For the most part British in manufacture and distribution, though it ended up in Ireland. Denver was founded by London-based Irish expatriate Johnny McCauley; 'Record Retailer' of the 18th of September 1968 reported on the label's launch and gave the company's address as 87 Carlton Avenue West, North Wembley. According to the article the first single was due out that week, with manufacture being done by Orlake - the single was McCauley's own, 'Pretty Girl From Omagh' (DMC-1001; 9/68). 'RR' of the 14th of May 1969 mentioned that Denver's second single was now available, and gave the distributors as the BIRD group. The label continued to receive intermittent minor coverage in the music press throughout the '70s: 'RR' of the 27th of March 1971 confirmed that it was still being run by McCauley, whom it described as a London-based songwriter; 'RR' of the 3rd of April of that year added Irish Record Factors to BIRD as distributors, which indicates that Denver's records were being made available in the Republic then. 'RR' of the 13th of November 1971 said that Ron Harris's 'Chel-sea Of Blue' single (DMC-1006) was available and confirmed the North Wembley address; the release of Big Tom's 'Broken Marriage Vows' (DMC-1007) was mentioned in 'RR' of the 19th of February 1972, again with distribution by members of the BIRD group. 'Music Week' of the 15th of September 1973 reiterated the address and the distributors but said that Denver was run by Johnny McCauley and his wife Phyllis. A change in distributors came in 1976: an advert in 'MW' of the 20th of March said that Selecta had taken over that job. Denver's final mention came in 'MW' of the 15th of July 1978, and concerned the release of a 12" single called 'The Last Leviathan' by Richard Quin (DMC-1019). In or around 1980 the company appears to have relocated to Ireland, and from that time it became effectively a vehicle for records by Big Tom. It seems to have ceased trading around 1986, by which point catalogue numbers had reached DMC-1033.
Denver's discography suggests that it specialised in frequently sentimental records by Irish Country artists: McCauley is credited with inventing the term 'Country & Irish' to describe the genre. Its biggest-selling artist was Big Tom, who, with the help of his bands The Mainliners and latterly The Travellers, shifted considerable quantities of records. Unfortunately, as the bulk of these sales were through specialist shops, which didn't give any figures to the people who compiled the UK Singles Charts, he didn't have any hits in this country, though he featured repeatedly in the Charts in Ireland. One novelty to appear on Denver was the tribute single dedicated to the Chelsea football club, mentioned above: 'Chel-Sea Of Blue', by Ron Harris with Chelsea Players & Fans (DMC-1006; 11/71).
The label appeared in two different designs in the UK. The first two singles had black-on-yellow labels with 'Denver' at the top in an arc (1). The label name was boxed from DMC-1003 onwards, and the colour changed to silver-on-blue; DMC-1002 can be found with this label as well as the yellow one, presumably as a result of re-pressings. Sometimes the box contained the word 'Ireland' in brackets (2); at other times '(Ireland)' was replaced by 'Records' without any brackets (3). Credits on several of the 'Ireland' singles refer to them being recorded in that country; it may be that the 'Records' ones were recorded in the UK and that the different wordings were intended to distinguish between the two kinds. For at least one UK single, DMC-1016, the colour scheme changed to silver-on-black (4). Singles with light blue labels and black printing appear to have been pressed in Ireland for the Irish market; all singles from DMC-1021 (and possibly DMC-1020) were Irish. The few singles that I have seen in the vinyl were Orlake, British Homophone or Lyntone pressings.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.