Neat Records

Neat Records was a record label based near Newcastle, England. The label was established in 1979 by David Wood, who was the owner of Impulse Studios in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England. The label was sold in 1995 by its then owner, the former Tygers of Pan Tang vocalist Jess Cox, to Sanctuary Records.

Neat Records was arguably the most instrumental label in the revival of heavy metal in the early 80s in the UK. The movement was known as the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal or NWOBHM for short. The label is most notorious for the early releases of Newcastle band Venom who are widely credited with the invention of black metal. While none of Neat Records' acts really broke through to the mainstream themselves, Venom, Raven, Blitzkrieg and Jaguar particularly are acknowledged as major influences on a host of major American thrash metal bands such as Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax. In fact Metallica have even covered Blitzkrieg's self-titled song "Blitzkrieg" and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has claimed "Whiplash" to be a deliberate attempt to emulate Jaguar's song "Stormchild".

Other notable acts to release music through Neat Records include White Spirit (notable as the then current band of Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers) and Persian Risk (notable as the original band of current Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell).