The arrival of Different Records was announced in 'Music Week' of the 22nd of April 1978, which gave its location as Notting Hill gate and said that distribution of its products was by Selecta. A fuller account appeared in 'MW' of the 13th of May, which named producer Lynton Guest (formerly of band The Love Affair), Angela Hopwood and Pat Cooper as the people responsible for starting the label. According to the article Cooper had the rights to The Abyssinians album 'Forward On To Zion' but contractual difficulties with RCA meant that he was unable to get it released. Guest and Hopwood arranged a deal with him, acquired the rights to several other classic Reggae records, and arranged a pressing and distribution deal with Decca. Distribution to 'ethnic' shops was to be by Mojo. A spokesman for the company (Guest?) is quoted as saying "Reggae is a trend at the moment. I think Different has some of the best around ... [we] will be going Pop within the next few months." He added "We started the company on nothing, so we can only improve on that." In line with the 'going Pop' forecast, Different set up an MOR division some four months later ('MW', 23rd September 1979). The article which reported the move quoted Grant as saying that the company had been "Fortunate in obtaining top-rated commercial product which we see as being part of the major record growth market in the U.K." The move led to choral recordings of Frank Sinatra's 'My Way' and the New Seekers' 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing' appearing among the rootsy material and giving Different what appear to have been its biggest sellers - the single coupling Paul Phoenix's recording of 'Nunc Dimmitis' (as featured on TV in 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy') with the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir's version of 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing' (HAVE-20; 11/79) presented the company with its sole Chart entry, though it failed to crack the Top 50. When Decca was sold to Polygram, in early 1980, marketing of that single was taken over by Chrysalis, with Polygram handling distribution ('MW', 12th January 1980). That release seems to have been Different's last, as well as its most successful. Reports suggest that ill health limited Guest's involvement in the company and that he sold it in 1982.
The Different label kept the same design for its 7" records throughout its life, but the initial silver print (1) turned black (2) with HAVE-15; the position of the minor credits varied slightly with the last few issues, and on initial copies of the final one the 'A' which had been at 10 o'clock disappeared (3) - thanks to John Timmis for that scan. That final single was flipped and repromoted, and can be found in various shades of pink. If catalogue numbers are anything to go by Different would seem to have put out at least twenty singles, in a HAVE-0 numerical series. The discography below, however, is very gappy, and I doubt that all the numbers were used. Numbers 1, 5 and 7 were 12" singles, and had a 'HAVE D' prefix. Manufacture appears to generally have been by Decca, though the second example shown above seems to be an RCA pressing of a Decca master. Distribution was by Selecta until 1980.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.