"On a winter's day in 1994 in Fat City Records on Oldham Street, Manchester, Mark Rae had an idea that could determine the next decade of his life. Not content with the records on offer he decided that he could do better with the talent that surrounded him. A plan and musical journey was starting to take place.

Fast forward to the spring of' 95 and Gone Clear was celebrating its first release by former Poor Righteous teacher's producer Tony D called 'Central J Parley EP'.

6 tracks of funky music that could mix into hip- hop but had the real soul that the acid jazz movement lacked.

Designed like a DJ track this instrumental hip- hop number summed up the different music that was missing from the two other most respected labels at the time, namely Mo'Wax & talkin' loud.

By the summer the follow up record had arrived in the form of First Priority (Mark Rae & Steve Christian), a dancefloor classic that is still in demand today. Things were starting to shape up nicely and Gone Clear was starting to create a lot of interest in the music scene and DJ boxes alike, then suddenly things took a bit of a tumble when Mark discovered that a promotions company in London specialising in Rare Groove was trading with the same name. With the logo designed and the look of the covers the GC of Gone Clear turned into the GC of Grand Central and the beginning of the story was born.

Mark was still working in Fat City Record Shop and distributing the records from the back of his second hand estate car. The shop proved to be a breeding ground of local producer talent, Aim, Only Child, Votel & The Funky Fresh Few were all buying records with samples on a Mark noticed this and asked them for tapes..."

Record Label
www.grandcentralrecords.co.uk