Not a single song, but a handful of them – from the four-track EP that made a little bit of punk history. Released in late 1975, Speedball was the first record put out by Chiswick Records, the UK’s first real indie label.

The seeds of punk were already being sown on the Essex Riviera, where Dr Feelgood and Eddie & The Hot Rods were revving up R&B into the fiery cauldron that would soon evolve into punk rock.

At the same time in London, a band called Chrome was doing something similar on the pub circuit – cranking out urgent rhythms with jagged guitars and angry vocals.

One night in the Lord Nelson pub on the Holloway Road, they were approached by a pair of dodgy-looking Irishmen who had the bright idea of forming their own independent record label.

It could just have been the drink talking. But it wasn’t.
Within months that label had taken shape and been given a name – Chiswick Records – and Chrome, rapidly rebranded as The Count Bishops, became their first signing.

One hot summer night in 1975 they were given £92 to make a record.

They went into Pathway Studios, a ramshackle place in a house near Newington Green, to record four R&B covers (Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, Jerry Lee Lewis).

Pathway, founded by a fellow called Peter Ker who would bercome my drinking buddy at the Anchor & Hope a few years later, also merits a place in punk history.

It made many of the historic early recordings of UK punk including the very first – New Rose by The Damned – and others including Sham 69, Squeeze, Madness, The Police and Elvis Costello.

But this one came first.