BIRDS
NEST
An eclectic sort of
label, distributed by Pye. Birds Nest was the name of a chain of music-friendly
establishments owned by brewers Watney Mann. When that company provided financial backing
for a new label launched by music publishers London Tunesmiths the
label was given the Birds Nest name and logo. 'Music Week' of the 26th of
July 1975 reported that Birds Nest's records would be promoted in
Watney Mann's 2,000 pubs and clubs; distribution would be by Pye,
and the label would be administered by Southern Music and its associated
Spark Records (q.v.). Dave Travis, who managed London Tunesmiths, was to
be responsible for finding artists, writers and producers for the new label. Three singles
were issued in July of that year, with catalogue numbers in the BN-0s (1).
After the first batch of records, however, things seem to have
ground to a halt. The Pye catalogue for 1977 lists a couple more
singles in the BN-0 series but if they are not merely
compiler's errors they may not have been issued - there's no sign of
them in any other source. 'MW' of the 31st
of January 1976 said that London Tunesmiths hoped
to sever the Southern / Spark connection and arrange a direct distribution deal
with Pye, but the next mention of Birds Nest came in 'MW' of the
3rd of April when the Gossip column revealed that the label's
name was being changed to Paladin (q.v.) - both
of the 'missing' singles eventually came out on Paladin.
After Paladin expired,
in the autumn of 1977, Birds Nest returned, with singles now numbered
in the BN-100s and the position of the credits on the label
altered (2). The label now bore an address: The Old
Smithy, Post Office Lane, Kempsey, Worcestershire. As Eddie Hutchinson kindly points
out, producer Muff Murfin had (and still has) a recording studio at
that address; many of Birds Nest's BN-100 singles were made in that
studio. David Bryant has been good enough to confirm that
Murfin owned Birds Nest, on his own at first but later in
conjunction with Clive Selwood, previously of Elektra, Dandelion, CBS and UK. David suggests
that Selwood's involvement may have been contemporaneous with
the start of the BN-100 series, which seems a fair conjecture. There
are no signs of any London Tunesmiths or Watney
Mann involvement with the reborn Birds Nest, so perhaps Murfin acquired the label
from its original owners. He and Selwood appear to have run it as a 'proper' label in
tandem with Murfin's custom recording label Happy Face
(q.v.). Birds Nest's catalogues offered varied fare, from a collectable power-trio LP and single by Agnes Strange to an electronic
Disco single by The Warlord, with some Country and some novelty pop
items thrown in for good measure - the single by Melvin's Marauders, 'Buzz
Buzz A Diddle It' b/w 'Three Months To Kill' (BN-118; 5/79) is modestly collectable
as Robert Plant contributed backing vocals to both sides. It managed a
very reasonable number of releases, few of which are happened upon very often nowadays, but
unlike the Happy Face label and studios it seems not
to have survived past 1980.
One label design served throughout, but a cockerel was added
to the labels of the singles by The
Wailing Cocks; for some reason - using up
surplus stock? - it also featured on a couple of singles by Melvin's Marauders
(BN-118) and Little Acre (BN-117) (3). The placement of the
address and production credits changed with BN-116, moving to 2
o'clock and 10 o'clock respectively (4) and staying there, possibly to make room
for the occasional cockerel, while copies of BN-111 can be found with plain white
labels (5) - presumably these were re-pressings, as the most recent record
I have been able to trace, BN-125, also has a white label.
There are demonstration copies of BNs 116 to 121: they have 'Sample - not
for sale' on them in small letters. Pye were responsible for the manufacture and
distribution of Birds Nest in both its incarnations. Music Master
indicates that some Birds Nest singles were handled by Baal Records
(q.v.), Baal being another of the Pye-distributed labels. Thanks to Graham
Laurence and John Bramley for helping to fill out the discography.
As can be seen, several of the later numbers are
as yet unaccounted for.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.