Wall of Sound founder Mark Jones discusses 21 years of the independent London record label

This colloquium takes the form of an extended Q&A with Wall of Sound founder Mark Jones – led by Mario Anastasiades and supported by Sareata Ginda and you, the audience.

Born under a bad sign in Hayes, Mark left school with the bright idea of going to art college ‘cos he was the only bloke who went to Townfield comprehensive who owned a synthesiser, a Kraftwerk album and drunk pernod and black’.

He left after one day, went to work for BT, then hooked up with Mick Speechley to form seminal visuals company Pop. After numerous local gigs and rare groove jams he was accosted by Nicky Holloway to work with his ‘special branch’ mafia down the Royal Oak, Tooley Street. Freakin’ the punters and DJs alike at various seminal acid house parties, he rock and rolled (literally!) for five years in a prock (pop/rock) band called Perfect Day.

When the pop dream faded, he was re-united with Marc Lessner and offered a job at Soul Trader record distributors. There he started pressing and distributing deals for small labels and acts, helping the likes of Kruder and Dorfmeister and Basement Jaxx. A compilation of these artists was made and Wall of Sound was officially born.

Having no artists signed to the label, Jones went into the studio and recorded the first-ever single on Wall of Sound. The label is now 21 years young, with hundreds of albums and singles (Propellerheads, Röyksppp, Reverend and the Makers etc etc) to its name.

Jones now hosts his own show on BBC 6Music, supports QPR, is a practising SGI Buddhist, photographs his desserts, wears too much pink, and is dangerous in or around the penalty box.