Welcome to the new home of Rocatex Records
I want to start by thanking all of those who have shown support over the last months as I've tried to sort out where this project and record label is going to go....
This is our new website. We will enable purchase of records through an online store sometime in June of 2021.
The Rockatex Records label was started in 2020, in England, by my older brother, Allen Crain.
Named for the names we went by when we both first started to hang out on the English Rock 'n' Roll and Rockabilly scene back in the early 1980's. Allen was known as "Rocky" and I (John) went, and often still do by the name of "Tex". Hence ROC-A-TEX or ROCATEX.
John and Allen Crain
Allen's idea was to publish tracks that were hard to find on originals or were just lesser known gems.
His first 45 RAT001 is a Buddy and Ella Johnson double sider. It was released without a cover and featured two great tracks:
"Why Don't Cha Stop It" and "Bring It Home To Me"
He then went on to work with friends to choose songs, arrange licencing and design covers for future releases. He started the process of lining up RAT-002 through RAT009. He and I had many conversations about which tracks to release, what to put on the covers etc. etc, as with all brothers we did not always agree on all the details but it was his label and his vision.
Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Allen, after a short battle with COVID and related symptoms he passed at the age of 56 on January 30th 2021.
So here we are...
The question arose of how to continue his legacy and the answer was obvious. Finish what he started with the record label.
So I took it upon myself to discover the ins and outs of Rocatex. Very little was documented but I managed to figure out most of the details either through digging, luck or through people reaching out to me.
I've decided to keep the label going with the same suppliers and collaborators as my brother chose and to try and keep it as true to what he would have wanted as I can. (Even the stuff we disagreed on:)
Before he passed he had put a few records into various stages of productions and those will be the first releases that you start to see here.
Hopefully many more will follow..
John "Tex" Crain