'Criminal' was a popular name for Punk / New Wave labels in the late 1970s: there were at least two of them, in addition to the more mainstream label. This was the second of them. It came from Coventry and was run by Clive Solomon. It ran to just two issues, both of which appeared in 1978, and it used an SOL-0 numerical series. Its first single, Punk Man' b/w 'Paperboy Song', by Predator, came out in April and had a separate number for each side: SOL-1 and SOL-2. The V.I.P.s' 'Music For Funsters' three-track maxi single followed in July and had just one number, SOL-3. The Zigzag 'Small Record Labels 1978' refers to Criminal as 'Now called Bust Records' and gives an address for Bust ('Formerly Criminal Records, Coventry) in Battersea High Street, London, but James Denholm has written in to say that according to Clive Solomon the 'Bust' angle was 'merely a graphics thing' and that the company was always Criminal. He adds that Solomon and the two bands met while studying at Warwick University. Thanks to James for the information and the second scan; Sam Mauger was kind enough to supply the third.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.