Rham!

Rham! Records
Founded	1987–1992
Defunct	1992
Distributor(s)	Pinnacle
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Location	Wallasey, England
Official website	http://rhamrecords.tumblr.com/

Rham! Records was a British independent record label based in Wallasey, Merseyside formed by Peter Leay and Barry Lancaster-Smith in 1987. Rham! was launched as an offshoot of rock label Skysaw Records to release dance music predominantly from the north west of England, with early releases mostly from Manchester based artists.

Initially envisaged as a hip hop and street soul label. The label was most notable for discovering and releasing in 1988 early UK acid house anthem and Hacienda club classic ‘Voodoo Ray’ by A Guy Called Gerald. The single spent 18 weeks on the UK singles chart eventually reaching number 12, and was awarded best selling independently released single of 1989 by Music Week and the British Phonographic Industry. Its eventual success was despite the collapse of the record’s early distributor Red Rhino, which wiped out the label's finances.

‘Voodoo Ray’ was also licensed for release in many other world wide territories. Warlock Records licensed the single from Rham! for the U.S. - including a Paradise Ballroom remix by house legend Frankie Knuckles.

Rham! Records' de facto in house A&R and production team for many of its releases were Manchester ensemble Chapter And The Verse. Aniff Cousins (now Aniff Akinola) and Colin Thorpe also performed and wrote with A Guy Called Gerald on all Rham! releases, and on the 3 song session recorded for the BBC Radio One John Peel Show in 1989, which also achieved significant sales when released on Strange Fruit Records.They achieved a UK chart placing in 1989 as writers and producers of Kiss AMC ‘A Bit Of U2’, ground breakingly sampling legally ‘New Year’s Day’ by U2. Chapter And The Verse subsequently released two albums influenced by soul, funk, jazz, hip hop & house, a melting pot of styles which preceded the Acid Jazz scene in the early 1990s.

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