ZE Records (always written with two capital letters) was originally a New York-based record label, started in 1978 by Michael Zilkha and Michel Esteban. It has been re-established by Esteban since 2003. Michael Zilkha (b. 1954) is a British-born Oxford graduate of Iraqidescent, the son of Selim Zilkha, former owner of Mothercare, a major UK retail company, and the stepson of Cabinet member Lord Lever. In the mid-1970s, Zilkha worked in the New York publishing industry and was a contributor to the Village Voice. Michel Esteban (b. 1951) studied art in Paris and at the School of Visual Arts in New York, before returning to Paris in 1975 and opening the shop Harry Cover (a pun on “haricots verts”), which specialised in current rock music merchandise from the US and UK. The basement shop quickly became the rehearsal place for Parisian new wave bands. Between 1975 and 1976, Esteban published Rock News, which covered the birth of the punk rockmovement in London, New York and Paris. In 1977 he published Patti Smith’s books Witt and The Night, and Lizzy Mercier Descloux’s first book Desiderata. In 1977, Esteban signed French new wave band Marie et les Garçons, and asked John Cale – who had been introduced to him …