5th Avenue was unusual in that most of its - few - issues were in the form of cassette singles. It did however issue one single in vinyl form, which brings it into the scope of this site: the record in question was Ricki Disoni's, 'Salud Amor Mallorca' b/w 'Why Should I Care' (FTA 1001; 6/77), which was also available as a cassette (CTFA-1001). The company was started up by Len Collins, owner of a tape-duplicating plant in Harlow as well as several record shops, with his partner, songwriter and publisher Sam Cordell. It started out in 1976 as an outlet for a series of budget tapes called 'Music Maker', but it issued the UK's first 'cassingle' in June 1977. The Simurg company, of London, was scheduled to be the first in the cassette single market, but the May lauch of its 'Mystic Bird' series was postponed because of contractual and repertoire difficulties - after several more delays the series appears to have been cancelled altogether. 'Music Week' of the 24th of September reports that sales of the Ricky Disoni single had been 'amazing' according to 5th Avenue, with sales three to two in favour of the cassette. The report added that a batch of three cassette-only singles was in the offing, and that the name 'cassingle' had been registered. Another three tapes followed in November, along with a long-play one by the Animal Kwackers (AK-11). As can be seen from the discography below, releases were a mixture of licensed material and originals, with a Punk single by The Drones thrown in. Cassingles caught on and made a minor impact in the late '70s and the '80s, before CD singles wiped them off the map forever. Distribution was by Selecta; the Ricki Disoni single was pressed by Orlake.
