A member of the KBD group asked if I ran Over The Top Records, back in the day, and just in case anyone else is still trying to reach me, for whatever
reason, the answer is yes.

Here's a brief history of the death of Over The Top Records.

The collapse occurred during the manufacture of the So Much Hate "How We Feel" LP. I was trying to get it out in time for them to tour here, with Govt Issue, just a few dates on the east coast.

I'm not a tour/booking person, I just got in touch with GI and asked them if they would be willing to set up a few of dates and they graciously agreed.

Meanwhile, I've got their master, the art is at Ross Ellis I've paid for a thousand covers, and I'm desperately calling every distributor who owes me money trying to get the down-payment to press a thousand LP's at DiskMakers (Philadelphia), and it was like trying to get blood from a stone. The whole effort collapsed when Gunnar couldn't get into the states because of a DWI.

The collapse was NOT, I repeat NOT Gunnar's fault. I quite simply found myself out a bunch of money, and still a few dollars short and said 'fuck it'. Over the Top wasn't fun any more. It had turned into a business, instead of a way to have fun and support the scene. Then I started mailing stuff back to people.

If any one thing was the trigger, then it would be the fact that I pressed 2000 copies of the Christ on A Crutch (LP). It was every penny I had. If I had stayed at 1000, I would have had the breathing room to wait for the distributors to pay up ( which they claim to do in 90 days, but it was usually 9 months, and a new LP to blackmail them with - as in you cant have it unless you pay up! )

I got the artwork back and sent the masters to So Much Hate. Sent the artwork for the previous LP's to Tim Coleman (dognest), Mellakka, and Systematic Death.

The deal with Over the top was that I would press 1000 records, and give the band 200 as their payment. The other 800 would go toward getting my money back (aprox $3000.00) for the pressing, and covers. I would charge $4.00 to distributors, $5 postpaid for mail order. I tried to get the extra $600.00 to pay for the promo copies I sent to radio stations, and for advertising in MRR etc. If everyone had paid up on time, I would have broken even (in theory). As it was, a lot of it went out in trades and ended up feeding my record collection, so I generally lost a thousand dollars per record.

More History. At the time of the collapse, I was engaged to my first wife, and we left Guilford and moved to Waterbury. I kept the PO Box for about a year, but the hour drive to the post office wasn't practical so I let it go (now, I wish I had kept it).

Shift ahead 8 years, and I'm separated from my first wife, eventually getting divorced. At the time of the divorce, I got the Over the Top stuff that remained in storage at her parents house. It mostly consisted of a emails, demo tapes, a small batch of unfilled mail orders, the band agreements, pressing contracts, distrib purchase orders, etc. All the paperwork that accumulates when you do something like that.

I picked it up and brought it to my girlfriends apartment in Branford CT. Well her apartment burned down. And my box's of stuff were sitting on the kitchen table. So I don't have anything from that era. No addresses, no emails, no actual pressing counts, nothing.

I'm sure somebody can find 'bad' stories about Over the Top, hopefully there are some good stories too. I had fun doing it, right up until the end. The end sucked, big time, but all in all, it was worth it.

I wish I had kept in touch a bit better, I met some great people, had some great times. Some things worked, some things didn't.

Factoids:

Apathy? Never! (LP) compilation
1st press 1000 clear vinyl
2nd Press 500 Black Vinyl

Sons of Ishmael - "Pariah Martyr Demands A Sacrifice" (LP)
1000 black vinyl
(also released in the uk)

Raped Teenagers - "Kalas Puffar" (12")
1000 red vinyl

Christ on a Crutch - "Spread Your Filth" (LP)
2000 pressed - black

WAR (7") compilation
500 pressed - black vinyl

Christ on A Crutch - "Spread Your Filth" (7")
500 - black vinyl

I'll try to put together a Over The Top FAQ if anyone has any interest or any questions ...

Feel free to ask questions, send hate mail, condolences, hello's, whatever's ....