another top download too, cheers people.
😀
Nic
January 10, 2008 at 1:51 pmRat (Original drummer of Napalm Death) and I would make relatively frequent pilgrimages to Small Wonder and Rough Trade in 1980/1981 to offer our fanzine for sale, and to peruse and buy the wares…
As we didn’t really know Landahn at all, it seemed perfectly reasonable to go halfway across the city to get to them…;)
More Patrick F if possible please…
and how about more Small Wonder: The Wall, Nicky and the Dots, The Proles, Molesters, etc…
Got any Folk Devils, pengy?
Us blog readers are like pornography addicts – however much we get, we just want more…more, MORE!!!
Nuzz
January 10, 2008 at 2:43 pmI can sort yer out some Folk Devils nic if pengy can’t , got one ready to go on the blog, Goodnight Irony got the classics, Brian Jones Bastard Son, Evil Eye, Hank Turns Blue Great band, been meaning to post it for a while, but haven’t got round to it, also must sort out folk in hell tape. But hey back to Patrick Fitzgerald, missed him when he played at Bowes in 1980. Indeed More, More and More, More, Harder, harder faster, faster (shit getting carried away now) think I’m developing some sort of Obsessive Compulsive condition re blogs, downloads.
Farmer Glitch
January 10, 2008 at 10:56 pmExcellent post – saw him in the Hope and Anchor in 78 or so – sterling stuff – have most of that early stuff on vinyl here – but no deck at present – so this is a cool reminder ,,,,
alistairliv
January 11, 2008 at 12:14 pmColin Favor – punk rocker
When I was in the rubber sex wear industry (Durex/ London Rubber)79/83, went to engineering evening classes at Waltham Forest College and spent an hour or two in Small Wonder first, got to be friendly with Pete and Mari and also Pete’s mate who put on Final Solution gigs – I guess this must have been Colin Favor (see Simon’s post above). just checked it out and found this, bio of Colin. Got to say “I didn’t know that”….
From http://www.fantazia.org.uk/djs/faver.htm
DJ Colin Faver’s first involvement with music came when his friend offered him a part time job in a record shop, Small Wonder Records. He became a big fan of the punk and new wave music the shop specialized in and began to look for new acts to sign up and release on the newly formed Small Wonder record label.
Colin also designed and produced label & sleeve artwork for many of the fifty odd releases.
After meeting many of the leading bands involved in the scene, Colin decided to promote his own concerts and club nights. With partner Kevin Millins he started a company Final Solution for this purpose. Their different approach to the business and creative selection of venues and line-ups gained them a great reputation in the industry. JOY DIVISION, NEW ORDER, CABARET VOLTAIRE, THROBBING GRISTLE, BAUHAUS, THE BIRTHDAY PARTY, ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN and CULTURE CLUB are just a few of the many acts he worked with.
Colin Favor’s DJ career continued to gain momentum and apart from playing at his own nights, he could be heard at many trendy one-nighters including Cha Cha’s and The Bat Cave.
In 1982 the Camden Palace nightclub was opened and Colin was employed as head DJ, playing a wide selection of music, including soul, disco, hip hop, hi nrg, alternative, electro, and house every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This continued until 1988.
When the acid house scene exploded in London, Colin became involved with many new one nighters including THE SHOOM CLUB, HEDONISM, ENTER THE DRAGON and RIP. He also took up weekly residencies at THE ASYLUM and PYRAMID, two very popular nights in HEAVEN (London’s largest gay club). Alongside Eddie Richards he started his own weekly night at the WAG club in Wardour Street. On Tuesdays Colin jetted off to Paris to play a residency at THE REX CLUB.
For more see http://www.fantazia.org.uk/djs/faver.htm
Simon
January 11, 2008 at 1:13 pmVery interesting post Al, sure you are right that it was Colin at Small Wonder when you visited, I also remember mari too. I must confess that I got quite into the rave/dance scene myself back then, but it wasn’t until a couple of years later that I realised that Colin Faver was the same bloke that ran Small Wonder and who’s techno show I had listened to on Kiss FM and seen spinning his style of techno at Heaven!
He also had a show on Kiss Fm in their early days, again spinning rave, trance, techno and the like. Sure you are right about Final Solution too, as I used to get calls from a guy who worked there about the roadie work. Only did a few gigs and being young and naive I later got scared off by one of the older roadies telling me horror stories!
Incidentally I do remember you Al, I was very good friends with ‘Billy’ (R.I.P.) and I know we would have known a lot of the same people around that time.
OK am off to dl some more excellent Puppy material!
Take care all.
Tony Puppy
January 11, 2008 at 10:35 pmSimon I remember going to the Bauhaus gig in Walthamstow; a huge throng of us punksters getting off the tube at Walthamstow Central with no idea where to go.
Then eventually we marched around the corner of Hoe St and Forest Rd and saw the mighty edifice that is Walthamstow Town Hall and Assembly Hall. An archetechurial Bau Hausian dream (though we didn’t know it at the time).
What a place to have a gig. What a place to even exist at all.
The gig was stupendous as I remember. Not that I remember much about it.
The only thing I remember was that Pete Murphy had ginger hair that night.
And that it was great.
Steve
January 12, 2008 at 2:39 pmThe Pistols played the Assembly Halls in July 76, third on the bill below Kilburn & the High Roads and the Stranglers:
http://books.google.com/books?id=xNQPJMs_zKcC&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=%22sex+pistols%22+walthamstow+kilburn&source=web&ots=Ma_9eFmiF5&sig=fH3YiVWLQE-z3b9OS7jBr8oxQh0#PPA145,M1
(er………. not that I was there, like).
Simon
January 12, 2008 at 9:01 pmBloody hell Tony, you remember Pete Murphy had ginger hair that night?! – amazing! I remember sweet fa! No vaguely remember Bauhaus doing a great set, they were pretty damn good live, although I think a lot of the gothic scene and music was pretty lame compared with the early punk and anarcho scenes – but that’s only my dodgy old opinion! Oh apart from the Virgin Prunes who I was well into and who did magic live sets! 😀
Walthamstow was obviously a place for gigs over the years, didn’t know the Pistols played there, wow. I saw Crass play at some tiny community centre way back, sadly it turned into a big ruck outside after, skins if I remember rightly, also was half deaf for several hours after due to the extreme loudness of the pa system and crass’s hardcore performance!
Oooh more new downloads! And Psychedelic Furs too! KYPP just gets better and better!
Tony B
March 17, 2008 at 8:13 pmAlso chuck my bit in here…
There used to be another guy who worked in Small Wonder with Pete and Mari.
He had a moustache. His name was Alan (i’m 98% sure). He was always cracking jokes. A real nice bloke.
He sadly died in the mid 80s (again,my minds a little bit well…getting old).
Colin Favor used to be like the saturday boy at the beginning,he never owned it. He started putting the gigs on as Final Solution and i ended up working for F.S. at loads of great gigs. By 1980 it was every Monday at Heaven he had a club called Night Moves..but he also did a load of big hip stuff Throbbing Gristle / Ratio at Heaven (great gig)..
The great thing about FS was that they never went for the money..who these days would put on a show like Doll By Doll at the Porchester Hall in Bayswater or Allnighters at the Scala. No one. Its crap now. Like Football. Its all boring twats in suits masquerading as ‘with it’.
Small Wonder & Final Solution.
Never be bettered.
I even thought Rough Trade was crap in those days.
Snobs. I went a few times. Never liked the aloofness of the people. Yet thats never mentioned.
History rewritten by people who weren’t there i spose.
Small Wonder virtually writtten out now.
Crass, the Cure, Bauhaus, Angelic Upstarts, Poison Girls, Cockney Rejects all debuted on one label….
No more in the coockie-cutter music world today.
Sorry,but when i see the words Small Wonder written down it just does something to me!!
Cheers everyone
Tony B
luggy
March 17, 2008 at 9:17 pmSimon, are you thinking of that gig at the Half Moon Theatre on Mile End Road where loads of hooligans from the estate opposite attacked us?
simon
March 20, 2008 at 1:06 pmNah Luggs, I definitely went to a gig in Walthamstow that ended in an all-out ruck, it was either a working mans club or community centre and the locals took offence to the punks etc that had taken over their local joint. I remember it spilled into the road as I made a swift exit, the traffic was stopped by all these blokes fighting, mad to watch (safe distance of course).
I can’t remember if it was skins, soul boys, or just local thugs looking to batter some innocent bodies.
Dave Fountain
March 24, 2008 at 5:03 pmAs Small Wonder was at the other end of a bus route for me it was my local indie record shop. Even though Pete laughed at me for wanting to buy The Lurkers lp, he still sold it me 🙂 Great little shop, great atmosphere, bought all my records from there.
Quite right about Rough Trade being aloof and snooty. They really shouldn’t have been like that, it spoiled what was often an essential visit to get records and fanzines you couldnt get anywhere else. Maybe they were just shy and pretending to be over cool. Ha ha.
John No Last Name
March 24, 2008 at 7:13 pmI also remember making the bus and tube pilgramage from South London to Small Wonder every couple of weeks to buy records and have Pete Stennet make fun of my taste in music. Great guy, great vibe in the shop and a pretty great label too.
This man brought us Bauhaus, the Cure, Menace, the Wall, the Cockney Rejects, the Leighton Buzzards, the Cravats, the Angelic Upstarts, the Poison Girls, Patrick Fitzgerald, the fatal microbes, Demon Preacher and some band called Crass that some people here apparently still like.
After cherry picking out that list of bands from his catalogue, I think I would have made fun of my taste in music too.
Singles
Small One Puncture – Mucky Pup / You Can’t Rock n Roll In A Council Flat 7″
Small Two Zeros – Hungry / Radio Fun 7″
Small Three Carpettes – How About Me And You 7″ (4 track EP)
Small Four Patrik Fitzgerald – Safety-Pin Stuck In My Heart 7″ (6 track EP)
Small Five Menace – GLC / I’m Civilised 7″
Small Six Patrick Fitzgerald – Backstreet Boys 7″ (4 track EP)
Small Seven Leyton Buzzards – 19 & Mad / Villain / Youthanasia 7″
Small Eight Punishment Of Luxury – Puppet Life / The Demon 7″
Small Nine Carpettes – Small Wonder / 2 NE 1 7″
Small Ten Demon Preacher – Little Miss Perfect / Perfect Dub 7″
Small Eleven The Cure – Killing An Arab / 10.15 On A Saturday Night 7″ (Later re-released on Fiction)
Small Twelve Nicky & The Dots – Never Been So Stuck / Linoleum Walk 7″
Small Thirteen Wall – New Way / Suckers / Uniforms 7″
Small Fourteen Molesters – Disco Love / Commuter Man 7″
Small Fifteen Cravats – The End 7″ (3 track EP)
Small Sixteen Menace – Last Year’s Youth / Carry No Banners 7″
Small Seventeen Murder The Disturbed – Genetic Disruption 7″ (3 track EP)
Small Eighteen Molesters – End Of Civilisation / Girl Behind The Curtain 7″
Small Nineteen Cockney Rejects – Flares ‘n’ Slippers / Police Car / I Wanna Be A Star 7″
Small Twenty Fatal Microbes – Violence Grows / Beautiful Pictures / Cry Baby 7″
Small Twenty-One Wall – Exchange / Kiss The Mirror 7″
Small Twenty-Two English Subtitles – Time Tunnel / Sweat / Reconstruction 7″
Small Twenty-Three Proles – Soft Ground / SMK 7″
Small Twenty-Four Cravats – Precinct / Who’s In Here With Me? 7″
Small Twenty-Five Cravats – You’re Driving Me / I Am The Dreg 7″
Small Twenty-Six Cravats – Off The Beach / And The Sun Shone 7″
Small Twenty-Seven Anthrax – They’ve Got It All Wrong 7″ (4 Track EP)
Small Twenty-Eight Camera Obscura – Destitution / Race In Athens 7″
RT/SW-001 Angelic Upstarts – Murder Of Liddle Towers / Police Oppression 7″ (Reissue of Angelic Upstarts label press)
Weeny 1 Patrik Fitzgerald – Paranoid Ward EP 12″ 9 track EP, also on 7″
Weeny 2 Crass – Feeding Of The Five Thousand 12″ (18 track EP, later reissued on the Crass label) [1]
Weeny 3 Poison Girls / Fatal Microbes – Closed Shop / Piano Lessons / Violence Grows / Beautiful Pictures 12″
Weeny 4 Poison Girls – Hex 12″ (8 track EP, reissued on Crass)
Teeny 1 Frank Sumatra – Te Deum 12″ (4 track EP)
Teeny 2 Bauhaus – Bela Lugosi’s Dead / Boys / Dark Entries (Demo) 12″ (White vinyl, 5000 only – reissued many times)
plus the Cravats
Cravat-1 Cravats – Cravats In Toytown LP
Why Pete didn’t end up a massive a&r mogul I’ll never know.
alistairliv
March 26, 2008 at 1:22 amPete didn’t end up as a massive a and r mogul because he was a freak (i.e. part of original UK counterculture) -not a hippy, as explained to me. He also told me that he used to work at a record pressing plant but got made redundant and used the money to set up Small Wonder.
Then he and Mari sold the shop and retired to somewhere out east – Sudbury in Suffolk? Can’t remember.
Steve
March 26, 2008 at 11:29 pmThe later mail order business definitely operated out of Sudbury.
Steve
March 26, 2008 at 11:31 pmPS That is an amazingly impressive (and criminally unheralded) discography when you see it laid out like that.
Bryan Swirsky
March 29, 2008 at 2:28 pmthat frank sumatra record is rarer than a pregnant nun. it’s family fodder under one of their many sobriquets. in fact, i think it predates ff’s 1st official release by a year. anyone have it?
Penguin • Post Author •
March 29, 2008 at 2:38 pmFamily Fodder ‘everything released’ double CD is now being released by Jungle Records, check the site in links section or online stores like Amazon. We definately have them in the warehouse at S.R.D. to release in a week or so.
jason
July 9, 2008 at 12:26 amReading all this stuff about Colin Faver got me thinking, what ever happened to Final Solution and Kevin Millins after they set is up. Is he still around?
Phil
July 11, 2008 at 4:45 pmListening to Colin Faver on Kiss in the early 90’s used to give me that same warm feeling i got from listening to John Peel in the late 70’s.
Alex
August 14, 2008 at 5:42 pmInteresting thread. I’m going to be doing my bit to redress the imbalance in terms of coverage of Small Wonder in a chapter for a forthcoming book on the UK independent label explosion. If anyone wants to contribute any memories of Small Wonder to that, I’d be really pleased to hear from them.
Torgeir Lund
October 23, 2008 at 5:41 pmSince this thread started out with Patrik Fitzgerald – I’m happy to announce that Patrik will be releasing His first studio album in 15 years, in Trondheim, Norway March 6th. The same day Dom Shaw will premiere His PF documentary called ” All The Years Of Trying” – At the Kosmorama Filmfestival.
Links:
a trailer from Dom Shaw’s upcoming documentary :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvFsnRGprs0
Patrik Fitzgerald – “Tired” – from a 7″ with Attila the Stockbroker released last year :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrqJGcx-KIc
baron von zubb
October 23, 2008 at 6:08 pm“Listening to Colin Faver on Kiss in the early 90’s used to give me that same warm feeling i got from listening to John Peel in the late 70’s.”
Exactly.
Patrik Fitzgerald he;’s the guy who started the punk ballad thing. Good on ‘im.
Theres that one who’s around now who gets all the credit.
Acoustic lefty balladeer. Forget his name. Got it, Billy Bragg.
colin faver
November 18, 2008 at 4:46 amfound this thread via google. nice to know you have such good memories of small wonder and final solution. have to say they were some of the best times of my life.
peace and much respect
colin f
ps. anyone want to get intouch my email:da_beatminer@yahoo.co.uk
alistairliv
December 7, 2008 at 10:27 pmHi Colin, the Final Solution events were amazing. There is a flyer for the first ones on KYPP somewhere and some one has just asked on another thread what happened to Pete – which is mentioned on this thread – he moved to Sudbury. Busy making sure all my kids clothes are washed and dried for college/ school tomorrow or I would say more.
cynical_old_bastard
December 29, 2008 at 4:33 pmBlimey! what a great bunch of posts.
Untold love and respect in these quarters still for the Stennets, Final Solution and Colin Faver’s early techno shows on Kiss.
The thing with Rough Trade was that lots of knobs used to go there just to hang out (and get in the effing way), eg the “comedian” Keith Allen. Apart from a member of the Swell Maps I found the staff well ok there too, Nigel in particular was / is a sound bloke.
I remember leaving Small Wonder and being chased down Hoe St and onto a (luckily just about to pull out) tube train by a bunch of gormless boneheads yelling “fucking communist!!!” (er…you work it out?!?! I still cant) around the emergence of “oi” times…
Wankee Yankee
February 1, 2009 at 10:28 amHey, found this thread doing a search for Kevin Millins (came across an old Final Solution / Patrick Fitzgerald concert poster in a box of things from my time in London). Interesting stuff. I was a flatmate of his for a few months in the winter of ’79-’80. Anybody know anything about him since then? How about another one of his friends, Carmen Puget?
carmen puget
April 8, 2009 at 9:51 pmWell hello i was the flatmate of Kevins in St Johns Wood, and have quite alot of memobrillia(sic) still cant spell. of Small Wonder et al.
I was working in PR in Covent Garden, doing the Damned, Gen X, Buzzcocks, Stranglers, and Blondie just to name drop a few one hit wonders- not as the years have proved. I was also in the cult spoof band Proff and the Proffettes. Years later house sat the orginal Kiss FM wen it was pirate. And then worked the door at Knowledge -Colin -hairdown to his ankles.
in the Small Wonder daze. And cropped to a shine in the Knowledge daze. Bit vague on names, but reading this thread i must know some of you guys. Glad you all made it.
David Eppel
April 27, 2009 at 1:28 pmWell it’s good to know Carmen is still around.
colin faver
June 23, 2009 at 7:00 pmthanks for the love. they were great times
Penguin • Post Author •
September 2, 2009 at 9:39 pmGreat photo of Pete and the Small Wonder record shop now added to the post above…ahhhh the memories!
jason
September 3, 2009 at 10:32 amhi carmen puget, Wankee Yankee. How you doing. I am trying to get in contact with Kevin Millins. Any idea of an email address. Colin i sent you a email. Hope you got it. Anyone want to getin contact. Email me at jasoncleverly2001@yahoo.com