Here we are in 2012 and I own and run a record label! How on earth did that come about, and why? Well, the answer to the first question is pretty simple. I'd been trying to persuade my friend Francis Dunnery to put out his albums on vinyl for years - the clarity of his performances and recordings lend themselves perfectly to the vinyl medium. After endless phone calls to labels various it became apparent that he would have to actually pay someone for the privilege of getting his own music released on an existing label and that made no sense to me. I did a bit of overtime at work last year, and rather than put the money towards the mortgage I decided to do something memorable with it ... and thus Plane Groovy was born with the release of Francis Dunnery's "Man" on double heavyweight vinyl.

I learned how to put together the artwork with our second release, the first solo album by Chris Difford who has been a great friend for many years. Echolyn - a band I have admired since the early 90's - came onboard next; I think Francis told them that they could trust me! This and the upcoming DBA album are milestone releases for us because they are brand-new recordings rather than reissues and thus they give us a new level of credibility. Henry Priestman is someone I've followed since my University days; amazingly talented and when I first heard his solo album I thought it would be perfect on vinyl; turns out I was right!

There are more projects in the pipeline; we're putting out "Songs from the Mission of Hope" by Stephen Harris in September to celebrate its' 10th anniversary; this will be a very special edition with all sorts of added extras included with the first 100 copies.

To get the answer to the second question - why? - go to this link.