Punch Records is the UK’s leading Music and Arts agency who have a commitment to working with Black Music, Arts and Culture through four central 'pillars' - Creating, Touring, Programming and Educating through award-winning tours, festivals, international projects and innovative educational programmes for young people.
History
Punch Records was founded in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham in 1997 by Ammo Talwar MBE. The agency began as an Black music record store, and quickly became a major hub for artists and DJ culture, pioneering sales for vinyl and mixtapes of various genres including UK Garage - tapes like Sun City, La cos Nostra and Harmony were very popular in the late 1990s In its early days Punch Hosted legendary DJ competitions in the region and organised large scale events leading to work with major labels including Def Jam, Bad Boy, Island and Rawkus supporting global artists in UK campaigns. At this time Punch was also a pioneer in the UK Garage scene, hosting regular events at Birmingham's legendary Que Club. In 2002, the success of the record store led Punch to relocate to Birmingham's Creative Quarter, the Custard Factory complex in Digbeth and following on from its early success, Punch began to host events for young people as part of what would grow into Punch's famed outreach programme to develop talent within the city. From this, Birmingham City Council began to programme events through Punch which included events in Centenary Square during Birmingham's European Capital of Culture 2008 bid. Punch also produced the world's first dedicated Bhangra book and touring exhibition that went onto host in over 75 venues in global cities, including London, New York, Edinburgh and Birmingham. In 2008 Ammo Talwar was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Honours list for his contribution to music and young people in the West Midlands. Punch has continued to produce large scale events within the community and pioneer for Birmingham's music industry by setting up the cities first Black temporary radio station in 2013 with Bass FM, working with Chicago based organisation Gallery 37 to help support artists on a major talent development programme and hosting the first large scale caribbean event in the city centre , Jamaica Live celebrating the Jamaican team been hosted in the city before the London 2012 Olympics. The event was attended by over 30,000 people. Punch has toured major Black artists such as Angie Stone, Tarrus Riley, Julian Marley and Amerie alongside presenting the largest collection of original work by Nigerian stalwart Lemi Ghariokwu, artwork designer for Fela Kuti. Today Punch continues to produce groundbreaking events and develop talent within Birmingham and beyond working beyond the 2022 Commonwealth games
