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Teenager In Love – Great British Record labels – Philips
Launched under the proud slogan “The Records Of The Century”, their first UK releases appeared in January 1953, via a series of Popular 78rpm singles, with 331/3rpm LPs following in July ’54 and 45rpm EPs a year later. Surprisingly, perhaps, Philips would be the last major label to issue 45rpm singles in the UK,…
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the guitar pickin’ interview
Just back from interviewing the hugely knowledgeable musician, Stefan Grossman for the ongoing film about Davy Graham. Stefan met him when he came over in 1967 as a young American avoiding the draft although Davy’s reputation had preceded him. In fact of course Stefan met all the British greats of the time: Eric Clapton, John Renbourn, Roy…
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Buying a guitar in the Sixties
Don Craine here describes his guitar buying experience experience: I’d seen Keith Richard playing a Harmony over at the Eel Park Island, and I absolutely adored the sound. I scraped the money together, and I went along to Jim Marshall’s, because Albert’s Music Shop in Twickenham didn’t go as far as foreign guitars, or anything like this.…
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The Teenage Rage
Just had the pleasure of interviewing one of the British businesses legends, Mr Larry Page. From Hayes, Middx, he of course got a job at the EMI Records plant as did everyone local, but got spotted singing in a local pub and got to record his first record at Abbey Road, a version of That’ll Be The Day…
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The Virgin press officer Years
I have just had the pleasure of a long overdue meet up with Al Clarke who was the Virgin Records press officer from the early/mid Seventies to the late Eighties. We had both worked together at the short lived Raft Records in the early Seventies with a label roster of Family, Linda Lewis, Beckett, Kilburn & The…
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Sir George Martin
His musical legacy is without peer in the world of British music – thank you Sir George
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Editing again
Back into a period of editing again at the moment, but this time it is book editing as I am working on the next volume from the interviews following up on having published the first volume as ‘Over, Under, Sideways, Down’. This is all at the same time as trying to marshal all the interviewees…
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Terry Murphy ruled the roost in E16
There was a very famous club or pub in the East End of London that was called the Bridge House. It featured all sorts of music mainly for the locals between 1975 and 1982 and had a serious reputation with artists like U2, Dire Straits, Iron Maiden, Tom Robinson Band, Secret Affair and The Cockney Rejects. As…
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The British Record Labels
There are now so many releases in this marvellous series of 2 CD sets charting those early British Record Labels that we thought a short trailer was in order https://youtu.be/YCIsYZqZpX4
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A Picture Of You – Great British Record Labels: Piccadilly
As the next stage in Pye’s expansion programme in April 1961, they launched the evocative black and red Piccadilly label, with its yellow logo, having initially been conceived as an outlet for third party licensing. However, although Piccadilly would in time go on to register big hits and build a reputation for their vast, quirky…
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Come Outside – Great British Record Labels: Parlophone
Like several of the labels in the old EMI group, Parlophone Records has a long, convoluted history, incorporating various twists, turns and takeovers. In 1950, George Martin joined Parlophone, an appointment which proved to be the defining moment in the label’s history. By the early/mid 50s they were releasing increasingly more spoken word and novelty…
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Jim Cregan gets that Rod the Mod fellow
A while ago now various of us spent an amusing afternoon cruising up and down the Thames river picking up and dropping off various reprobates at public houses and getting them to sit and swap stories about their life on the road with bands big and small and the extraordinary things that they did to amuse themselves.…