RECORDS
Independent label Founded and directed by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, Beggars Banquet began life first as a mobile discotheque and then as a record shop; it also acted as a concert promoter. Customer demand led it to develop an interest in the nascent Punk movement, and it started promoting Punk gigs. Punk band The Lurkers used to rehearse under the company's Fulham shop; it was in response to a failure to interest record companies in the group that, in 1977, Beggars Banquet set up their own label. Distribution was by President at first; then Island took and later WEA, who were able to offer some much-needed financial help. Numbering was in the BEG-0s, though there was a short BOP-0 series which seems to have been dedicated to records by Ivor Biggun. After tickling the charts with singles by the Lurkers, the Doll and Ivor Biggun the company hit paydirt in 1979 when its eighteenth single, Tubeway Army's 'Are Friends Electric' went to No.1 (with the help of a then-novel picture disc). A stream of hits by Gary Numan followed. In the '80s and '90s the label's policy of spotting new trends in music and encouraging them enabled it to grow and to flourish; whereas many independents from the '70s and '80s came and went, Beggars Banquet came and stayed. Thanks to Robert Lyons For The Info.
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF THE BEG SERIES 1977-1992 CAN BE FOUND HERE
| 78 | Ivor Biggun | Winker'S Song | BEGGARS BANQUET | BOP | 1 |
| 79 | Ivor Biggun | Hello My Baby | BEGGARS BANQUET | BOP | 2 |
| 79 | Aka | Space Age Lovers | BEGGARS BANQUET | BOP | 3 |
| 80 | Rex Barker And The Ricochets | Jeremy Is Innocent! | BEGGARS BANQUET | BOP | 4 |
| 81 | Ivor Biggun | Winkers Rock And Roll | BEGGARS BANQUET | BOP | 5 |
| 81 | Ivor Biggun | Bras On 45 | DEAD BADGER | BOP | 6 |
| 79 | Lurkers | Shadow | BEGGARS BANQUET | BACK | 1 |
| 79 | Tubeway Army | That'S Too Bad | BEGGARS BANQUET | BACK | 2 |
| 79 | Lurkers | I Don'T Need To Tell | BEGGARS BANQUET | BACK | 3 |
