Pete Tong joined London Records in 1983. Friends of his at the time were all working at labels, including Jeff Young, and friend Mick Clark who used to manage an influential record shop called City Sounds in Holborn.
The philosophy of the London Records label was to be a bit like Island Records, in that they would have artists from different genres all under one roof. Island had both Bob Marley and Roxy Music; two very cool artists with completely different music styles.
From London Records, Pete launched FFRR, an ‘indie’ dance label. London Records was missing out on dance music signings as they weren’t seen as specialist enough.
FFRR was launched from London Record to capture this market. Immediately they signed Salt ‘n’ Pepa, who went on to sell millions of records. London Records had in turn signed Run DMC, Bronski Beat and Bananarama.
