4 April 2024
The Squidger returns!
We've had a few fallow months due to a death in the family, but we're back now with a really exciting schedule of releases for 2024!
In the downtime since our last major launch, we cherry-picked a couple of pretty special items from other indie labels that we knew our Quo following would go nuts for. And indeed, the Japanese CDs and Traffic Jam 7" that we retailed flew out of the door. Make sure you're signed up for Facebook updates if this is your kinda thing and you don't want to miss out.
And now onto our first new release announcement for 2024... We're exceptionally chuffed to welcome back the amazing Rich Ragany, with his all-new solo album "You Can Get Dark With Me". It'll be available on CD and digitally, with pre-orders beginning on 26 April over at our Music Glue store. All album orders will come with an instant free download of lead single "A Pleasant Fiction" featuring Ken Mochikoshi-Horne of Los Angeles punk legends The Bronx.
There will also be a pair of album launch parties at Huddersfield Parish on Friday 14 June (with support from Boss Caine and Polly Phluid) and The Black Heart, Camden, London on Saturday 15 June (with support from Continental Lovers and The Electric Shakes).
7 June 2023
Amazon's ordering links are now live: click HERE for Lee O'Brien's "This Is Me" (recorded with Status Quo's Francis Rossi) and HERE for Rich Ragany And The Digressions' "What We Do (To Not Let Go)". They're both available in our webstore too HERE along with lots of other exclusive goodies!
5 June 2023
To coincide with the general retail release of our new album by Rich Ragany And The Digressions, here's the fabulous video for their new single "How Much Of Me Is You?" - enjoy!
2 June 2023
Following a bit of late-night genetic engineering down the pub we can tentatively announce that we have managed to splice squirrel and badger DNA together to create the world's first real-life squidger. More to follow, watch this space...
30 May 2023
Very pleased to announce our new distribution deal with Cargo Records. Our CD releases by Lee O'Brien (with Status Quo's Francis Rossi) and Rich Ragany And The Digressions can now be ordered through your local record shop or from Amazon!
1 March 2023
Our brand new release - "What We Do (To Not Let Go)" by Rich Ragany & The Digressions - is out this week!
All pre-orders are shipping NOW!
The CD looks and sounds amazing and is picking up some quite wonderful reviews. It's Album Of The Week over at Louder Than War!
"There was always a feeling that once the band actually got together in a studio again, they could literally take the roof off, and now we have the proof through their new album, What We Do (To Not Let Go).
"It’s a majestic album full of soaring melodies, anthemic choruses and serious rock’n’roll credentials, but also one with a wide palette of moods and sounds and a real heart and soul at its core."
Don't miss this weekend's pair of launch gigs in Huddersfield and Camden, followed by a co-headline tour with Star Circus and more gigs throughout the year!
11 January 2023
Happy New Year everyone! And have we got a treat for you to begin 2023 with a WHAMMO KABLAMMO BANG!
Announcing our first release of the year: Rich Ragany & The Digressions - "What We Do (To Not Let Go)".
What a massive honour it is for us to release this, the third studio album by this incredible band.
“If Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac got together in a sweaty club with Johnny Thunders, they would probably sound like The Digressions. So, rock ‘n’ roll is far from dead tonight.” - Vive Le Rock magazine.
Fronted by former Role Models leader Rich Ragany, the last few years have seen the Calgary, Canada-born and now UK-based songsmith build up quite a reputation with his band of rock n’roll trailblazers, The Digressions. With musicians that include Andy Brook (celebrated producer, Status Quo engineer, The Middlenight Men), Gaff (Glitterati, Dedwardians, Desperate Measures), Ricky McGuire (UK Subs, The Men They Couldn't Hang), Simon Maxwell (Role Models, The Yo-Yo's) and Kit Swing (Mallory Knox, Seven Days And Doesn't Die), the band won over the hearts of many in 2021 with their critically-acclaimed ‘Beyond Nostalgia & Heartache’ album, gaining considerable airplay on BBC Introducing, and rave reviews and features from the likes of Classic Rock, Vive Le Rock, Louder Than War and Powerplay etc.
Sharing stages with the likes of The Lemonheads, Warrior Soul, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Whitfield Crane, Ginger Wildheart, The Professionals, Steve Conte (New York Dolls) as well as packing out London venues in their own right, all this deserved attention has led to the band signing a deal with Barrel And Squidger Records and they are set to return on 3rd March with a brand new album titled ‘What We Do (To Not Let Go)’.
The 14-track album is available to pre-order now, either as a digipak CD or as a digital download.
The first 100 CD pre-orders will come with a totally free print of the album cover, signed by the whole band!
All album pre-orders, CD or digital, come with "One Last Thing To Prove", an immediate downloadable taster track in .WAV format. It's a song that lulls the listener into a false sense of security with a beautiful piano and simple chord refrain before out of nowhere the Digressions kick in with a Stooges worthy rock n’ roll riff, complete with ‘Raw Power’ one-note piano stabs. But the vocal harmonies that the band are renowned for lift the song far beyond any low rent garage vibes, and the song soars.
10 September 2022
We are very chuffed to welcome to the Barrel And Squidger Records family... Rich Ragany And The Digressions!
Brand new studio album due Spring 2023 - watch this space. Exciting!
24 August 2022 AMSTERDAM ROCK EXCHANGE - "ROCK PERFECT"
LIMITED EDITION VINYL LP & CD PACKAGE AVAILABLE NOW!
The return of a legendary music mogul to the rock world - this is Simon Napier-Bell's "first rock project since The Yardbirds"!
Featuring current and former Status Quo men John "Rhino" Edwards, Richie Malone and Paul Hirsh, alongside the cream of Holland's finest rock musicians: Marijn Slager (vocals), Hans Eijkenaar (drums), Leendert Haaksma, Arnold van Dongen and Marijn Slager (guitars), Evert Abbing (bass), with Angie Brown (backing vocals).
Written by Evert Abbing, Richard Molenaar and Simon Napier-Bell.
Produced by James Kenosha.
Simon Napier-Bell is one of the biggest names in the music industry. In his early career he was renowned for working with Burt Bacharach on the score to “What’s New Pussycat”, before co-writing “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me”, a worldwide smash hit for Dusty Springfield and recorded by hundreds of artists including Elvis Presley. Moving into music production he was responsible for discs by Marc Bolan, The Scaffold, Peter Sarstedt, and most famously, the seminal self-titled album by The Yardbirds (aka “Roger The Engineer”) which cemented the reputations of a young Jeff Beck and pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page. Later as a music manager he guided the careers of artists as diverse as Boney M, Ultravox, Asia, Candi Staton and Japan. But he is undoubtedly best known as the manager of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in 1980s pop sensations Wham!, being the man who famously took Wham! to China – the first western pop act ever to perform in the communist country.
In later years, Simon Napier-Bell has become a best-selling author and renowned film director. Amsterdam Rock Exchange marks his welcome return to the music world and is, in his own words, his “first rock project since The Yardbirds”. Barrel And Squidger Records are honoured to have been personally selected as exclusive retailers for this remarkable album.
23 August 2022 Watch the rest of the clips of Francis Rossi chatting with Lee O'Brien about their album "It's Not Real", and find out which of Lee's famous relatives is the bigger name: Francis, or John "You're The Voice" Farnham?! It's a very sensitive matter...
4 August 2022
All Lee O'Brien items are now in stock and have been landing on their new owners' doormats for a while now. Here's the video to Lee's new single "It's Not Real", written by Lee and Status Quo's Francis Rossi.
The studio track was recorded by Lee and Francis - Lee is on lead vocals, guitar and drums, Francis contributes production, lead guitar, bass, keyboards and backing vocals.
The video was filmed at the album launch gig at London's 100 Club. Here, Lee's backing band comprises Status Quo drummer Leon Cave, Quo engineer/tech Andy Brook, Middlenight Men Nick Hughes and Heidi Cotton, and Lee's wife (and Francis' cousin) Natalie Rossi.
CLICK HERE to buy the album on CD or cassette.
2 August 2022 Press people - here's a selection of Lee O'Brien's promo shots. Click on a thumbnail for a full-size image. Feel free to use in any write-ups!
1 August 2022 Here's the first two in a series of short videos of Lee O'Brien chatting with Francis Rossi about the making of the album "This Is Me".
7 July 2022
Many thanks to the official Status Quo and Francis Rossi social media accounts and websites for sharing news of Lee O'Brien's album - and welcome to everyone brought here today by those posts. CLICK HERE to order.
DELIVERY UPDATE: The cassettes are already here at Squidger HQ (and they look FANTASTIC - we're very pleased with them!) The majority of the CDs are now expected in a week or so (we're being sent an advance box to sell at Saturday's launch gig). This unfortunately is out of our hands - as a small independent label we'll always be the lowest priority to manufacturers. We've already had to sack one company for letting us (and therefore, you) down, let's hope our new suppliers keep to their promises.
As we're so close, we're going to put them on general release in our shop - this means that new customers can combine their order with other Quo-related goodies they may have missed :)
1 June 2022
Lee O'Brien - "This Is Me":
Pre-orderers should have received a message from our Music Glue online store partners advising of a new provisional release date. When we originally set up the sale we were expecting Lee to be in the studio with Francis Rossi in March. That was subsequently pushed back a little. We're cracking on with the manufacturing now and, all being well, they'll be with you before the album launch gig. Thanks for your patience. We can't wait for you to hear this bonus track!
1 April 2022 Here follows an important statement from Barrel And Squidger Records:
25 March 2022
Cassettes! Yeah! But WHY?!
As a label we've never brought you cassettes before. Why would we have?! But you've probably heard that the waiting list for vinyl is the best part of a YEAR. We're doing a CD, obvs, but wanted to experiment with a different format. Lee was cool enough to allow us to give them a go with his upcoming album. We're making just 25 of each colour. For all you Quo/Francis Rossi completists out there, consider this: here we have a 100% official release of a Rossi collaboration, he's sold 120 MILLION+ units, and there's only 25 of each of these being made. You can't lose!
3 March 2022
The Squidger makes his debut appearance in the new, official Status Quo tour programme, as Francis Rossi discusses the recording of our upcoming release from Lee O'Brien! This programme will be for sale all year at all their massive festival gigs and during the UK arena tour. How ace is that?!
25 February 2022
PRE-SALE GOING LIVE AT 5PM GMT TODAY!
Barrel And Squidger Records proudly presents: Lee O’Brien - "This Is Me".
Taken under the wing of Status Quo legend Francis Rossi, the album contains twelve all-original compositions, with four of the titles being co-written by Francis. Lee provides lead vocals, guitar and drums, while Rossi contributes lead and bass guitars, keyboards, and backing vocals throughout.
The whole album was produced by Francis Rossi in his home studio, and recorded by Status Quo engineer Andy Brook.
With Lee's own initial pressing of the album sold out, Barrel And Squidger Records are proud to present our newly-expanded version with brand new packaging, containing a further exclusive Francis Rossi co-composition to be recorded with Francis in March 2022.
"Status Quo's Francis Rossi gave singer-songwriter Lee O'Brien a helping hand, co-writing a few songs with him and producing this debut album. When it comes to words O'Brien is on another level... An appeal that will resonate with more than just Quo fans. 7/10" - Classic Rock magazine
Expected release date: May/June 2022.
Artwork subject to change.
An album launch gig, with a backing band featuring Andy Brook, Quo drummer Leon Cave, and Leon's "Middlenight Men" band-mate Nick Hughes, will take place at London's iconic 100 Club on 9 July 2022.
24 December 2021
A very merry Christmas to everybody. Thanks ever so much for all your support this year, we realise that music has been a long way down on people's priority lists but we're still here and next year WILL be better! So raise a glass and light a candle today for Rick, and we'll see you soon. Love you all xx
14 December 2021
Well I never, we're back in the charts!
"Christmas Eve (Nanana)" achieves its seventh week on the Official UK Physical Singles Chart, re-entering at #83 amongst David Bowie, New Order and the Spice Girls! Love it when we mix it up with such massive names!
11 October 2021
Chief Squidger Jason appears on "Remembering Alan Lancaster", a mammoth 3-hour+ podcast by the Australian Rock Show. Jason was interviewed at length by show host Denis Gray, who's been a vocal supporter of our Alan Lancaster's Bombers' "Live!" album as he was in the audience in 1989 when it was recorded! The podcast includes the cream of Australian rock royalty so it's a real honour for us to be included. Click HERE to listen.
9 October 2021
Copy 199/200 of the mythical 7" BLUE vinyl pressing of our "Rock Remembers Rick EP" sold for an incredible £300 in a charity auction held at the Scottish Status Quo McVention in Glasgow tonight!
6 October 2021
Chief Squidger Jason appeared on Mariella Frostrup's show on Times Radio, to discuss the Life And Times of Alan Lancaster.
For the next seven days you can listen by clicking HERE - fast forward to 49 minutes for the start of the segment.
26 September 2021
ALAN LANCASTER
7 Feb 1949 - 26 Sep 2021
It is with immense sadness that we share the news of the loss of Status Quo legend Alan Lancaster, who has passed away this morning at his home in Sydney.
It was a great honour and privilege for us to work with Alan in recent years and we send our sincerest condolences to his family, friends and the Quo community.
Rest in peace Sir, and thank you for the music.
11 April 2021
We've donated a John Coghlan's Quo CD autographed by John himself to a charity auction for Seaside Hospital Radio - CLICK HERE and bid generously!
9 April 2021
Incredible - a second week in the Top 10 for John Coghlan's Quo, as "Lockdown" continues to do the business at number 9 in the Official UK Physical Singles Chart - holding its own against the heavyweights as we snuggle in between Liam Gallagher and Billie Eilish.
That's some pretty impressive company we're keeping - many thanks everyone for all your support.
9 April 2021
More great support from our local newspaper The Harrogate Advertiser - CLICK HERE to read their article about our latest chart hit!
3 April 2021
Further research...
Hayley Williams, who beat us to no.1, is the frontwoman of American rock band Paramore. They're massive. Hers is a 10" EP limited to 10,000 copies worldwide and pre-sold in December! Following months of complaints, Atlantic only shipped out the UK orders this week. It's pure bad luck that her sales figures were submitted this week - it was scheduled to be released months ago.
Label wise, the top 5 reads as follows: 1. Atlantic, 2. Barrel And Squidger, 3. Warner Records, 4. Polydor, 5. Interscope. Four enormous international operations with budgets of millions, and one label run by one bloke in his spare room.
On the Sales chart (actual sales for real money of everything - vinyl, CD and paid downloads, with unpaid streaming stripped out), we're at 31 nationally. For context, Taylor Swift has a new entry at 32.
2 April 2021
WE (almost) DID IT! STRAIGHT IN AT NUMBER TWO!!!
John Coghlan's Quo - Lockdown / No Return double A-side CD single enters the Official UK Physical Singles Chart at the number two position.
HUGE congratulations to John, Mick, Rick and Pete.
Following two previous Top Ten singles, it's
Barrel And Squidger Records' second Number Two hit. For a young, tiny, truly independent label, to beat the multinational big boys at their own game is AMAZING.
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR INCREDIBLE SUPPORT!!!
2 April 2021
As we await news of a possible chart position for our John Coghlan's Quo single, here's a new interview with John himself:
Squidger: Did you lose your mind in Lockdown?
John Coghlan: Not really! Most weekends we've been down at Pete Mace's house, he's got a studio there and we congregate there and record the tracks. It's all turned out very well, I'm over the moon with it, I'm so excited about it all, it's so good. We've got about four songs recorded and ready to get mixed down and everything else. It is taking time, but the great thing is the band sounds exactly like 70s Quo, without a doubt. Being honest with you there was no intention of that happening, it's just that Pete Mace sounds very much like Francis, and plays like Francis. All the guitar sounds have come out really well. Mick Hughes is doing a lead vocal for one of the songs, Mick doesn't do many lead vocals but he's done it champion this time on a song called "I'm Coming Home". I'm just so pleased with it all, the four of us have got some chemistry there, I think that's the secret of it. It's worked out so well and I really can't wait. Quite a few radio stations have already played "Lockdown" and it's gone down extremely well.
"No Return" has really captured the definitive 70s Quo sound. It's cracking and I think the Quo fan base are really going to go for this.
Yeah I do too. I think so. The fans I think will be in for a big surprise, they'll be so surprised, thinking "Blimey, this is really good!" Also I think it's got quite a fresh sound about it. We've got a great following, obviously Status Quo fans, we love that, but also we've got our own following who travel miles. You know as well as I do that some of these fans have travelled millions of miles to come and see the band. When we did the Frantic Four tour some people came over from Australia, they came to see us at Hammersmith, then went back home, then came back again to see us in Dublin! If they thought it was crap they wouldn't turn up. We just can't wait, we're really pissed off at this lockdown and it's not just the bands, it's the road crew, the management, PA crew, lighting, catering, there's millions of us. We're whinging about it but I'm so excited mate about this album and when it's finished I can't wait for it to be put out and go onto radio stations and get it publicised and let everyone hear it. Get the fans to buy it and take it home!
Tell us a bit about "No Return"…
It's up tempo, a good song to get up and dance to. It's a great song, I love it. It's got some good phrasing, good vocals, I like the drums I've played on it, I'm happy with that. Instead of me doing a shuffle and a hi-hat I'm doing fours and a hi-hat for a change really, and twos on the bass drum instead of fours – but that's getting too technical now! I think it's one of those songs that's going to go down on the album really well and on stage as well, it's going to be a good stage number.
How much of the album can you see making it into the live set? I assume it will still be predominantly the classic Quo stuff?
We always have a bit of a problem there – which is great news really – because it goes to show how good Status Quo are, there are so many songs out there that we could play on stage. If we decided to play all of them we'd be on stage for three or four hours. I reckon probably, let's say when summertime comes and we release the album, it'll be just two I reckon. We don’t wanna start dropping "Caroline" or "Down Down" or "Paper Plane" because the fans have come to see that. You hear of some bands dropping all their hit material and doing all brand new stuff, the problem with that is that fans haven't heard the album and don't know the songs.
Have you been involved in any of the writing of these new songs, or is it that the other boys have put it together and brought it to you almost finished and you've put your drums on?
Yeah it's been done that way but I actually wrote some of it myself, just drum parts, and I told the guys what it is, a bit strange drum-wise for me, but I wrote this down and arranged it and hopefully we'll put it together and make a song out of it, so I will get credit for that. I've got to give it a try. And it'll be my Yamaha kit that I'm using on it, the kit I've been using with JCQ for years. The main thing is, I'm just hoping that now everyone's getting vaccinated things hopefully may get back on an even keel and we can all start going back to normal. It'd be great for the band to fast forward the album and get it put out.
Speaking from a purely personal point of view, when I first saw the video for "Lockdown" - and in that video you're wearing the Barrel And Squidger Records t-shirt - do you know just how chuffed I was about that?! That was fantastic, so thank you very much for doing that. Was that a deliberate nod, or was it coincidence that you just happened to be wearing the shirt on that day?
Well I just thought about it, and I thought, this Barrel And Squidger shirt, I like this, why don't I wear it? Instead of, you know when I do the gigs I wear the same shirt all the time, the Haupstadtrocker one, and I thought no, I'll keep this one on – so I'm pleased you're happy about that! I'll have to wear it more often then, when we do gigs, that's no problem at all. Y'know the funny thing about the video? When Mick Hughes was standing in his garden, going through the motions doing his miming to the song, all those cows appeared in the field behind. And there's one having a bonk. And – this is true – someone said to Mick, how did you get the cows to do that?!
Many thanks to John for taking the time to do this interview. And for wearing the Squidger shirt!
1 April 2021
Final day for first week chart action! If you're thinking of buying a copy, PLEASE do it today - it will really help us.
Click HERE to visit our shop.
31 March 2021
Thanks to the Harrogate Advertiser for this superb coverage of our John Coghlan's Quo release. Clearly they're concentrating on the local angle - but we'll take it!
29 March 2021
John Coghlan sends a new video message to JCQ fans. The double A-side CD single Lockdown / No Return is in with a great chance of topping the Official UK Physical Singles Chart - if you're thinking of buying it then please do so before Thursday 1st April for maximum chart impact!
29 March 2021
YEAH! We begin the offical John Coghlan's Quo Release Day with the fantastic news that we won the Classic Rock "Tracks Of The Week" poll - and by a distance! "John Coghlan's Quo triumphed over all opposition by a significant margin with the now prize-winning No Return" - meaning the video gets prominence on their website for another week. Many thanks to all who voted!
23 March 2021
"No Return" by John Coghlan's Quo is included in Classic Rock magazine's "Tracks Of The Week" poll - this is really important and very prestigious so please go and vote - the deadline is Sunday 28 March. Click HERE to vote. Thanks!
16 March 2021
The video for "No Return" is here... the brand-new all original song by John Coghlan's Quo!
Exclusively available on double A-sided limited edition CD single from our webstore - CLICK HERE to snap one up while stocks last.
Heads down, let's rock, see you on the other side!
16 March 2021 More JCQ airplay coming... tune in to Donald Moffat's Afternoon Show from 2pm today on http://www.td1radio.scot/listen-live
Thanks Donald!
12 March 2021 John Coghlan's Quo's "Lockdown (Stir Crazy Mix)" / "No Return" is BSR FM103.4 Single Of The Week. You can hear them both between 1 - 3 PM this Friday 12th March at www.bradleystokeradio.com/
4 March 2021
We've popped one of the John Coghlan's Quo promo CDs on eBay.
Why? It's a free advert.
There's LOADS of international music collectors frequenting eBay who aren't on Facebook etc and who won't yet know about the single release. This tells them all about it and they can work their way to us from there.
Don't go bidding daft money on it. It's there for exposure, not profiteering. Cheers!
24 February 2021
The pre-order has begun for the limited edition CD single by John Coghlan's Quo - CLICK HERE to snap up a copy before it's too late!
13 February 2021
Here's the teaser video for our upcoming single by John Coghlan's Quo.
Pre-sale details coming soon!
12 February 2021
It's nearly here!
We're ever so chuffed to announce the exclusive release of the first-ever original studio material from John Coghlan's Quo.
Coghlan is, of course, a founder member of the legendary Status Quo, and played on all of their enormous classic hits up to and including 1981 - "Pictures Of Matchstick Men", "Paper Plane", "Caroline", "Down Down", "Rain", "Mystery Song", "Rockin' All Over The World", "Whatever You Want", "What You're Proposing", "Forty-Five Hundred Times", "Roll Over Lay Down" etc etc - tens of millions of sales, dozens of Top Of The Pops appearances.
Pre-sale coming soon for a double A-sided limited edition CD single - don't miss out on this absolute gem!
Ensure you sign up to our Facebook (Link) and Twitter (Link) accounts for notification of the pre-sale going live.
(Yes we previously intended to release this on 7" vinyl but, thanks to COVID and factory lockdowns, there are massive backlogs at vinyl pressing plants. We didn't want to keep you waiting another six months so made a CD instead!)
7 February 2021
A Very Happy Birthday to the mighty Alan "Nuff" Lancaster!
We're enormously honoured to have this genuine British rock legend as part of the Barrel And Squidger Records roster.
23 December 2020
All the last-minute orders have been despatched, time for a mince pie and a Bailey's coffee!
A very Merry Christmas to all our customers and followers, and here's to a better 2021 and lots of new music coming your way. Cheers!
17 December 2020
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING - we will continue posting orders out right until Christmas Eve, but delivery will depend on the speed of your local postal service. If you're buying Christmas gifts from us please bear in mind that deliveries can be slower than usual due to the pandemic, so don't delay!
9 December 2020
Flashback to three years ago when Classic Rock magazine included us in their Tracks Of The Week poll, where they pick the best eight tracks released anywhere IN THE WORLD, on any label, with any budget - just what they reckon are the best new tracks.
Wow - it's three years ago already...!
AND they reckoned we'd just dropped one of the best tracks IN THE WORLD... did I already mention that?
And did I ever mention that we came second in this poll, beating Duff McKagan out of Guns N' Roses?!
No?
Well, we came SECOND, and BEAT DUFF.
With our first attempt.
Oh yes we did!
23 November 2020
Got Christmas shopping to do?
Until midnight GMT on 1st December 2020, enter the code COVID19
during checkout at our online shop to receive a 19% discount off ALL products!
And that's not all - all vinyl orders will receive a FREE copy of The Tallywags' CD while stocks last - no need to add it to your basket (else you'll get charged for it - though you're welcome to buy any additional copies you'd like!), we'll just throw it in while we're packing your record(s). Featuring members of the Sex Pistols, The Wildhearts, Toy Dolls and The Professionals, it's a cracking little bonus item and totally exclusive to Barrel And Squidger Records!
It's been a tough year for everyone, your custom is very much appreciated during these hard times, we're giving a little back where we can :)
13 November 2020
Original Squidgerati, friend of the label and star of the "Rock Remembers Rick EP", CJ Wildheart, launched his new solo album "Siege" today. To pre-order a range of CDs and 10" vinyl direct from CJ click HERE. Best of luck Ceej :)
6 November 2020
Following last week's album review, podcast The Quo-Cast called us for a chat - so if there's nothing better on the telly, here's me wittering on for 50 minutes about getting into record collecting, writing for magazines, meeting your heroes, having hit singles, and the trials and tribulations of running an independent record label during a pandemic! Click HERE to listen.
29 October 2020
Podcast The Quo-Cast talks Barrel And Squidger Records and reviews Alan Lancaster's Bombers "Live!" - click HERE to listen. Thanks to Jamie!
3 October 2020
Ty Coates, the huge-voiced frontman of Alan Lancaster's Bombers (as featured on our "Live!" album release), has marked the 30th anniversary of the "Aim High" album with a debut album by his own spin-off, Ty Coates' Bombers. "Man Down" is available from HERE and includes two covers from back in the day, "Get Up And Get It On" and "No Danger", and eight brand new tracks.
22 September 2020
The Squidger hits Bonhams!
You have to be pretty legendary to go under the hammer at a prestigious London auction house such as Bonhams or Sothebys - but here's a Barrel And Squidger Records product in Bonhams' new catalogue! It's for their Entertainment Memorabilia auction on 13 October.
Alan Lancaster is selling prized possessions such as the shirt he wore onstage to open Live Aid and his Fender Mustang bass (yes, that one). A copy of our picture disc is included in the sale of his Steinberger guitar - the very one that he's wearing on the front of the record.
What an honour for us!
To view the auction catalogue on Bonhams' website, CLICK HERE
17 September 2020 Quick update on the John Coghlan's Quo 7", as it's a while since we announced it...
The band are still finishing off recording and mastering the new track. Once it's finished we can send it to the factory. When we know an approximate release date we'll put it up for pre-order.
Getting excited about this one!
10 September 2020 Our first glossy international press advert was published today and here it is - on the inside front cover of Record Collector magazine's dedicated Status Quo special. We were also commissioned to contribute a full 30 pages of this amazing publication's content - it's in all good newsagents now!
14 August 2020
I've written half a dozen of the features within this forthcoming special publication. So as a large number of you lovely squidgerettes are hardcore Quo collectors, I thought you'd like to know.
8 September 2020 Our website is live! It's still under development and there's more on the way, but please have a look round and let us know what other content you'd like to see.
Full historical news archive to follow...
24 July 2020
Unbelievably overjoyed to see stars of the first-ever Barrel And Squidger Records
release, Massive Wagons, fly straight into the Top 10 of the Official UK Album Chart. What a magnificent achievement, and it genuinely couldn't have happened to a nicer, cooler, more talented bunch of guys. Congratulations dudes!
17 July 2020
You spoke, we listened!
"Lockdown" - voted Classic Rock magazine's 'Track Of The Week', and the first-ever original studio recording by John Coghlan's Quo - coming soon on a range of extremely limited edition "double A-side" 7" vinyl singles along with another brand new track.
'Like' or 'follow' Barrel And Squidger Records on social media to be the first to receive pre-order notifications - these won't stick around, don't miss out!
14 July 2020
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23 June 2020
Remembering our friend Stuart Martin-Jones who passed away this morning far too young. Stuart was the photographer on our Rock Remembers Rick - "Christmas Eve (Nanana)" video shoot and took the group shot that ended up used widely, including by the national press - which he was very chuffed about. In fact he can be spotted in the video taking the actual shot. Stuart was a long-time mate from my brother's pub who I didn't see anywhere near enough of after he moved a short distance away, but when I needed a professional photographer to volunteer to work, unpaid, for the charity project, he was there without hesitation. 'Cos that's the kind of guy he was. Sleep well dude xx
17 June 2020
If you're wondering what all the buzz is about, turn your speakers up loud and play THIS! It's just one of ten all-original self-penned bangers on their album... it's an instant classic!
21 October 2019
Status Quo legend Alan Lancaster thanks convention attendees for supporting the release of the Alan Lancaster's Bombers' "LIVE!" album - now totally sold out of its coloured vinyl pressings - and announces its upcoming reissue as a limited edition LP picture disc.
Nice shirt Nuff!
