"Success is doing it in the first place"

What Steven asked Lee Grimshaw, owner of record label Spinout Nuggets

Spinout Nuggets have released some of the best Medway records of the last decade. Following their recent takeover event at Analogue Music, Steven met DJ Lee Grimshaw in Rochester for coffee where they discussed why he set up the label, how he came to release the latest 5.6.7.8’s single, and what counts as success in the modern music business.

Lee Grimshaw

What is your official occupation?
Oh, that’s a good question. I currently have a part-time job as a moderation specialist, working in digital music distribution. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Cornwall, working in the digital world of music. It’s not fun, but pays some bills.

Do you have any additional roles, paid or unpaid?
Unpaid is running the record label Spinout Nuggets and DJing at various places all across the land putting on events under Spinout Revue. Book publishing, under Spinout Publications. Lots of stuff that’s got Spinout on it.

Spinout seems to be quite big. Why do you do it if you don’t get paid?
Because it’s a passion. It’s not for the money, because I’m doing things. I’m working with artists that are in my record collection. I think that’s quite good. That’s worth much more than money.

How would you describe Spinout Nuggets?
Spinout Nuggets is an independent record label. It’s not genre specific, but it does involve bands from Medway, there’s Mod, Garage, Hammond Jazz, indie, C86. It’s just the music that I like.

You mentioned you’ve also done book publishing?
Yeah, three books, two of which were from Saskia Holling. Girlsville, based on The Delmonas and Thee Headcoatees, and You & Me Against the World, about bands from Edinburgh in the 80s. The other one was In Heaven, Daryl Hartley’s book based on Eraserhead. His vision of it and sketches.

What led you to launch Spinout Nuggets?
I had been doing an online radio show for five years, the Spinout Show, from something like 2015 to 2020. Being a DJ and record collector, not for the pound value but for the sound value, I had always been interested in how things come out and running a record shop, owning a record shop, owning a record label, running a nightclub. All these things have always been something that would be good to do. Then the first release I did, Sergeant’s Mess, the tracks became available with an interest of could I find a home for these songs. I did and then that fell through, and I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I do it myself?’ Couple of years before that I had taken voluntary redundancy from my engineering job. I worked in engineering for 26 years. I worked at that employer for 23 years, so 23 years’ worth of redundancy money. I kept buying records, and then I thought, ‘Well, why don’t we make some?’ That’s where that came from really, thanks to Sergeants Mess being a Medway band. That came out in October 2017, but the release didn’t come out till February 2018.

Why do you release so much music by Medway bands?
Because I’m originally born and bred Medway. Born in 1974, lived in Gillingham for 20 years. Finished my apprenticeship at GEC Avionics. At the time, I was into Volkswagen, surfing, skating, and started a clothing company, Source Clothing. We used to do all the Volkswagen events. Newquay was the place to be. Me and my two brothers relocated there. Which was nice, and we stayed down there quite a lot and came back to Medway from time to time because mum and dad were still up here, but 1998, their first grandchild was born, my eldest, and they moved down anyway. A long period where I wasn’t coming back, because I was a dad, DJing in Newquay every week. It’s not been until maybe the last ten years or so that I’ve been coming back more so… What was the question?
What I should be saying is growing up in Medway, my mum and her next-door neighbour used to run a youth club in Gillingham. It was full of mods, skinheads, casuals, whatever happened throughout that period. I always remember seeing The Prisoners, The Dentists, all these bands around different places growing up. My brother being older, Dave, was a scooterist and just being aware of the music and although at the time I was more into electro, hip-hop, breakdancing and then into house music, acid house and acid jazz, whatever. I was always aware of it, but I was a bit too young to be exposed to that period apart from I used to help out in the record shop. It’s always been there, but it’s just come a little bit later. Which I don’t think is a bad thing because I think music, when you listen to new music, it doesn’t necessarily have to be new. It’s new to you. I’m backtracking a lot of indie from the mid-80s and what have you. To me, that’s potentially new. I might have been aware of it, but I wasn’t listening to it.

Is there something particular about Medway bands?
I just warm to it. It feels like it’s part of me. I mean, I’d love to be in a band. I’ve tried every single instrument, and at some point, I will be in a band. I’ve played percussion and stuff on some recordings, but I will be at some point, when I get time to sit down and think about it. I just feel warm to it. It feels like it’s me.

What improvements have there been in Medway music in the last 25 years?
Mmm, improvements... I sell records down in Cornwall, I do record fairs, and I have a section called Medway. In the same way, there’s a Manchester section. Improvements, at the moment, quite a lot of youngsters coming through, which might seem a bit weird to us, because we’re older, but it’s great as long as they’ve got a good following of youngsters as well. Some bands that I see coming through that are young are playing to an older audience. It must be quite weird. The youngsters need to buy the physical product, whether it’s a t-shirt or a record and go to the gigs.

Let’s talk about three recent releases in that Medway section. There was Ludella Black and the 5.6.7.8’s.
Oh yes, that’s great. That’s thanks to The Masonics, really. The last two visits to the UK, I have driven the 5.6.7.8’s on their tour, and the Masonics too. Being a fan of the 5.6.7.8’s, we all know them mostly through the film Kill Bill. We struck up a good relationship and on the last tour there were four days up north and then four days down south, and then during them couple of days, we spent with Jim Riley at Ranscombe Studios recording, and that’s where that latest EP came from. They had Miss Ludella Black doing the vocals, which is great. Previous to that, we did an EP which was a split between 5.6.7.8’s and Masonics. Quite pleased with that.

That’s a limited release of 1,000? How do you decide the number on that?
Someone’s asked that before. ‘Why do you only do 300?’ Because if I can only sell 300, that’s where it is. I’m living at my mum’s, I’ve got half of her garage full of records, I’ve got a storage container. There’s only so much space. The 5.6.7.8’s have got a bit more global awareness fan base, there’s more chance, and they wanted a good stash anyway. They are on tour currently, France and Spain, they wanted some themselves to sell at the gigs. That’s where the thousand comes out.

You released the Cream Soda’s first album
I think that’s thanks to Analogue Music in Rochester, where they first made me aware of Cream Soda. At the time, I was a bit like, ‘I’ve got too much going on, always looking for the next generation.’ Tom got in touch, started sending music over, and it just came from that, and really pleased with that. It’s nice, it’s good, young, vibrant music, Medway at the moment, and hopefully it will continue.

You’ve just released the new Singing Loins album.
Sadly, Chris passed away. There was a couple of tracks that were floating around in Arf’s head from years ago that they recorded. We did, that was Jazzy Angels singles, we did that a while back. We still kept in touch, I support them totally. They got in touch recently to say they had got a new song, would I be up for it? Totally, why not?

If someone were new to Medway music, what would you suggest from the Spinout catalogue would be a good entry?
There’s a good question. It’s quite broad really.
Obviously, there’s the Billy Childish various outlets: Guy Hamper Trio, CTMF. But I couldn’t really point to something specific. I think the Guy Hamper Trio, The Goddess Tree album, that got a good following with him and James Taylor on organ. Everything the Masonics do is fantastic. But you know, they’re the biggies.

Is there anything in the back catalogue that you feel is a hidden gem?
Yes, the Khybers album. It was weird because we were putting on a gig, when the Function Rooms was open, upstairs with Big Boss Man, The Hurricanes, Graham Day and The Forefathers. Then downstairs, recording, unbeknownst to me, was the Khybers recording the album that I was eventually going to release. But we’d pop down there to say hello. I just didn’t think about it. The boys got in touch about potentially putting out the songs that they recorded. That album, Fullalove Alley, I think it got missed, it’s all about Medway, basically. There’s a nice little insert with the lyrics in with bit of information about each track. That’s the one I would say, do it. Second to that would be the Ye Ascoynes D’Ascoynes album, which are recordings from the early 90s, demos, but didn’t really get out there. I think that got missed off the radar a little bit.