"The Agora of the Wayward": A Quarter Century of Rough Trade

"I USED TO buy my records in a shop in Trafalgar Road, and the man there was quite avant-garde for his day. Whenever I bought one of these rock'n roll records, he'd say: "Have you heard the original? Have you heard ‘Hound Dog’, by Willie Mae Thornton?" And I'd say "No", and he'd get it in for me. And Earl Bostic! I still love Earl Bostic. He was light years ahead of his time. And Little Walter. I was listening to those people in '57. A lot of people in '57 didn't even know what rock'n roll was."
– Marty Wilde, in Jon Savage's "The Blackheath Jungle" (Mojo February 1995)