A one-off label. A single by a Rock band called Quartz - not the band of that name which recorded for Jet Records (q.v.) - was the only record to appear on the Blyth Jex School label. It offered the tracks 'Witch Queen' and 'Social Values', and it came out in 1977. According to the sleeve notes the record was intended to raise funds towards the conversion of the Sewell Barn into a theatre, a conversion which eventually took place. The pictures of the various members of the band on that cover suggest that they may well have been senior pupils at the school at the time of the recording. The matrix / catalogue number, TRG-77002, was one of a series used by Trygg Recordings, a label run by Tryggvi Tryggvason, a lecturer at the University of East Anglia and formerly a recording engineer with Decca. The album-only Trygg Recordings was responsible for a fair number of releases from 1977 until 1989, though it doesn't seem to have issued any records on its own labels after 1984. It appears to have concentrated on Classical or Choral material, and, interestingly, it put out at least a couple of LPs by Icelandic artists. Trygg - it means 'Loyal' in Icelandic - had a sister label, UEA. Both the labels and the Blyth Jex School were based in Norwich; the Blyth Jex is now the Sewell Park Academy. Tryggvason continued to work both as an engineer and a producer in the Classical field, for the likes of Hyperion, Chandos and Deutsche Grammophon. Thanks to Redpunk of the 45cat site for permission to use his scan here.
Copyright 2018 Robert Lyons.