Ace Records is thrilled to be working with seminal singer-songwriter, toast of this year's Olivier Awards and all-round Sheffield legend Richard Hawley on this, the first volume of a compilation series of some of his favourite singles. This is a selection of 28 7''s that Richard has collected on his travels around the globe, through friends, family, collectors, word of mouth, thrift shop finds, pub jukebox gems and everything in between. Richard refers to the glue that joins these selections together as 'Little Bangers' as they are all mini hand grenades; bright lights that explode and fizzle out, some big names, some rarities, some lost souls, some obscurities, some by artists he actively enjoys knowing almost nothing about other than they want to get him on his feet and dance. Many are garage instrumentals, exposing the guitar-line as lead melody and the art of telling a story without lyrics.

As Richard puts it, 'I’m fascinated by the 7-inch single because of the discipline of it. A 7-inch single can only contain a certain amount of information... So, you have to learn the discipline of cramming all that information and craft into a short space of time. If you imagine this album as a piece of bacon, there’s absolutely no fat on it at all. It’s just juicy meat. There aren’t flabby recordings, they are very nimble.'

We're extra proud that the Hendrix Estate have allowed us to include Curtis Knight and The Squires' ferocious and never previously licensed 'Hornet's Nest' which naturally we proudly kick off with. We feature the five-minutes-plus long version that has never been released before. The pace never slackens, taking in the Shadows, Link Wray, the Troggs, the Champs, Jimmy Gordon and so many more besides. It's joyful, it's relentless, and you can listen to it on repeat for a thousand miles.

01  Hornet's Nest - Curtis Knight & The Squires feat. Jimi Hendrix 02  Nasty - The Timekeepers 03  Path Through The Forest (Version) - The Factory 04  Get On This Plane - The Premiers 05  Scotch On The Socks - The Shadows 06  Quasimoto - The Road Runners 07  Lazy Rebel - Twangy Rebels 08  Swinging Drums - Ronny Kae 09  Cuttin' Out - Rockin' Ronald & The Rebels 10  Honky - The Ho-Dads 11  Black Night - Cheryl Thompson 12  Long Line Rider - Bobby Darin 13  Poppin' Popeye - Link Wray & The Ray Men 14  Hot-Rod - King Curtis 15  Feels Like A Woman - The Troggs 16  Cuttin' Out - The Pirates 17  Where You Gonna Go - Art Guy 18 Neb's Tune - Ahab & The Wailers 19  Buzzzzzz - Jimmy Gordon 20  Jungle Walk - The Dyna-Sores 21 Surfin' & Swingin' (Shorter Version) - Les Brown Jr 22 Tahiti - Jimmy & Stan 23  Bawana Jinde - Al Duncan 24  Dead End Part 1 - The Executioners 25   For Love - Bobbie Gentry & Jody Reynolds 26  3/4 Mash - The Champs 27 El Gato - The Chandelles 28  It's Nothing To Me - Sanford Clark