Parasols 02

Plink Plonk was a label run by Richard West, better known as Mr.C of The Shamen, co-founder since 1995 of The End club (and label) in London.

Not much I know about PP as I wasn't quite following back then when it started (1992-3), still it's rather obvious that it played a pivotal role in the enrichment and development of UK techno. I bet it was due to the combination of Mr.C's love for music and his business skills, as in its roster appear some of Detroit and Chicago's finest while many british acts presented there were or later went really big. Using the club as a base has also been useful, I guess. Anyway, along with Irdial (*), Mark Broom's A13 and Pure Plastic, Ferox and Ifach they defined in a big way the course of England's underground techno scene, totally underrated and almost subdued by the whole mid '90s commercial UK club crap. Just listen to this compilation, or even check the artists' list. To give you a clue, in order of appearance, there they are:

LA Synthesis is Carl Grant and Tony Gallagher. (*)
Kosmic Messenger is Stacey Pullen.
Innersound are The Advent. (*)
Urban Groove (Alliance) is Hope Grant aka Envoy of Soma.
Underground Science is Krypto and Laggy Pantelli of Megalon. Who appear here as a stand-alone act and in their legendary collaboration with Irdial's Lee Purkis aka InSync.
Ansicht is Ian Pooley. (*)
Tone Theory is Derrick Carter.
Kasm are Mark Broom & Dave Hill aka Rue East.
God Of The Machine is Derrick Thompson of Soiree.
Hiroshi Morohashi had some 12"s out in DjaxUpBeats, Shield, Acacia.
Kumo is Jono Podmore, sound engineer and d'n'b-breaks oriented producer.
Interloper is Jon Ryman, and Stranger is Ian Tregoning, unknown yet respected engineers for the post-industrial scene in UK.
Music For Freaks is of course Luke Solomon of the Freaks and Derrick Carter.

People from the Plink Plonk roster not participating here are the famous (of Layo &) Bushwacka!, Pluto, the Somnabulist, Christopher Benjamin, Michel De Hey vs Literon (=Gerd) and many more less known. Many aliases are collaborations or cameos of Mr.C.
Is it a wonder the End went so big?

Lately he's running the Superfreq label, working a lot with Adultnapper as the Sycophant Slugs with an eminent release in Get Physical... Which seems to copy Mr.C's tactics really well, when it comes to inviting big names with good networks behind them for a release.

VA - 1996 Parasols 02. a Plink Plonk compilation
CD 1 - CD 2
Info here.

I just read that The End is gonna close in a few months.