A small independent company based in Hayes, Middlesex. The Crotchet label bears a close resemblance to that of Flair (q.v.) and they operated from the same address (266 Blythe Road), which strongly suggests that they were intimately related. Pat Sherlock produced records on both labels, so it seems possible that he may have been one of the moving forces behind them. I haven't seen a Flair record numbered higher than 13 or a Crotchet numbered lower than 17, so it may be that Crotchet's numbers started where Flair's ended. Flair had distinct Country & Irish leanings, whereas Crotchet seems to have gone more in a Club / Cabaret direction, so perhaps there was a change of emphasis accompanied by a change of name. Crotchet albums and 7" records shared the same CMR-00 numerical series, which reached at least CMR-22. I haven't managed to track down many of them, but there was at least one EP, 'Ten Feet Tall', by actor Rusty Goffe (CRM-20). The EP is undated, as indeed are the other records, but Mr. Goffe has been kind enough to supply a year for it: he says that if he remembers correctly it dates from 1976, which fixes Crotchet firmly in our decade. Again, the sleeve notes of the EP refer to his appearing in the film 'Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory', which was released in 1971; that gives us a 'not before' year. The fonts used on the label have an Irish look to them, and the style of the matrix numbers in the run-off suggests that EMI was responsible for manufacture; with shortages of vinyl and of pressing facilities at various times in the '70s it wasn't unknown for independent companies to look to Ireland or to other countries to get their records made - see Indigo for one example. Thanks to Sam Mauger for the scan of the blue label.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.