True story - back in the early 90s I was a naive teenager in the pre-internet days, I used to phone up a few record companies to find out a bit about upcoming singles and so on - for instance a nice lady at XL Recordings would tell me about Prodigy tour dates and the like.
So imagine my surprise when I phoned up Strictly Underground records using the number of the record sleeve and Mark Ryder himself answered the phone (what?, to my mind at the time 'companies' might they had receptionists and stuff. Just run with me on this one...)
Once I'd finished being a gushing fanboy we chatted for some while and I learnt a good few things about the music industry in general and the gulf between the corporate and the underground. Mr Ryder was more than happy to talk at length about the way he wanted to take his brand of music and his words definately went unminced - I recall the guy was particularly scathing about Suburban Base and their 'selling out' of the Smart-Es records.
S.U. was an excellent label which moved from early hardcore to full-on jungle with ease while never compromising. And mention has to be made for those charmingly home-made sounding adverts featured on some of the albums: 'oi oi! Strictly Underground Records in the place!'