NORTON RECORDS • 40 YEARS!
Norton Records celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2026, and we are delighted to announce our new exclusive distributor, HPB, which will handle all of our original available stock on LP, 45, ten inch, and compact disc, and also all avialable titles from Kicks Books. HPB is Texas Bookman a/k/a Half Price Books, a Texas based distributor with 120 brick and mortar stores - all of them now populated with all available physical releases (on all formats) from Kicks Books and Norton Records. Find a store near you by typing in your zip code at the HPB website! HPB also stocks a big bunch of vintage magazines and posters and a giant slew of singles from the Kicks Archive. We look forward to continuing our connection with this incredible company - thank you Boots, James, and everyone at HPB for the hospitality energy, and care about our label and publishing endeavor. We celebrated with the HPB gang in November with an official launch at the HPB flagship store. Read more…
NORTON WEBSITE REFORM … PLUS RADIO!
While HPB is now the place to go for Norton and Kicks, here at home base - Kicksville - we are working on our sites to include listings all of the records that were produced since 1986, when our first records appeared in the stacks. The label’s beginning actually dated back to 1979, when the first issue of Kicks magazine saw publication out of the Jay Street loft apartment of editor/publishers Miriam Linna and Billy Miller in downtown Brooklyn, NY. Before combining forces in ‘79, Miriam got her start self-publishing the legendary Flamin’ Groovies Monthly, and Billy screened teeshirts via the (what else?) legendary Sardine Productions, which he formed with his best friend David Backus in 1976. Miriam and Billy were rock n’ roll fans first and foremost, and spent 39 years together as musicians (Zantees and A-Bones for. both, and Miriam also in the Cramps, Nervous Rex and Figures of Light), writers, historians, collectors, publishers, and record label moguls. The driving force was always, and continues to be, celebrating the unsung heroes of rock n roll. Billy Miller passed on in 2016, and Miriam continues the work today as an independent record label prexy and independent book and music publisher. One thousand catalog items later, encompassing over ten thousand songs, Norton has a wild backstory to tell. We are currently working on an encyclopaedic romp through the past four decades, documenting each release with artist bios, discographies, and memories.
HPB should be your source for Norton, but a few loose titles may remain at our own website. We also have tiny quantities of signed, numbered, and limited stock Kicks Books. While new releases are underway (top secret!), we have three hour, weekly radio shows at WPKN 89.5 FM in Bridgeport CT. Miriam’s show Kicksville, celebrating the sounds of Kicks Magazine and rarities from the Kicksville Archive, alternates with the long-standing CRASHING THE PARTY which is all original vocal groups and rhythm & blues stompers from the respective collections of Miriam via Kicks/Norton and WBCN’s Marc Miller. We call it all rock-n-roll and we spin our wares at 45 RPM every Tuesday from 9AM til 12 noon Eastern time at WPKN.org online, 89.5 FM for those within the 10,000 watt radius of Bridgeport CT right here at at KICKSVILLE RADIO!
STAY TUNED!
We've got hot and spicy news coming soon - we will keep you up to date so stay in touch, everybody!
Kids, there is no need to complain about records you've heard a thousand times. Now you have the luxury of tuning in at all hours of all days and nights 24/7 to our dotingly collected programming at Kicksville Radio. We are always working on delivering the goods. Wanna join forces? Send a smoke signal!
