Keith Armstrong, Founder, Kitchenware Records
Oct 25 2010 by Chris Knox, The Journal
Newcastle's Kitchenware Records has become one of the North East's most famous creative fountainheads, signing a host of chart toppers including Lighthouse Family and Editors. Christopher Knox caught up with its founder Keith Armstrong.
KITCHENWARE Records has been part of the region’s music scene for more than 27 years and has helped put Newcastle firmly on the map of pop music landmarks.
It has persuaded a number of the UK’s best known artists to set up a base in the North East, and nurtured homegrown talent, such as Newcastle R&B girl group Sirens, who are currently making waves in the US.
It is a testament to the determination of Armstrong that the company has continued to go on to bigger and better things at a time when the music industry has been hit by falling sales and the rise of illegal downloads.
Born in Newcastle, Armstrong spent his first seven years in and around Prudhoe, Northumberland, before moving to Somerset and then back to Prudhoe when he was 14.
His musical ambitions were apparent at a young age when, as a student at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Hexham, he started a band with childhood friend Paul Ludford, with whom he went on to found Kitchenware.
His family home had also been a great source of musical inspiration. He says: “The first name of our band was Machinehead, but we then changed it to Split as we were forever splitting up.
“We did it mainly to keep off the streets.
“It was during a time when I started to get interested in a range of different music.
“I was really into David Bowie and the Velvet Underground, but then began listening a lot more to black music such as Parliament and Funkadelic and then I got caught up in the punk scene.
“I was mad about the Sex Pistols and wore safety pins just about anywhere, which is partly the reason why I lost my gorgeous girlfriend at the time, who wouldn’t speak to me anymore.
“I’ve always been around music. My mum used to always play The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, while my dad was more into Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.
“They brought this compilation record home one day with a Sly Stone record on it called Runnin’ Away, that and Riders on the Storm by The Doors were the first records I heard when I was little that I thought were amazing.”
Armstrong initially studied business at Newcastle Polytechnic, now Northumbria University, but by his own admission became a little sidetracked by his interests in music and the arts.
“I realised that there was more to life than just pursuing a business studies course,” he says.
“It was at a time when I was being introduced to a much wider crowd of people.
“We used to hitch down to London to see acts like David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. Then I got hooked on The Clash and attended an anti-Nazi rally in London that they were organising.
“It was the whole punk thing that really gave people a more liberal attitude. I listened closely to every word that Malcolm McLaren was saying at the time and believed that anything was possible.”
