Scans of British 78 rpm record labels.
J - Z, plus the Piccadilly -
Synchrophone family.
John Bull 40093 Gramophone Boom.
John Bull B62 Gramophone Boom.
Jumbo A25033 Gramophone Boom.
Jumbo A59406 Gramophone Boom.
Jumbo Packet This
plain, rather cheap packet was much more the usual sort in the early years,
rather than the elaborate
Keith
Prowse K-103
Kinemusic KB-014 An early British ‘library music’ label I
presume. A product of
Klingsor 8639 Gramophone Boom.
Leader 5367 Gramophone
Boom. Or ‘serial 32’, just as you prefer…?!
Levaphone L102 There
are a few – a very few – esoteric British labels that will take your breath
away when – if ever – you see them! Oriole and Keith Prowse come to mind. So
does Levaphone! Pressed by British Pathe, and drawing from their American
affiliate, issued at the behest of Levy’s shop in Whitechapel,
Levaphone A-102 Here
comes another hyper-rarity from Levy’s of Whitechapel. They only issued 3 in
this series, AFAIK. A-101 was ‘Jambled Blues’ & ‘Bogaloosa Blues’ by Sonny
Clay’s Plantation Orch. This A-102 is Vic Meyers and his Orch., the other side
being ‘Nay Dearie Nay’. A-103 has ‘I Had A Sweet Mama’ by the Tennessee
Tooters, but I don’t know what the other side of that one is. Can anyone help,
please? By courtesy of
Ludgate 6087 Little
is known about this label. Apart from the fact that I think these sides are
from American Vocalion, I know even less! Circa 1923.
Lutetia L509 Thanks
to a learned discussion on the 78-list, we learned that this label was French,
or rather, was a name used in
Lyceum
0107 Gramophone
Boom.
Lyric 201 Gramophone
Boom. Some stencil discs have holes
punched in the labels like this one. What it means, I don’t know.
Lyric 702 Gramophone
Boom. We already had one of these nearby, but in very poor condition. Here I
gratefully pay another tribute to Dr. Rainer Lotz. As one of the most eminent
Discographers in the world, it is indeed a tribute to his thoroughness and
painstaking enthusiasm, that in spite of all his other commitments, he can
still find the time to scan and send a better example of a label that already
appears on this modest web-page; and which is, after all, but one of scores of
such pages to be found on the web! Rainer’s scan clearly shows the punched-out
shapes in the label, which must be a code for something, besides the brackets
and stroke which appear next to the legend: ‘Made In Germany’. The tune dates
this to 1912 fairly securely. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz. On 9th August,
William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: This seems to have an association with
Philharmonic as they both have the same symbols on the label. Years ago someone, it may have been Frank
Andrews, gave me what he claimed was the key to these - based on what he told
me the symbols on this issue translate as '6710'. I think the one illustrated comes from
Favorite 531 (matrix 13932o, face number 1-67340) by HarryCove & Gene
Summers, issued December 1912. Needless
to say, this information on the issue comes from the files of Frank Andrews.
Lyricphone L-505 Gramophone Boom. I had never seen – or
heard – of this mysterious label, until it was kindly sent. By courtesy of
Dr. Rainer Lotz.
Marathon 139 This
is an interesting if short-lived vertical cut, quite finely-grooved label. A 12” example I have plays for around 7
minutes. It is said that the system employed by this company was ‘exported’ or
bought up by Vocalion for use in the
Marathon Packet The
packets in which these records came ‘went on’ a great deal about the virtues of
the system, as you can see! Also, it’s an early example of a packet where the
disc went in sideways, like LPs were to do 40 years later!
May-Fair This
label is dealt with as part of an inter-related ‘family’ of labels; all ten
appear grouped together at the bottom of the J - Z label page.
Melba This
label is dealt with as part of an inter-related ‘family’ of labels; all ten
appear grouped together at the bottom of the J - Z label page.
Melograph 30 Gramophone Boom.
Meloto S1149 Meloto
is one of those inconvenient labels that serve to disquieten us collectors. If
the various Meloto catalogue numbers one sees are anything to go by, why then,
they must have issued many hundreds of discs. Why? You never see them:
how much profit did they make when they put out a disc? Two or three pounds?
Well, I suppose then in that case, the more issues you put out, the more money
you make! But it’s hardly fair on us record collectors, is it? This one
probably dates from 1922/3, and is interesting in that instead of the whole
special set of pseudonyms normally associated with these Vocalion-cloned
labels, it states quite baldy: Bennie Kreuger’s Orchestra! Amazing! Whatever
happened to the Erco Novelty Orchestra??? Ooops: sorry; that was a pseudonym
used on Citizen records, an even rarer Vocalion clone, which also seems
to have made far more issues than one would expect.
Metropole This
label is dealt with as part of an inter-related ‘family’ of labels; all ten
appear grouped together at the bottom of the J - Z label page.
Millophone 26 Gramophone Boom.
Millophone 1004 The Gramophone Boom. Another
hand-written label. By courtesy of Mike Jones & Son.
Mill-o-Phone 252 Gramophone Boom. There are already two other
Mill-o-Phone labels on this page, but all three are quite different! This is
what we get all the time in this baffling 1910-1914 period. The most likely
explanation is, I suggest, that whoever this label belonged to – Miller
something or other, I suppose – had a batch of records made, which sold well.
When they went back for some more, either the people they got them from had
folded, or wanted more money? Or maybe a rep. from a rival concern called in at
Miller’s and offered to beat the last price? We’ll probably never know; but in
any case, if a punter went into our hypothetical Miller’s and said: ‘I see you
sell gramophone records!” they would have said ‘Yes sir! Look: here they are!
Shall we play some for you? Do you want a song, or a band selection?’ &c.
And when you get down to it, that punter didn’t go into the shop to study
pre-Great War record label design! They just went in to (possibly) buy a
record. Whether the label was green and gold and large (like this one); or red
and gold; or green and gold and small and with the title written in by hand in
ink (like the other two); this simply didn’t matter to the potential purchaser
in 1910, however much it vexes us today! By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.
National 423 Gramophone
Boom. This label was produced by Edison Bell for an unknown client. We know
it’s before 1912, because it’s the slightly larger diameter (10.25” 26cm)) they
used for their own Bell-Disc issues (shown on this web page). When they started
the Winner label that year, the size was reduced to a nominal 10” (25cm). Mind
you, it caused a little trouble when they wanted to use Bell Disc masters on
Winner, as there wasn’t much room for a leading space!
National 535 The Gramophone Boom. Nice
choice of colours, blue, white and gold! By courtesy of Mike Jones &
Son.
Neptune 209 Even
though this label is in appalling condition, it is a very elusive & interesting
one. While having the general appearance of a Gramophone Boom label, it did not
appear until November 1917. They were pressed by Crystalate for the music
publishing house Curwen. In his invaluable series “We Also Have Our Own Records”
(currently appearing in the C.L.P.G.S. journal ‘For The Record’), Frank Andrews
tells us the above, and also that Curwen had previously got Crystalate to press
for them a label they called ‘Coronet’. This drew from the Invicta Record Co.,
(Guardsman records), but the word ‘Coronet’ was discovered to be a trade mark
belonging to the Pathé company and so the Coronets either did not appear, or
were immediately withdrawn. Curwen then had these Neptune Records pressed.
Frank says the catalogue series continued to (at least) 266, by about March
1919. This
Nicole 7752 Pre-Gramophone
Boom; see the notes nearby on another Nicole. By courtesy of Mike Thomas.
Nicole 5763 This
is an important early label which appeared around 1905, so it is not part of
the ‘Boom’, but is in fact a very early entry into the marketplace when there were
only a handful of disc labels available. They came in 7” and 10” sizes, pressed
into a brown fibrous (noisy!) compound. Earlier issues are single sided and the
‘label’ is printed directly on the disc. Later issues are double sided and have
red paper labels. There is an allied label called Empire: these are on black
material with dark green labels. Nicoles are scarce; Empires extremely so.
Norwegian “Apart
from the fact that this must date from circa 1940-42 and was produced by Star
Sound Studio in London, I know nothing.” Scan and comments by courtesy of
William Dean-Myatt. But I recently (January 2005) received an email from Björn
Jakobssen of Sweden, who translated the label as follows: ‘On the top of the
label it says: "Gift from the Norwegian Government" Then it says:
"1. God bless our good king (lyrics N. ???ögtmann) Sung by a Norwegian
Navy Choir. 2. God bless our dear native land (or perhaps fatherland?) (C. E.
F. Weyse, lyrics E. Blix) Sung by a Norwegian Sailor.’ Björn went on to remark
that, in view of the Norwegian Government being ‘in exile’ in London at this
time during WW2, the item was certainly produced for Norwegians in the UK; but
also, possibly, copies may have got back to Norway? If so, the possession of
such a record would have been extremely dangerous in German-occupied
Norway!
Octacros This
label is dealt with as part of an inter-related ‘family’ of labels; all ten
appear grouped together at the bottom of the J - Z label page.
Odeon RA-222016 ‘Made
in England’ is this post-WW2 blue label Odeon of sides recorded around 1926 by
the French artist Bétove. On it he imitates the sounds of different languages,
as they may be heard by a listener who does not understand that language. I
remember hearing Maurice Chevalier do that too many years ago on a tv
programme.
Odeon OT-145 These
British-made Odeons of obviously authentic Tangos recorded in Buenos Aires
don’t turn up all that often, and I’m not sure whether they were intended for
sale in Britain, or for export to somewhere else. However, as has been said
above, even if they were intended for export, you could still order them here…
provided you knew they existed! On 14th November 2002, William Dean-Myatt
kindly informed us: Odeon OT (Tango) series was listed in the British
Parlophone catalogue, so it was easily available. However, it could
easily have been for export as well.
Olympic 270 A
very rare label from the early 1920s. It might even have been made for export? By
courtesy of Mike Jones & Son. On 21st April 2005, Ross Laird kindly
commented: Norman wonders if this label was made for export... I can't say for
sure about this specific example as I've never seen the exact label before. If
it was exported to Australia it must have been for only a very limited
period... BUT there is an Olympic label with almost exactly the same design
which was made in Britain for export to Australia... This Olympic label has the
same type of script for the word Olympic (which makes me suspect there's some
connection) but the label has gold print on an orange background and is found
pasted over early 1920s British Imperial records. The labels have totally
different catalog numbers to the Imperial records and do not name the
performers (usually stating simply "Dance Orchestra" or
"Vocal")... This type of Olympic is not uncommon here and they seem
to have been pasted over obsolete stock or unsold stock by Crystalate and
shipped off to the colonies (probably only Australia in this instance, but
possibly elsewhere as well). This was not an uncommon practice in the early to
mid 1920s (and also earlier)... In Australia there are many similar labels to
be found pasted over other labels. Most seem to be similar cases were obsolete
or unsold stock was sold off cheaply to an Australian "jobber" at a
bulk rate far less than the usual selling price...and the discs were then
onsold in Australia to various outlets who did not usually sell records (such
as drapery stores!) who advertised the fact that cheap records were available
as a way of attracting customers who would hopefully also make purchases of
more conventional stock. I've seen examples of full page newspaper
advertisements by these stores which sometimes helpfully list the actual
records including catalogue numbers and titles. Most labels involved were
British (Aco, Vocalion, Parlophone, Winner, Regal, Columbia, Guardsman,
Actuelle, Duophone, John Bull for example)... In this case Olympic was
exclusively used for older Imperial records which were being "dumped"
at cut price. The latest Imperial records were also sold here at full price. In
addition, various American labels (Regal, Oriole, Lincoln, Cameo, Banner,
Gennett), Canadian labels (such as Apex) & German labels (such as Homocord)
were also sold here disguised by various pasted-on labels... as well as also
(in some cases) being sold here as fully imported and undisguised discs for a
higher price.
Operaphone 173 Gramophone Boom.
Oriole 1007 About
1923/4, Levy’s record shop of Whitechapel, London, produced Levaphone
records, which are illustrated elsewhere. A couple of years later they produced
a series of Jazz issues on their Oriole label, including these Jelly-Roll
Morton piano solos. I don’t know where they got the name from. In America, the
Oriole is a bird with an attractive song… do we have Oriole birds on this side
of the Atlantic? I don’t think so. And we have precious few of these excellent
discs either; they are very rare. By courtesy of Arthur Badrock.
Oriole P-104 Later still, Levy’s opened a
recording studio in central London and also produced commercial issues, such as
this risqué song ‘Pussy’ by Harry Roy and his Bat Club Boys. Silver and
black label, hard to scan! By courtesy of Arthur Badrock.
Oriole P-114 Early
Oriole discs – apart from all being very rare! – are idiosyncratic in other
ways too. The 10” (25cm) P-100 series contains e.g. Harry Roy’s Bat Club Boys,
Stanley Black’s Oriole Modernists, Edgar Jackson’s Gargoyle Five, Nan
Blakstone, Adelaide Hall. This would tend to create the impression that it
specialised in hot music and sophisticated cabaret artists. Well, yes it did;
but here on P-114 are two ‘serious’ clarinet solos by the noted West Indian
musician Rudolph Dunbar. The other side is ‘Rhapsody’ a very nice quite
advanced work composed by Mary Lucas, the pianiste here. Oh, and by the way:
it’s a 12” (30cm) disc, just for good measure! By courtesy of Malcolm
MacMillan.
Oriole
Special Record Here
is the elusive 1933 Duke Ellington Souvenir record, made when he first visited
this country. There are actually two takes of it. The resplendent gold and
orange label is extremely difficult to scan. The Duke has autographed the wax
master. On it, he is interviewed by P. Mathieson Brooks, the editor of the
‘Melody Maker’ magazine. Note that the disc was made for ‘Levy’s – the Home of
Music’, the justly famed specialist record shop in Whitechapel, London. (They
figure in no less than 3 of this batch of label uploads!) To get the disc, you
had to buy – in one go – ten (I think) Ellington records from Levy’s. Then they
gave you this souvenir disc free. I once actually saw the list of records
Levy’s printed & from which you had to choose. This was many years ago and I cannot remember
anything about it, except that HMV issues predominated. By courtesy of John
Capes.
Parlophone F-678 The reason this appears here is simple.
The Parlophone F- series appeared in 1935 as a ‘cheap’ label, starting at F-100
or F-101. But, the series, which ran for many years, always had the small
label. But this issue has a large label for some reason, and is the only
example of this I have ever seen. Probably some content in the label copy
instructions from Germany caused this?
Parlophone R-451 A perfectly ordinary Parlophone label
of late 1929 – early 1930. The interest in this one is that – apart from being
a rare disc – is it the only side originally issued in this country as ‘Bix
Beiderbeck And His Gang’. Several other sides had been issued here – ‘Jazz Me
Blues’, ‘Sorry’, ‘Since My Best Girl Turned Me Down’, ‘Goose Pimples’, ‘At The
Jazz Band Ball’ &c., before this, but all were titled: ‘Bix Beidebeck
Presents His Orchestra’. By courtesy of Mike Thomas.
Parlophone R-856 Another
‘regular’ Parlophone, slightly later, say late 1930, early 31. It’s smaller
(though Parlophone used small and large labels as appropriate, until even after
WW2!) and the attribution to Sam Lanin is a pseudonym: this great record is
actually under the leadership of Fred Rich.
Parlophone
R-1311 This
appears here because on the day I scanned it, the wind was blowing from the
south, the barometer was falling, and certain odd malicious sprites must have
been having the morning off. Anyhow, it turned out the be the best scan of this
earliest & most beautiful sort of Parlophone Second New Rhythm Style label
I have even managed to make & so insist on sharing it with you!
Parlophone
R-3352 These
are the sort of ‘Purple Parlophones’ you should acquire! Note the small
diameter, unobtrusive ring round the centre-hole? This is a fairly reliable
diagnostic feature that tells you that you have an original 1926-7 Parlophone
pressing. They usually play very well. In 1927, Parlophone was taken over by
Columbia, and henceforth, Columbia-pressed Parlophones have a much larger &
distinct double ring about 1” (2.5cm) around the centre hole. Generally
speaking, fresh issues from OKeh on this style of label are fine; but re-pressings
of previous OKeh stuff on the ‘Columbia Parlophone’ are very unreliable, often
being ‘fuzzy’ & distorted. Not all of them; but enough of ’em to make you
wonder whether you’re “coming or you’re going”!
Parlophone
R-3489 This
is a very elusive record. I had one copy of it that was so ‘beat’ I threw it
away. And then somehow survived for 25 years until another – equally beat –
copy surfaced, which I gladly bought! Bix may be on it of course; who knows?
More ink has been spilt, I think, on this ‘Bix: or Not To Bix?’ question than
on any of the many other contentious sessions that surround this legendary
musician.
Pathe Packet #1 We’ve
arrived at Pathé, so let’s cover the old pre Great War etched label
vertical-cut centre-start discs, starting with their packets. Here’s a stitched
cardboard packet of the commonest design. There are many variants on this
design, of course. Indeed, frequently the recommended speed for these Pathés is
given as ‘from 90 to 100 revolutions per minute’, which would result in a
variation of very nearly a whole tone in musical terms. That is, if the
selection had been recorded at 90 rpm in the key of C, but the enthusiastic
listener decided to play it at 100 rpm, the performance would escalate
practically to the key of D (and also, of course, be proportionally shorter in
duration!) Since at this time (prior to the Great War) the French standard pitch
(diapaison normale) was very low at A=435 Hz, this would not be as catastrophic
a distortion as it would today, although the distortion of the tempo
would remain equally serious! In any event, this particular packet specifies
just 90 rpm, so at least one parameter was in the process of being regularised.
Pathé Packet #2 For
the sake of the old ‘Entente Cordiale’, we also show a French packet of similar
vintage. Note that this bears the older speed range of 90-100 rpm. (Some of the
giant 20” (50cm) Pathés, now extremely rare and desirable, required a speed of
120 rpm. Note that the production of these very large, fast rotating discs was
nothing to do with getting records to play for a longer time: they were simply
a means of making a record LOUDER, for a recital in a public hall, or out of
doors!)
Pathé 166 As
to the discs to be found in these packets, in Britain at least, they looked
like this. This ‘Jefferson Guards March’, note, is an original composition by
the conductor of the Grenadier Guards band, Dr. A. Williams, MVO. The details
were engraved into the ‘wax’ and in-filled with pigment. Disc is nominally 12”
(30cm).
Pathé 5686 Just
to prove the above statement wrong (which is sort of thing that you have to get
used to when studying Pathé records), here is a centre-start disc with a paper
label. I’ve had 2 copies of this record over the years and both had paper
labels. No, I’m not going to soak it off to see if there’s anything underneath!
(~12”, 30cm).
Pathé 5617 Though
it has a lower number than the above, this is a later disc, dubbed in 1921.
However, the master cylinder… (But stay! Did we omit to tell you that ALL Pathé
records until 1927 were first recorded onto a large cylinder, and then
mechanically transferred (by means of a pantograph) onto the disc? No? Oh,
sorry! But then you see, we didn’t want to confuse you too much all at once!)
Anyhow, the master cylinder of this banjo duet by Joe Morley and Olly Oakley
was recorded in August 1914.
Pelican P67 Gramophone
Boom. This should be violet.
Phoenix 075 Some
Phoenix discs were pressed in the U.S.A. by Columbia, and say so on the label,
as in this case. Some were, indeed, also recorded there, but not this one. It
was recorded in London, and the lyric contains fascinating topical
references.
Perfect P-412 Pathé’s
‘Perfect’ label had long been in use in the U.S.A.: it was introduced into
Britain, beginning at P-300 in December 1927 as a cheap label and lasted just
one year until December 1928, when it went, along with its distinguished elder
sister, Actuelle. Arthur Badrock compiled a 32-page listing of this label,
published under the auspices of EMI in 1983: it is still available, and details
can be found on this
page of this website.
A little-known fact is that some very late pressings of whatever was left
in the Perfect catalogue were pressed by Columbia; I don’t know the details,
but Columbia sort of took over something or other, and briefly pressed
outstanding orders for Perfect records. They are very easy to identify (if
you’re ever lucky enough to see one!) because they have a typical Columbia
‘ring’ round the centre hole… and, of course, are laminated pressings! (Not
that there was all that much wrong with Pathé pressings at the time; they do
‘hiss’ a little, but are generally good by the standards of the day.) By
courtesy of Dave Parsons.
Perfect P-424 Columbia
took over the Pathé pressing plant in 1928 I think. British Pathé were running
their Perfect label over here at the time, though Pathé had decided to get out
of the record market. It seems likely that Columbia either decided to keep the
Perfect label going & then changed their mind; or else, they honoured some
outstanding orders for Perfects. Whichever, it resulted in some high-number
Perfects being pressed by Columbia & hence are laminated & have the
distinctive ‘Columbia Ring’ around the centre hole. This is one of them. These
also have a much brighter red coloured label than than before.
Phonycord First
beginning in Germany and later marketed in Britain, Phonycord records appeared
around 1930. They are much rarer that the rather similar format of Filmophone.
In any case, for much information about all such flexible and indestructible
records, visit Hans Koert’s website: http://www.people.zeelandnet.nl/koerthchkz
Piccadilly This
label is dealt with as part of an inter-related ‘family’ of labels; all ten
appear grouped together at the bottom of the J - Z label page.
Pilot 5771 Gramophone
Boom. Our previous example was way off tint, and this more accurate one was
kindly supplied by Kevin Smith.
Pioneer B39 Gramophone
Boom.
Pioneer 118 Gramophone
Boom label. 1910-1914. By courtesy of Mike Jones.
Pioneer
C-45 Gramophone
Boom label. 1910-1914. Yet again, we have a change of label colour, plus the
annoying variability of catalogue number! I can’t help noticing that certain
labels, like this one (and John Bull) sometimes have a letter and two number
combination: C-45, B-12 & so on. Surely this suggests they were produced by
the same concern… I have read that the ‘tally system’ was widely used in the
Boom. In this, you were given custody of a gramophone, on condition that you
bought so many records, 12, or 20, whatever, from the same guy, at the rate of
one a week. When you had accomplished this, the gramophone became yours, free.
The catch was, of course, that the records you bought – and John Bull was one
of these tally labels – came rather expensive for what they were. I recall a
figure of 2/6 each. That is, or rather was, two shillings and sixpence: 12½
pence, then equivalent to about 50¢ US. As the boom progressed & records
got cheaper & cheaper you could get the same type of record, often pressed
from the same master, for a lot less. That was where the money for the
gramophone – and the tallyman’s profit! – came from, besides the normal profit
margin on the disc. The gramophones were usually cheap horn machines. These
‘metalwork outfits’ were the single-spring motor, handle, turntable, horn,
horn-stay, arm & sound box. They were brought in from Gemany and
Switzerland. Boxes were manufactured locally & very cheaply, and the
metalwork installed. Lo! A very cheap gramophone. But to be fair, if kept in
good order, they sounded very well. Besides, these German-recorded records
usually had a nice deep tone, which came over well on such a machine. By
courtesy of Mike Jones.
Playwell 102673 Gramophone
Boom. This should be dark green.
Polydor B505(?) Don’t
know the full catalogue number, as it’s under the stamp, and the disc has gone.
In about 1927, Polydor records were imported here by British Brunswick, bearing
a tiny black sticker attesting to that fact. I have never found one! Did they
always have bilingual labels? On 21st April 2005, Ross Laird kindly
commented: Norman says the B505? catalogue number is partially obscured... but
in fact this is NOT the catalogue number despite being so described on the
label. Polydor labels of 1920s vintage (and even into the 1930s) routinely give
two numbers. The one (in this case B505?) described as the "cat. no."
is actually the equivalent to the "face number" shown on HMV &
Zonophone records during the early 1920s (and before)... The real
catalogue number is the one shown on the label as the "order no." (in
this case 21825)! One clue to the true state of affairs is that the face number
which is described at the "cat. no." is a different number on each
side, while the "order no." is the same on both sides... Finally,
these Polydor labels are multi-lingual because before 1945 Polydor was an
export label and was not sold in Germany despite being manufactured there! The
same couplings (without the multi-lingual labelling) were sold in Germany on
the Grammophon label with the same catalogue number (and face numbers).
Polyphon
8970 Gramophone
Boom. This should be dark green.
Popular
P624 A
British label, one of the few to survive through the great War, 1914-18.
Popular 979a Back to the post-war paper
shortage that plagued one particular record factory: that of The Sound
Recording Company, I think. They pressed Guardsman and Popular records, and
perforce employed these ‘emergency’ labels in 1919. Oddly, we have two examples
of this one. The size difference is accidental: they should be the same. The
first from my collection, the second by courtesy of Arthur Badrock.
Popular P1127 Popular
must have begun around 1912, and seems to have had a more or less continuous
existence right through the Great War. By the title, this issue would date from
1921, but as the label hasn’t changed much, it has a kind of strange,
‘anachronistic’ look about it. I believe they finally went about 1922/3. By courtesy of Dave Parsons.
Popular Ballot LK-2112 The reason for the
production of this unusual c.1925 record is unknown. Who were L.E. Kent? If
this was an LK-2000 series, can it possibly be that 112 different issues were
made? Where have they all gone to?? On the other hand, the company that
manufactured them proclaims its identity in a number of ways (a) it’s location
at Hayes, Middlesex. At this time, Hayes was becoming a centre of industries
outside London. HMV were the major record concern there, but here we have a
product of the Vocalion Company; (b) the C-6000 master series confirms this, and
(c) the unmistakable type faces for the titling underline it. They are also to
be found on Beltona, Coliseum, Scala, Guardsman and other records produced by
Vocalion for various clients at that time.
Portland 9005 Back
to Curry’s cycle stores. At this time, Edison Bell Winner were producing
records for Curry’s. Or rather evidently, selling off surplus stock, and
Curry’s were sticking their own labels on top of the Winner ones, as in this
case here. Observe that the label states: ‘Curry’s 1927 Ltd.’, while the
repertoire dates from 1924! However, they had their own catalogue series: the
Winner number of this disc was 3923.
Regal G7117 Regal
G7117 would originally have been issued, I dunno: maybe around 1914? Just a
guess. But the Casey monologues had a very long life, and anything that
remained in catalogue for many years will of course be re-pressed with later
styles of label. (There are several instances of this on this page). I estimate
this label style is well toward the end of the life of Regal: that was in 1931,
when EMI was formed. I say this because the catalogue number is at the right of
the centre hole, rather at the bottom right of the label, where it had been for
many years previously, and as can be seen on the scan of G7988 below. Let’s
just say about 1930.
Regal G7998 This
issue would be earlyish 1923. As you can see if you compare it with the disc
above, the label of Regal remained pretty constant throughout the 1920s. Of
course this might be a later pressing. Changes in label wording of Patents
etc., will help date a label more closely, but I for one haven’t become this
advanced yet!
Regal MR-289 The reason for including this
normal Regal label of c1930 is that it is a dual track disc. Two concentric
helical grooves play the same tune but in two different versions, depending on
which groove the needle enters. The letters ‘A’ & ‘B’ are engraved at
opposite points in the run in area, so you can actually select which track you
play. Although it must have been fairly tricky to set up the cutting lathe to make
2 separate grooves, this was not a new thing… I believe the first double track
disc appeared way back around 1904! On 21st April 2005, Ross Laird kindly
commented: In reference to this interesting double-track recording Norman
states that there were similar recordings made "way back in 1904"...
I have a 7" British Berliner Puzzle Plate which I think dates from 1900 or
1901... so similar recordings were certainly made before 1904.
Regal MR458 This
is a genuine late Regal, from American Columbia of course. It must date from
1930 or 31, the last year in which Regal had a separate existence. It was
combined with Zonophone into Regal-Zonophone after the formation of EMI in that
year. However, Regal –Zonophone continued to use the MR prefix.
Regal-Zonophone MF-234 This is the series produced for the Salvation Army. I
don’t know what number it began at. The master of this issue, CAR-2587, would
have been made in early 1934. Yet the ‘DT’ (Double Tax) flanking the centre
hole, indicates that this copy was pressed much later. Before World War II (1939-1945), there was no
tax on gramophone records. Presumably they were not regarded as ‘luxury goods’,
but rather a culturally beneficient commodity. Hear, hear! However, on October
21st 1940, a Purchase Tax of 33.3% was imposed on the wholesale (factor, or
jobber) price of a record. This was initially called ‘Tax’, and as the Tax was specifically
attached to that disc, these needed to be marked as such. Hence, discs can
be seen which carry the word ‘Tax’ on the label. On April 15th 1942, the tax
was increased to 66.6%. This was known as ‘Double Tax’, or, ‘DT’ for short.
Accordingly, DT may be seen on discs; sometimes as an adhesive stamp, sometimes
pressed in, as here. A year later, on April 13th 1943 the tax was increased to
100% - & yes, you guessed: it gave rise to ‘Triple Tax’, ‘TT’! This onerous
tax remained in place until April 10th 1946, when it was reduced to 33.3%. Mind
you, 100% tax didn’t stop people buying records, to judge from the numbers of
78s we still find with the dreaded ‘TT’ endorsement. However, now the 33.3% tax
was defined as ‘Single Tax’ – ‘ST’, which I presume it couldn’t have been when
it first existed in 1940-42? So 78s that say ‘ST’ should have been pressed
after April 1946. Unfortunately, all was not well with the British economy, for
even though we had been on the winning side of WW2, there simply wasn’t enough
money coming in. (Actually, there was quite a bit of money coming in,
but a good deal of it was being spent on our commendable ‘Welfare State’; but I
don’t want to get into politics!) Anyhow, the tax went up again on November
11th 1947 to 50%, and only 6 months later, on April 9th 1948 to 66.6%, where it
remained until at least late 1951! By the way, m source for these figures is a
pamphlet on the Record Industry published at that time by a group called
‘Political and Economic Planning’ – whoever they were. Actually, an entry for a
Salvation Army Regal-Zonophone is hardly the place for what is turning into a
mini-essay, so I will probably create a small separate web page to cover this
subject. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.
Regal Zonophone MR-766 This is the first type of the label. Large diameter,
and preserving the bright green of the last Zonophone records. (‘Zono green’
gradually got lighter and lighter through the 1920s). The Regal component
colour was a dark red, which was evidently deemed unsuitable, as a very bright
red was used instead, besides gold and white. All in all a very handsome label
for a ‘sorta-budget’ record.
Regal Zonophone MR-1022 The label soon became the smaller standard size. The
green was toned down to a dull hue, very hard to scan. This record is by Ben
Selvin; the other side, under the same pseudonynm, is a British recording by
Billy Cotton.
Regal-Zonophone MR1171 Sorry, this scan doesn’t really ‘catch’ the lovely green
colour either, and will have to be replaced with something better, to do
justice to it! This side was recorded December 1933.
Regal-Zonophone T5380 Jimmie Rodgers discs seemed to sell fairly well on
Zonophone, and several were retained in catalogue for some years after the
formation of Re-Zo. Here is one, after the expensive early Re-Zo label had been
abandoned. Notice that the original Zonophone catalogue number is retained, but
prefixed ‘T’. So this pressing dates from around 1935 to 1940.
Regal-Zonophone T5380 This is an even later pressing of this disc. You’ll
notice that the catalogue number is now in a ‘rational’ type face instead of
the rounded, more vintage style that had been used for many years. This change
was applied to Columbia, Parlophone and Regal-Zono. Records sometime towards
the end of WW2. Let’s guess 1944 for the moment. Also notice the lengthier
copyright notice. And the affixed stamp almost certainly is concerned with the
Purchase Tax applied to records in the early years of WW2. (They weren’t taxed
before WW2). Normally these stamps had legends like S-T, D-T, T-T and so on
(Standing for single, double and triple tax). There were other rates too. Also,
the lettering often either appeared on the label or in the wax. I don’t know
what ‘AT’ means though.
Russell A260 Gramophone Boom.
Savana 1607 Produced
by Imperial and dating from about 1926, I know little about this scarce label.
Even whether it bears the same catalogue number as the Imperial… though this
seems likely. This is an American master, probably from the Banner group. Need
to check.
Scala
628 Gramophone
Boom. This should be green.
Scala 664 Another
of the large group of inter-related labels operating in the mid-1920s and
issuing all sorts of interesting American dance, vocal and even Jazz records.
Beltona, Coliseum, Guardsman, ACO, Homochord, &c., including some very rare
and short-lived ones such as Adelphi, or Citizen. Many of these labels had
existed for quite a long time, some since the Gramophone Boom of 1910-14, but
had changed hands &c., and gradually become more or less loosely
associated. This is a British recording by Victor Vorzanger’s band.
Selecta GAB-100 The
Selecta company eventually became the distributor of Decca records for many
years. This obscure item is believed to originate about 1927; believed
to have been recorded –and presumably pressed – by Parlophone, and Walter Greenhalgh is believed
to have been a Yorkshire dialect comedian. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.
On 9th August 2006, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: I date these from
about ca April 1927. The EMI Archive
don't hold any original Parlophone files for this period, so all dates have to
be estimated. (This diagnosis was also independently supported by Mike Thomas.
NF.)
Senaphone
FAO-1312 Does
anybody know anything about this British-manufactured record at all, please? I
don’t! By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz. On 8th August 2006, William
Dean-Myatt kindly commented: Norman, here's the trade mark registration details
for Senafone, this may help date the item; SENAFONE - Registration number 708294 - 26 Nov 1952 -
page 3887 - 75, Whitworth Street., Manchester.
No company name shown. I photocopied the
original page but, needless to say, have put it so safely away that I can't
find it.
Silvertone 511 A
British ‘Gramophone Boom’ label, circa 1910-14. It’s very uncommon.
Possibly made for one retail outlet, or one wholesaler (jobber). This example
was rescued from oblivion, along with several others, by the late Chris.
Williams. Back in the 1960s, he went to attend a local Jumble Sale put on by
the Boy Scouts. He mistook the time, arriving after it was over. To his alarm
and dismay, the Scouts had made a large bonfire of unsold material, books,
furniture &c., and were actually engaged in feeding in 78 rpm records to
it! They don’t usually burn very well, but are most efficiently destroyed by
fire. He retrieved what few were left: ‘just’ several of these Silvertones.
Simcha This
label is dealt with as part of an inter-related ‘family’ of labels; all ten
appear grouped together at the bottom of the J - Z label page.
Standard 1215 Gramophone Boom.
The Stars 61 Gramophone
Boom. This carries the impressive ‘master number’ P2518421! There surely must
be a date in there somewhere!
Sterno S112 From
late 1928, the main Sterno label appeared, and was around for quite a few years
and is often seen today. On the other hand, this first manifestation of the
label, pressed by Zonophone, and dating from 1926 (the side was recorded by
Bert Firman’s band on February 9th. That year) is impossibly scarce. I have
never found one. Again, Sandy Forbes never knew about this one (which only goes
to show how rare it is!), and you can add it to BDB on page 218, where you will
notice it also appeared under the same pseudonym on Homochord D-953.
Sterno 109 This
is the best-known incarnation of the Sterno label, beginning in 1929. There was
an earlier, short-lived and very rare one shown nearby. The name came from the
proprietor of the company, Sternberg, who had been active in the gramophone
trade for many years. They began at 100 or 101, so this 109 must be from the
first release. First releases are – or were – customarily made large, to create
the impression of a large, flourishing concern with and impressive catalogue
‘waiting in the wings.’ This is was actually the case with British Homophone,
who made these records, because they indeed had many & various masters
available to them without having to record new ones. The only trouble was, of
course, that these were mostly old ones! I used this actual disc, which
was badly affected by dried mould, in a video demonstration of my simple way of
cleaning 78s. It can be seen elsewhere on this website at: www.normanfield.com/cleaning.wmv
. I included audio samples of what it sounded like before & after cleaning,
and remarked that the masters were well before 1929. We are greatly indebted to
Doug Caldwell, who heard these extracts while browsing the web, and identified
it as a Palace Trio item, early 1920, on Vocalion 14053. The other side had an
accordion solo called ‘Union Reel’, which Doug also identified as coming from
Vocalion 14492 (mx 10315). Patrolman Frank Quinn on accordion, recorded circa
Dec. 1922. So Sterno was making use of quite old material it had.
Sterno 260 I
have never seen a Sterno listing; is there one? They were a cheap label and
sold quite well. Their recording sound varied quite a lot. Some of the early
ones are very deep and woolly. About 1930-1 they become metallic and brash. The
label survived, getting rarer, until the mid 1930s. British Homophone survived
as an independent pressing company at least until the mid-1970s.
Syrena
Grand 1007 “The
only Russian produced label, I believe, to have been sold in Britain. Dates
from around 1910-11. I understand that they were pressed in Poland; they
certainly recorded in many locations, but I know almost nothing about the
company. There was a pre-1939 Polish label, Syrena Electro, but whether this
has a direct link, I don’t know.” Scan and comments by courtesy of William
Dean-Myatt.
Teledisk 1988 Strangely
recorded on a fluttery lathe, these excessively rare discs from the mid-1930s
are said to have been intended to give lesser-known, semi-professional artists
a chance to appear on record. Very Lynn apparently first recorded for Teledisk…
In case you can’t read the label, the title is: ‘What A Difference A Day Made’
by Norman Stanley & his Band, with vocal by Phyllis Read. It says ‘Red
Label Dance Series’, which implies there may have been other-coloured series.
Has anybody seen one, please? Details of any Teledisk issues are
requested: please email them to me (email address below… all letters answered!
Thanks!)
Tower 325 Wow!
What a great label design! Unfortunately, it availed them but little: a subsidiary or affiliate of Guardsman, Tower
disappeared probably within a few months of their inception around 1921. The
labelling is correct: these are indeed Gennett masters.
Triumph 20339 Gramophone
Boom. Circa 1912-3. Here is the beautiful label normally appearing as
‘Bel Canto’ (see 2 more examples above), in another guise. Who bought in and
sold the ‘Triumph’ label is unknown to us, but the number 20339 will doubtless
give a clue to those experts well-versed in the complex machinations of the
‘Gramophone Boom’ of 1910-1914! By courtesy of Dave Parsons.
Trusound 1136-b Around 1933 the Trusound company put
out these picture discs. They are exceedingly rare. Each side has a different
picture. Clearly at least 36 issues were made, although the company was only
active for a few months. They were pressed into a clear, thin celluloid-like
sheeting laminated to a stiff cardboard core and were ‘unbreakable under normal
use’. Some of their recordings are unique, rather than using masters leased
from other companies, so collectors of e.g. Dance Bands must find some of these
elusive discs if they wish to have these particular sides of Dave Frost and his
Band, never mind the interesting title ‘Get Hot Foot’ on Trusound 1134. We wish
them the very best of luck! All these by courtesy of David Parsons.
Valkyrie
E743 Gramophone
Boom. A store label from Catesby’s.
Valkyrie 456 The Gramophone Boom. The
blue variety of Catesby’s of Londons ‘store label’. By courtesy of Dr.
Rainer Lotz.
Venus 1605 British,
from soon after the end of WWI. I had always understood that Venus was somehow
related to Jumbo. But Jumbo was a much earlier label. I wonder if Jumbo somehow
turned into Venus? On 9th August
2006, William Dean-Myatt kindly commented: Yes, Jumbo did metamorphose into
Venus records. Frank Andrews published a
catalogue reconstruction. He dates its issue from about September 1919. (This
was independently confirmed by Mike Thomas. NF.)
Waverley 108 “A
very rare Scottish label dating from the early 1920s and consisting, as far as
I know, only of records by the famous accordion player (and later Parlophone talent
scout) William Hannah.” Scan and comments by courtesy of Williams
Dean-Myatt.
Velvet Face 1038 An
Edison Bell Product with a better quality material. They must have been more
expensive, too. It was on this label that their ambitious recording of Elgar’s
‘The Dream Of Gerontius’ was issued. I don’t know how many sides it consisted
of, and have certainly never seen any of them.
Velvet Face 1220 There are green-, and also violet-label
Velvet-Face records. This, however, is a red one! One reason for this ‘festival
of colour’ is that V-F’s were produced, although in rather small numbers, over
quite a long period of time. This red one is an early example. The American
Ragtime Octette, a group of singers, came over in 1912. In October that year
they recorded a number of sides for HMV, of which 5 were issued as single sided
discs. (Incredibly, HMV did not issue double sided discs until this year,
1912!) These are quite scarce. I’m lucky enough to have one, so I’ll scan it
and add it above. But to come to the point, in November 1912, they did 8 sides
for Edison Bell, which they issued on the Bell-Disc label, and also on the
Edison Bell Winner label – which had just started that same year. The
Velvet-Face label must have started about this time, I suppose; for this side
is one of two Octette that appeared on V-F. Rather obviously, the label was a
prestige series, priding itself on high-quality material that gave little
surface noise. To give them their due, if found in excellent condition, they do
indeed play very well. By courtesy of Dr. Rainer Lotz.
Victory 53 The
first label is actually a photograph I took years ago on orthochromatic film,
well before the blessed days of scanners! It shows the initial rather plain
design. The second main design logically
bore a ship. Note that this is indeed the same Charles Penrose who made the
best-known ‘Laughing Policeman’ for Columbia in 1925 or 1926. This version
would have been recorded in 1928. Made by Crystalate (manufacturers of the
famous ‘Imperial’ label) for Woolworths, they sold well from 1928 to 1931 at
just sixpence (~2.5p) each. Gradually, Woolworths were to increase the size of
their records first to 8 inch (the Eclipse), 1931-1934, then 9 inch (Crown)…
(all made by Crystalate). Their ambition of a full 10-inch hyper-budget label
was never realised, though various legends remain as to its near-attainment
just prior to WW2. By courtesy of John Anderson.
Victory ‘D’ Besides
the normal series, there are also Nursery Rhyme records. These photographs show
discs C and D from the series. A pale slate-blue label was used for these. Note
that there are two ‘ship’ label designs used. By courtesy of John Anderson.
Vocalion M1001 Vocalion
records appeared in Britain about 1920/1. There were quite a number of series,
several devoted to the classical and serious vocal repertoire. They tended to
have colour coded labels; I once saw in an antique shop, dozens of albums of
12” Vocalion classical records, and each album opened seemed to have a
different label colour! By contrast, this early British ‘popular’ series was
very drab! c.1922.
Vocalion X9523 The
‘X’ series, which soon became the standard popular series started off with
totally black label, very drab. I guess Vocalion thought just ordinary pop
stuff didn’t deserve a pretty coloured label! However, they soon relented, and
the X series had a green centre panel. Obviously they also had a red centre
panel, as this example shows; I don’t think there was any particular
significance, but you seldom see these red-panel dance records. In any case, it
soon became a sky-blue panel, and remained so thereafter. c.1925.
Vocalion S-81 The
Vocalion label disappeared in Britain around 1928, but was reincarnated in the
early 1930s as a Jazz label. The famous Swing Series (though often not the best
pressings), had a super label as you can see, and even came in an expensive
gold-inked art deco packet, being very definitely a rare example of a
‘co-ordinated’ label and packet design. c1935.
Vocalion V-1031 The
label seemed to vanish again either during WW2 or soon after, but by the
early-mid-50s was in use, albeit in ‘utility’ guise, as a vehicle for Classic
Jazz reissues. The pressings are as tolerable as any British product of the
time, and a lot of good stuff came out – there were maybe fifty-odd issues? –
occasionally as master pressings but usually as dubs… most of which were quite
good by that time; such is the case with the Jabbo Smith disc shown here.
Westport 2151 Another
Curry’s Cycle Stores label, and closely resembling the Portland label above. It
is commoner than Portland, but still has the labels stuck over the top of
Edison Bell Winner discs. In this case, it is a rather interesting Winner,
being no less a band than the Friars Society Orchestra, a.k.a. the New Orleans
Rhythm Kings! Alas, it is by far the least interesting of their many Gennett sides.
But it’s nice to know that Leon Roppolo & Co. made it over here to the U.K.
as early as 1923! Underneath this label will be Edison Bell Winner 3868,
released in October 1923. (No, I’m not going to soak the label off to
see if I’m right! I’m quite sure the really is a Winner under there, and I
don’t want to spoil this rather nice oddity!)
Whiteley W7 Gramophone
Boom. Another ‘store’ label, obtainable from Whiteley’s alone.
Winner See
Edison Bell Winner above.
World 501 A
single sided issue (pressed by Columbia, if the pattern on the back is anything
to go by) of a sixteen-minute long side by Fred Duprez on Pemberton-Billing’s
patent constant-velocity groove label, which existed – flourished is not quite
the word – between 1922 and late 1924/early 1925. By dint of an auxiliary
mechanical governor, which over-rode that present in the spring motor, the
rotational speed gradually increased to compensate for the falling groove
velocity as the groove approached the centre of the disc. It is actually quite
difficult to describe its action, and accordingly I have, ahem, borrowed
a picture of the accessory ‘controller’ as it was termed, and you can see it if
you click here.
Worldecho A1011 Short-lived
British label, 1929-30. The A series is pressed
into a thin black, fairly heavily plasticised, compound laminated to what is
probably a paper core. The discs are relatively thick. The recording quality is
usually well-bodied but can be slightly distorted. The discs tend suffer from
rumble as the surface, though smooth, is not usually perfectly flat. They have
no run-offs.
Worldecho B1020 Evidently
not discouraged by the failure of the ill-fated ‘A’ series, the whole thing
began again! The B series are conventional shellac pressings with run-offs, and
a label with such a resemblance to the American Van Dyke record that it cannot
be coincidence! The pressings hiss, the recording is narrower and farther back,
and the grooves often exhibit ‘twinning’, i.e. sluggish transit of the cutting
head. The fleeting existence of the label was not short enough to prevent the
uneven groove pitch being remarked upon and cited as a ‘fault example’ in a
contemporary article on record-making! By the way, both series began at 1000.
To judge by the relative infrequency with which they turn up, the B series
vanished from the face of the earth even quicker than the A series.
Zonophone 5356 Here
is a ‘normal’ Zonophone of its time, say 1928. The reason we emphasise this is
because the other three labels in the group are all ‘out of their own time’,
being 1920s pressings of earlier material, but naturally bearing later labels!
Zonophone 1082 This
label dates from around 1924, but the material it bears is older,
Zonophone 1082 being issued around the middle of 1913.
Zonophone 1816 The
short-lived ‘dog’ Zonophone label was around for a year or two around 1921-3
maybe… not sure actually. Zono 1816 itself dates from the second half of 1917.
Incidentally, green and gold labels are almost as difficult to scan as red and
god ones, so please forgive the erratic colours. In fact, the colour got
progressively lighter as the 1920s advanced in any case.
Zonophone 847 A
rare laminated Zonophone, of material recorded in 1912. This label would date
from around 1929-30, and is in itself unusual in that it has an unusually large
border around it. Quite odd, really. This particular record even made it onto
Regal-Zonophone, where – of course – it was prefixed T-847.
The
‘Synchrophone Family’.
The following group of
labels are (to a greater or lesser extent) inter-related, and so all appear
together here. There are some considerable rarities among them, and with the
exception of Piccadilly, none may be described as common.
These jottings are the result of a valuable posting on
the 78-list by Mike Hart, to whom I am grateful for shedding a penetrating beam
of light on some amazingly obscure labels, as well as a relatively common one.
He pointed out that the record manufacturing factory at Mead Lane, Hertford, England (which had
already had a distinguished – if chequered – history dating from 1903), passed
to the Metropole Company in early 1928, and continued in a sort of succession,
until 1937 when it finally closed altogether. Most of the labels mentioned by
him will be shown here.
Metropole 1274 This
is in fact a very late example (they started at 1000 and just got
into the 1300s in late 1930. I have never seen a 1300 Metropole). It’s pressed from
Grey Gull masters on both sides. Their original records were recorded in a
studio at the Highbury Athenaeum (a ballroom) in North London. They cost three
shillings each, full price, the same as HMV and Columbia. (15 pence, about 23
cents U.S.) This was too high a price, and although they valiantly attempted to
record interesting repertoire they never got anywhere. They also had the novel
– but in retrospect rather silly – idea of putting quite different things on
each side of a record. So that you might get a dance band on one side and a
violin, flute and harp trio on the other. The company soon saw that Metropole
was not going to revolutionise the Gramophone trade, and in later
1928 started a second, budget label.
(See next entry). However, they did keep the ‘flagship’ label going for
quite a while, which in view of their rarity was commendable, if also rather
incomprehensible!
Metropole 1022 We
have already illustrated a Metropole elsewhere, but that was a fairly late
issue. Here is an early one (they began at 1001) and ran from 1928 to 1930. By
courtesy of Dave Parsons.
Piccadilly 214 The
solution to Metropole’s problems clearly lay in a cheaper record. Piccadilly,
it was called. (Note the amazing resemblance between this label and
Pemberton-Billing’s unbreakable and ultra-rare Fetherflex discs of 1923.
Uncanny, isn’t it? (It just might be that the link is via the early
Duophone Unbreakable records, but we’ll leave it for now, as this group of
labels is complicated enough already!)) Anyhow, Piccadilly flourished fairly
well. At least, I guesstimate that for every Metropole 78 that exists there are
at least a hundred Piccadillys, so that speaks for itself! They
began at 101, and were one shilling and sixpence each, just half the cost of
the parent label. (That’s 7.5 pence of today’s money, or about 11 U.S. cents
apiece). And the label is pretty, too, isn’t it? Maybe somebody advised them
that the extremely dull, scrappily-printed label on Metropole had contributed
to that label’s poor sales. Alas, at first the recording quality was pretty
dire, often being muffled. This Billy Cotton record, on the other hand (though
musically superb) is too strident, and also distorted on the trumpet notes.
Piccadilly 490 Later,
however, they got that sorted out and their domestic recordings usually have
plenty of top end and also a very distinctive timbre that is hard to
describe but much loved and appreciated by the cognoscenti of generally
lesser-known British Dance bands. They redesigned the label, as shown here, and
also issued material from the Grey Gull group in the U.S.A. This record is one
of them. When the Wall Street Crash occurred, it took some little time for its
effects to make themselves fully apparent over here. However, by mid-late 1930
record sales were falling, and Piccadilly anxiously threw money at the problem,
hoping it would go away, or at least keep its distance. These links connect to
three of the full-page advertisements placed by the company in the ‘Melody
Maker’ in 1930 (they had a page in all 12 issues that year). As you will see,
they had introduced a (slightly) more expensive label called the Celebrity
series, and the first issues received some acclaim. These were two shillings
each (~ 15 cents U.S.) and had striking scarlet and gold labels. Alas, I don’t
have one to show you, although Mike’s information as to the location of their
London recording studio explains the impressive name ‘Athenaeum Symphony
Orchestra’ that appears on some of them! This advert is from June 1930. By the next month,
they had gathered in reviews of their new product from far and wide and were
naturally anxious to communicate these good tidings to the readership of the
‘MM’, among others. In fact, by advertising in the Melody Maker, they were
somewhat ‘preaching to the choir’, as that was the monthly magazine for British
dance and Theatre musicians. Advert., July 1930. Moreover, Parlophone had
but recently launched its ‘New Rhythm Style Series’ and each MM carried
full-page adverts. extolling the releases of Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong and
Joe Venuti, so the blandishments of Piccadilly probably tended to fall on
indifferent (rather than unsympathetic) ears. In September, the emphasis was back
on the basic 1/6d. Piccadilly. Note that this advert is specifically directed
to the record Trade, not the public… so it’s probably the same block
they were having inserted in British Trade magazines at the time, e.g. the
‘Sound Wave’. Advert., September 1930. Things got worse
still, and in spite of a reduction in price to just 1/1d (about 9 cents U.S.!)
in 1931, Piccadilly folded in early 1932, their catalogue numbers having scrabbled
up into the early 900s, which are almost never seen.
Octacros G106 Now
we come to a more exotic label still. The Synchrophone company evidently
produced films with the sound track on a disc. They called the discs Octacros.
The ‘maltese cross’ comes into it having given its name to the rotating cam
that governs the transit of film through the ‘gate’ of a projector. Too sudden
a forward transit of each frame caused ‘snatching’ that led to film breakages;
on the other hand, too slow a transit left too long a dark space between
each frame and hence exaggerated ‘flicker’. A maltese cross-shaped cam
represented the ideal ‘trade-off’
between these two extremes. Doubtless a double Maltese cross enhanced
the smoothness of the screen image and reduced film breakages still further.
This was presumably a Synchrophone patent. Octacros and Synchrophone are being
researched by Mike Hart and Joe Moore (and doubtless others). Mike has kindly
allowed me to use some information and label scans here purely to illustrate
what the labels are like. So my jottings are just giving a basic outline.
Anyhow, this scan, by courtesy of Chris Hamilton, shows a staggeringly rare
example of an original 12” Octacros disc, clearly intended to be the sound
track of a film. Who pressed it is not known. These discs are of such
incredible rarity that very few who have not visited Chris Hamilton’s website
can have seen this label before! Nobody else I’ve asked has ever seen one of these
green-label discs! (There are lots of other interesting things on his website
too: here’s the URL: http://freespace.virgin.net/chris.hamilton/Home.htm
)
Octacros 110 Soon,
Octacros ventured into making a series of records for use in cinemas, skating
rinks and so on. The legend on this rare label indicates that at this stage the
records were not available to the general public. This is reinforced by the
exceedingly simple, indeed stark design of the label, which indeed did not even
bear a label name for the first few dozen issues!
Octacros 134 Here’s
another early ‘anonymous’ Octacros, courtesy of Mike Hart. Maybe the records
were colour-coded in some way, as this label is an orange-red colour.
(Re-pressings (if any) of these early Octacros issues do appear with the
standard label).
Octacros 1035 The
above items are not thought to have had any connection with MetroPic. But in
early 1934, Synchrophone took over the Mead Lane works and the
metalwork (i.e. metal masters, stampers &c.) of MetroPic and there ensued a
great increase – one might call it a flood – of issues using these masters,
some of which dated back several years. However, they also continued to make
their own original recordings, and this label is one of them. Later, Octacros
records were made available to the public. This is one of the
areas where Mike Hart and Joe Moore’s research has made quite a bit of
progress; but as always when working with rare labels, new discoveries only
open up still-vaster fields needing exploration! By diligent searching through
the archives of the Newmarket Journal (the newspaper of that town in
Cambridgeshire) Joe has discovered that a local dance band (‘territory band’)
sold their Octacros records on their gigs, besides also having them on sale in
local record shops. If you can help in any way with this extremely esoteric
area of research, Mike and Joe would deeply appreciate it. (Indeed, we all
would!) For example, if you have an Octacros record of such a ‘regional’ band
or artist, or have seen a newpaper advert. for any such bands or records,
please email me at the address below and I’ll relay the info. to Mike.
Octacros Tech 93 In order to help test and calibrate
audio equipment, Octacros produced a range of frequency records. They’re from
early in the tenure of Synchrophone at Mead Lane. There were 10 discs in the
set, numbered Tech. 90 to 99. They were favourably reviewed in The
Gramophone, August 1934. The set of 10 cost £1. (Thanks to Mike Hart for a
copy of the review).
Curwen C-113 Synchrophone
made some records for the music publishers Curwen. In spite of the fact that
the earth can complete several of its leisurely journeys round the Sun before
you find even a solitary Octacros 78, believe me, Octacros records are common
compared with Curwen! It’s actually the same design as Octacros, but in brown
and cream, and bears the unicorn’s head that is Curwen’s Trademark. It is
believed that less than thirty Curwen records exist today, and that they all
came from a batch held at The Gramophone magazine, where they were
presumably sent for review; but they may never have been offered for sale. Many
thanks to Steven Walker for this scan. Possibly samples of a trial batch were
pressed up, but nothing ever developed and no Curwen records were actually ever
distributed. Needless to say, if you have any information on this label, it
would be very gratefully received!
Curwen 106 Another
of these rarities, which seem never to have been put on sale… Circa 1933.
Edison Bell W-1026 By courtesy of Mike Thomas, you can see this
scan of a very late Edison Bell (note, not Edison Bell Winner) which is in a
rare and little-known series, and which is pressed from Octacros masters!
Practically nothing is known of how – or why – this very unusual tie-up
occurred. If you look at my rough account of Edison Bell Winner nearby, you’ll
see that the traditional EBW catalogue series (around 5600) was used for the
non-Winner gold label Edison Bells, while Decca (who had purchased the Edison
Bell Winner name) began a new black label series at W-1. Both were available at
the same time (weird, eh?) But this W-1000 series by Edison Bell is even more
odd and rare. I had never heard of it until Mike Thomas pointed out the
existence (of at least 26 issues?) to me yesterday!
Empire (Type #1) E-8 Mike Hart informs us that this label was made
by MetroPic for the Metropolitan Stores chain of shops. Circa 1930.
Alas, I had a splendid mint example of the label in this house a few months ago,
but omitted to scan it. They are extremely rare. Happily, Mike
Hart has again come up trumps and has sent me this scan of one of his early
Empires.
May-Fair W.B2008 Again, this is included because it has a
strange catalogue prefix. Just where this one fits in is uncertain… probably at
the beginning of the ‘2000’ series. It’s actually a Dick Robertson coupling
from American Melotone, and was also issued on Melotone’s British ‘clone’
Panachord, because the Panachord catalogue number appears in the wax, as well
as the Melotone one! It might be that this is the first manifestation of
May-Fair, and were made for them by British Brunswick, who also launched
Panachord here. However, they went bust. (They did so regularly, it seems!) So
May-Fair, keeping the 2000 series, got them made by Piccadilly. Then Piccadilly
folded, and May-Fairs were then supplied by Decca (who had by now taken over
what was left of Brunswick, including Panachord, and ran both thereafter).
However, this is probably too straightforward to be true!
May-Fair G-2127 Thanks
to Mike Thomas we are able to include here an example of the first incarnation
of Mayfair records, which were derived from MetroPic masters. Mike Hart says
that Mayfair (maybe it should really be MayFair?) were available by collecting
coupons given away with cigarettes. Whether they were available elsewhere is
not known to us. (Certainly Imperial
records were available (a) from record shops (b) from chain stores (e.g.
latterly Marks & Spencer) and (c) with cigarettes: this last
fragment of information was passed on to me 20-odd years ago by Tarrant Bailey
Jr., the celebrated banjo player, who had recorded for Imperial in 1933.
Indeed, he attributed the good sales of his Imperials to the fact that (c)
obtained. To be fair, for 1933 issues, they are encountered quite often).
May-Fair G-282 There
was also a second incarnation of MayFair, which is included here for
completeness. Presumably when MetroPic ‘bit the dust’ in 1932, the proprietors
of MayFair looked elsewhere for a source of records. Decca hastened to fulfil
this need, and the label here is one of them. It bears the additional legend of
endorsement by Christopher Stone, who is widely regarded as having been the
first British DJ. (His extremely casual and ‘laid-back’ style would hardly do
today. By chance there is a rare fragment of a 1933 broadcast by him elsewhere
on this website (see under ‘Airshots’: play it and you’ll hear what I mean!))
The nondescript ‘Eddie Hines’ on this disc conceals the identity of no less a
Decca star than Nat Gonella!
Melba 1048 Mike
Hart mentions this label. Until his posting appeared, I had never heard of it,
much less seen one. Here is a scan kindly provided by Mike. It is not known for
whom these discs were made, or who sold them. Again, circa 1931.
Melba 1023 Actually
I also found this one kicking around, so include it… not often you’ll see 2
Melba records together!
Simcha 10011 This
is another rarity mentioned by Mike Hart, and he freely confesses no knowledge
of how the records came to be made or distributed. I once had 2 mint Simchas,
acquired in the mid-1960s from Brian Rust, but I sold them about 20 years ago,
because they were of no ‘hot jazz’ interest. Aaaaarrrghhhh! Incidentally, the
word ‘simcha’ is apparently a Hebrew word meaning ‘festive gathering’, ‘party’,
‘festival’. ‘shindig’, something like that. Mike Thomas has 3 Simchas, all from
MetroPic masters; the 2 I had (including the one shown here) were both from
Grey Gull (American). None of the few known have any specifically Jewish
musical content.
Empire (Type #2) E175 Also made for the Metropolitan Chain Stores, this
second type of Empire dates from after the collapse of MetroPic and hence
derives from the Curwen/Octacros period. In contrast to the subdued luxury of
the original label (see above), this later label is a miserable affair, dully
printed in black on a desultory cheap reddish paper. Admittedly the label I
have is in very poor condition and I’ve had to try and touch it up. So I’m
biased! But I still think it’s a dull and poor label. Mind you, I’m glad I
wasn’t trying to scrape a living in 1934! Man, times were hard
then! If you look at Tommy Kinsman’s entry in BDB you will find that the E
series apparently runs from E-100 to at least E-250. That’s 150 issues. They might
have sold quite well on Mars for all I know, but you virtually never see them
on planet Earth!
Empire (Type #2) E185 I take back nearly all I said! Mike Hart sent this
great scan of a fine condition later Empire. Though the label is still
cheap-looking the titling leaps from the label and clearly implies an exotic
and highly desirable Jazz record! It is just this kind of issue that motivates
the cognoscenti to continue their eternal quest for the products of
these incredibly obscure labels, which probably only had pressing figures of a
couple of hundred, and try to find out more about their origins! It’s nice to
end this group of labels on a bang rather than a whimper!
Epilogue: With the demise of Synchrophone itself in 1937, the
Mead Lane factory site was split up into smaller units. Some if not all of the
metalwork for the Metropole, Picadilly and of course Octacros itself was
acquired by Decca. It is not thought that Decca ever made any use of
Synchrophone masters. It is possible that a couple of sides from
MetroPic appeared on much later Decca issues. As late as the 1970s, vinyl
pressings of the 2 rare Fred Elizalde Metropole sides were made by Decca for
possible reissue use. In addition, I am aware of two single-sided vinyls of the
comedian Will Evans. These too would probably have been made in the 1970s.
(They are his last recordings, having been made for Piccadilly in 1930). It may
be that some of this metalwork still exists in the Decca archives. If you know
of any Metropole, Piccadilly or Synchrophone masters that appeared on Decca, we
would appreciate knowing about it; besides of course the other items mentioned
above. Thank you!
Please email with any comments, etc.: jazz@normanfield.com
thanks!
Revised 11th September 2007.