It Records was founded by Cliff Moore back in 1977. Cliff ran four It Record stores with outlets based in Portadown, Lurgan, Banbridge and Lisburn. Cliff’s initial spur to form a record label came after having gone to London in the summer of 1977 to purchase records for his stores. On the trip he paid a visit to several of the independent labels including Chiswick Records, who were based in an office above the Rock On record shop. Inspired by the chaos and enthusiasm that he encountered at Chiswick, Cliff returned home and decided to start his own label. Cliff recounted this trip on the BBC Radio Ulster show ‘From Them To Us’ broadcast on 26th December 1978 as follows “It had become somewhat routine, the actual shops and then I happened to be in London going around Chiswick, Bonaparte and Stiff records etc, just buying stuff actually and the shops were so small, so disorganised, I thought there mustn’t be nothing to this starting a record label, so I just came back and did just that. There’s no big mystery about a record label”.

Simply called IT Records, Cliff ran his new label from his main shop at 8 Thomas St. Portadown. The label’s first signing was a young Portadown band called Speed who recorded two songs, Big City and a cover of the Kinks All Day And All Of The Night, in a Dublin studio on 17th August ’77. These recordings were subsequently released as a single in November of the same year. Bearing the catalogue number IT1 this was the first bona fide Northern Irish New Wave release. Speed split shortly after this, but several ex members went on to form Midnite Cruiser who provided IT with their second single, the excellent Rich Bitch / Striker.

It Records third release came via the punk novelty single Punk Rockin’ Granny, by pub rockers The Duggie Briggs Band, who included in their ranks Richard Sholdis, owner of Rocky Mungos, a hip independent record shop in Belfast’s Linenhall Street. In keeping with the times the band recorded under the pseudonyms, A B Normal, Derek Claptout, Leonard Skeyboard, Cul E. Backey and Dirty Mack. Cliff then tried to sign a young up- and-coming band called Stiff Little Fingers but found that he couldn't afford them. Undeterred by this minor setback he then went to see a young band of upstarts called The Outcasts rehearsing in an attic on Belfast’s Lisburn Road. Duly impressed by what he heard, Cliff sent the band to Hydepark Studios, Templepatrick, where they cut three tracks that appeared on their brilliant triple a-side debut 7".

The Duggie Briggs Bands’ Flashes On 7" EP became the label’s fifth, and final, release. Unfortunately Cliff didn't have the money to keep the label going. Cliif Moore, again from the BBC Radio Ulster show ‘From Them To Us’ broadcast on 26th December 1978 “Local labels are really only doing demos of bands in the hope that some of the big companies based in London pick up on it. It’s just to bring the groups to the attention of DJs such as John Peel. From there the big companies then scurry after the artists which he takes an interest in. I’m very cynical of the whole record business having been on the edge of it for so long. It’s one of the most disreputable trades that I can think of. I hoped to record the Northern Ireland equivalent of the New Wave”.

Cliff certainly achieved his goal and although the label’s output was small, it deserves considerable merit for chronicling some of the earliest recordings of the Northern Irish punk scene with releases such as the aforementioned Outcasts debut 45.

Cliff also released one album and two singles on the subsidiary label, Band-it Records, but sadly these were Country/Rock. It Records HQ was damaged when an I.R.A. car bomb exploded in Portadown town centre. All of Clive’s files and data relating to the label, including his spare copies of the singles, were all destroyed.

Cliff passed away on Sunday 9th August 2020 after a long battle with cancer.