DISTRIBUTORS

There were several major distributors of records in the 1970s, and any number of minor ones.  The addresses of the most notable - sadly, only from 1976-79 - and lists of the labels that they distributed, can be found below.  Many labels changed distributors during the decade, and thus can be found in more than one list.

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PYE

Sales Office: 132, Western Rd, Mitcham, Surrey.

As well as handling its own labels Pye provided an outlet for many other companies, big and small.  Its tapes were handled by Precision, a company it set up with American firm the GRT Corporation in 1970; it bought GRT's 50% interest out not long afterwards.  At various times during the seventies Pye handled the following labels:

A&M, Affinity, Alamo, Ariola, Ariola Hansa, Atlantic, AVI, Baal, Barak, Bareback, BBC, Beeb, Bird's Nest, Blue Jean, Bradleys, Buddah, Beuna Vista, Bumble, Carnaby, Casablanca, Casino Classics, Charly, Chelsea, Chess, Contact, Contempo, Cream (2), Crewe, CTI, Daily Mirror Pop Club, Dawn, Daybreak, Disney, DJM, Electric, Ember, Feelgood, Flash Backs, Fury, Goodear, Gull, Hammer, Ice, Jam, Kama Sutra, Kicking Mule, Kudu, Light, Live Wire, Mainstream, Middle Earth, Miracle, Nashville International, Ocean, Octane, Ode, Orange, Orchid, Paladin, Parachute, Penny Farthing, Plastic Fantastic, PVK, Pye, Pye International, Pye Disco Demand, Redwood, Reprise, Response, Right On!, RK, Roots, Route, Safari, Santa Ponsa, Satril, Sawmills, Smack, Sol-Doon, Solid Gold, Sonet, Spark, Specialty, Splash, Stax, Stone, Sugar, Sugar Hill, Sun, Surrey International, Trend, Trent, 20th Century, Ultra, Vanguard, Warner Brothers, Word Of Mouth.

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SELECTA

Sales Office: 125-127 Lee High Street, Lewisham, SE13 5NX.

Selecta distributed a number of different independent labels but its biggest client was naturally its parent company Decca.  Selecta dealt with the following labels during the '70s, not all at the same time:

Badger, Black Magic, Calendar, Canon, Cat, Chopper, Criminal, Denver, Different, Electric, 5th Avenue, Intersound, Logo, MWS, Pentagon, Power Exchange, Rampage, Topic;
The Decca Group - Argo, BASF, Beltona, BUK, Brunswick, Chapter One, Contempo, Cube, Decca, Deram, Emerald, Goodear, Greenwich Gramophone Company, Gull, London, M and M, MAM, MCA, Mint, Monument, Rex, Sugar, Threshold, UK, UK America, Uni, Vocalion, Wand, York.

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B & C

Sales Office: 37, Soho Square, London, W1.

As a distribution network B & C was in business from 1968-1975.  As well as handling its own labels, notably Charisma and Mooncrest, it was responsible for all the Trojan group labels.  At various times during the years 1970-75 it distributed the following:

B&C, Charisma, Dragon, Mooncrest, Peg, Pegasus, Red Nail, Seven Sun, Sussex;
The Trojan labels - Ackee, Action, Ashanti, Attack, Big, Big Shot, Black Swan, Bread, Creole, Clan Disc, Down Town, Duke, Duke Reid, Dynamic, Explosion, Gayfeet, GG, Grape, Green Door, Harry J, High Note, Horse, J-Dan, Joe, Maxi Trojan, People, Pressure Beat, Randy's, Song Bird, Spinning Wheel, Summit (1), Techniques, Treasure Isle, Trojan, Upsetter.

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EMI

Distribution centre: 1-3 Uxbridge Road, Hayes, Middlesex.

Arguably the biggest of them all, given its long and illustrious history, EMI, or Electrical and Musical Industries, has been around since 1931.  In the 1970s it provided facilities for such prominent independents as Island and United Artists as well as coping with its own stable of owned or licensed labels.  From the middle of 1977 to the middle of 1979 the company had a special Licensed Records Division, dedicated to handling product which was licensed form other companies.   At various times during the seventies the warehouse at Hayes stocked the following labels:

ABC, Alaska, Ammo, Anchor, Apple, Ariola America, Arista, Beacon, Bell, Big Bear, Bronze, Bus Stop, Cactus, Capitol, Carrere, Casablanca, Chiswick, Chrysalis, Cobra, Columbia, Creole, Cube, Deb Music, Dot, Dynamic, Elektra, EMI, EMI America, EMI International, Famous, Fantasy, Flamingo, Gaiee, GSF, Harvest, Hitsville, HMV Greensleeve, Hot Wax, Invictus, Island (and its associated labels: see below) Magnet, Major Minor, MAM, MC, MCA, MFP, More Cut, Mother, Motown, Mountain, Mowest, Music Masters, Myrrh, Neighborhood, Oddball Productions, Odeon, Oyster, Paramount, Parlophone, Pathe, Power Exchange, Private Stock, Probe, Probe Goldies, Prodigal, Purple, Quality, Radic, Rak, Rak Replay, Rare Earth, Regal Zonophone, Retreat, Rhino, Rocket, Rolling Stones, Roulette, Safari, Salsoul, Sidewalk, Signpost, Source, Sovereign, Square, Stateside, Stax, Surprise Surprise, Tamla Motown, Tammi, Target, T. Rex, Tumbleweed, Waverley, Wizard, Young Blood;
The United Artists family - Avalanche, Ballistic, Blue Note, Cow Pie Productions, Grateful Dead, Liberty, Pepper, Rockfield, United Artists.

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ISLAND

Sales Office: 22 St. Peter's Square, London, W6 9NW.

Up to 1976 Island had two outlets for its products: as well as having them distributed by EMI it distributed them itself.  Gradually, however, more and more went through EMI; Island seems to have ceased its own distribution completely c.1978.  The company had its own manufacturing plant, in St. Peter's Square, from c.1973-c.78.  Either on its own or via EMI the company handled a respectable number of labels, including at various times the following:

B&C, Bearsville, Black Swan, Blue Mountain, Blue Thumb, Bronze, Charisma, Chrysalis, Dragon, Island, Island USA, Manticore, Maple Annie, Movers, Oval, Peg, Pegasus, Plum, Red Star, Rockers, Rocket, Shelter, Stiff, Virgin, Ze.

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RCA

Sales Offices: (Up to 1978) 6, Exmoor Street, London, W10; also branches in Manchester and Leeds.
(From 1978) Lyng Lane, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B70 7ST.

Probably the smallest of the majors, RCA could still boast a number of interesting labels in its roster.  The following labels were associated with it at various times during the decade:

Barclay, BTM, D'Art / Dart, Ebony, Evolution, Gem, GL, Good Earth, Goodear, Grapevine, Grunt, Immediate, Konk, Lingasong, Manticore, Maypole, Midland International, Midsong International, Milestone, NEMS, Neon, New York International, Oats, Penny Farthing, Prestige, RCA, RCA Red Seal, Rockfield, Salsoul, Solar, Soul Train, Tattoo, TK, Tom Cat, 20th Century, Windsong.

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POLYDOR / PHILIPS / PHONODISC

Polydor Head Office: 17-19 Stratford Place, London, W1N 0BL.

Polydor / DGG appears to have distributed its own labels from c.1964 until April 1969, at which point it merged its facilities with those of Philips / Phonogram to form Phonodisc - they had shared premises and a distribution network since June 1966 but each company had had its own offices and staff ('Billboard', 9th July 1966).  The two companies were already closely linked, having become parts of the Gramophon Philips group in 1962 and having their records pressed at Philips's plant in Walthamstow.  Polydor doesn't appear to have been responsible for many other labls in the '60s - only Track, Reaction, Marmalade, SGC, Camp, Clan and Alp spring readily to mind - but it picked up pace in the '70s.  A list of labels associated with Polydor at one time or another in the '70s can be found below.  During the late '60s and the '70s Polydor group singles were often 'dinked' at source, and were sent out with distinctive three-pronged 'spiders' to fill the resultant hole.  From 1971 onwards they frequently came with injection moulded labels.

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 Pihilips Head Office: Stanhope House, Stanhope Place, London, W2.

By the time the '70s rolled around Philips had been in the record making and distribution businesses for more than a decade.  In April 1969 it merged its distribution facilities with those of Polydor to form Phonodisc - the two had shared premises and a distribution newtwork since June 1966 but had kept separate offices and staff ('Billboard', 9th July 1966).  The two companies were already closely linked, having become parts of the Gramophon Philips group in 1962 and having their records pressed at Philips's plant in Walthamstow.  In the late '60s and the '70s many Philips-group singles were 'dinked' at source, as were those of Polydor; just like Polydor's, they came with a distinctive, and quite aesthetically pleasing, three-pronged 'spider' to fill the gap.  From 1971 onwards they increasingly came with the less aesthetically pleasing injection moulded labels.  Not many labels were associated with Philips in the mid and late '60s - Fontana, Mercury, Page One and Penny Farthing are the obvious ones - but the numbers rose in the '70s.  A list of labels associated with Philips / Phonogram in that decade can be found below.

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Phonodisc Sales Office: P.O. Box 26, Clyde Works, Grove Road, Chadwell Heath, Romford, Essex, RM6 4QR.

Phonodisc was formed in the spring of 1969, when Polydor and Philips pooled their distributing facilities ('Record Retailer', 16th April 1969).  'RR' of the 31st of July 1971 refers to it as 'a general distribution company' but it began to handle manufacture at some point: the issue of the 9th of October reported that the company was experimenting with a new technique called 'Painted Labels' (later known as 'injection moulding').  Phonodisc was responsible for a large number of labels, many of which would have been prettier if the company hadn't used that injection-moulding process for pressing them.  Some labels were licensed to Polydor, some to Philips, and some were independent.  At various times until the end of the decade singles on the following labels emerged from the factory:

Handled by Polydor with numbers in one of the company's '2000-000' series - Barn, Blue Horizon, Buddah, Capricorn, Chelsea, Dandelion, Daybreak, Kama Sutra, MGM, Mojo, Pablo, Pablo Today, Phil Spector International, Polydor, Ring O', Roulette, Stax, Track, Verve.

Handled by Polydor with discrete catalogue number series or sharing the main 'POSP-0' series - BBC, Beeb, CTI, Cube, GTO, Jet, Kudu, Lifesong, Midsong International, Rockburgh, RSO, Spring, State, UK, UK America.

Handled by Philips / Phonogram with numbers in one of the company's '6000-000' series - Avco, All Platinum, Carnaby, Chess, Fontana, Fresh Air, H&L, Janus, Mercury, Nashville, Nepentha, Page International, Sire, SSS International, Sun, Sunbeam, Tangerine, Trend, Tiffany, Vanguard, Vertigo, Westbound.

Handled by Philips / Phonogram with discrete catalogue number series - Acrobat, Arista, Bang, Charisma, Chrysalis, Ensign, Fontana, GM, I-Spy, Lollipop, Mountain, Page One, Penny Farthing, Rocket, Two-Tone, Vulcan, WWA.

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CBS

Sales Office: Barlby Road, London W10.

One of the Big Three in the Premier League of distributors, CBS couldn't challenge EMI when it came to history in the business - it only started out in that line of business c.1965 - but in terms of the numbers of records shifted during the '70s I would imagine that they came out on top.  The presence of the A&M and WEA family labels would have helped.  There are some familiar names in this list of CBS-distributed labels:

Alaska, B&C, Black Magic, Blue Horizon, Blue Sky, BUK, Cactus, Caribou, CBS, Concord, Creole, Dandelion, Direction, DJM, Dynamic, Epic, Epic/Ode, Front Line, Full Moon, Galaxy, GTO, Immediate, Infinity, Invictus, Kirshner, Magnet, Mainspring, MCA, MUMS, Neighborhood, NEMS, Oasis, Opal, Oval, Peacock, Philadelphia International, Phoenix, Portrait, Rainbow (3), Stiff, Summit (2), Tabu, Tappan Zee, Trojan, Unlimited Gold, Virgin, Weekend, York, Young Blood International;
The A&M group - A&M, Dark Horse, Firefly;
The Anchor family - ABC, Anchor, Black Bear, Handkerchief, Hot Buttered Soul, Impulse;
The WEA labels - Antic, Atlantic, Bearsville, Brother, Capricorn, Dandelion, Discreet, Grateful Dead, Kwanza, Little David, Made In Heaven, Manticore, Raft, Reprise, Riva, Rolling Stones, Swan Song, Warner Brothers, Warner Spector.

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WEA


Sales Office: P.O. Box 59, Alperton Lane, Wembley, Middlesex, HA0 1FJ; 1979; 1978; dist CBS 1976.

A late-comer to the business of record distribution, WEA spent the first half of the decade with its constituent labels in the care of Pye, EMI and CBS; it was only in 1976 that it was able to gather them together under one roof and look after them itself.  As well as its four main labels - Warner Brothers, Elektra, Atlantic and Reprise - it ended up being responsible for a respectable number of smaller ones during the period 1976-79.  On the list were:

Atlantic, Automatic, Bearsville, Beggar's Banquet, Big Tree, Blue Inc, Carrere, Contempo, Cotillion, Curtom, Elektra, Enigma, GM, Hurricane, Laser, Lightning, Manticore, Nemperor, Nonesuch, Old Gold, ORK, Pacific, Paradise, Planet, Pogo, Radar, Real, Reprise, Riva, Rolling Stones, Satril, Scope, Scotti Brothers, Sire, Swan Song, Target, TDS, Warner Brothers, WEA, Whitfield, WMOT.

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THE BIRD GROUP: H. R. TAYLOR / LUGTON / CLYDE FACTORS / KEITH PROWSE

Sales Offices:
H. R. TAYLOR - 139, Bromsgrove Street, Birmingham, B5 6RG.
LUGTON - P.O. Box 182, Cross Lane, Hornsey, London, N8 7SB.
CLYDE FACTORS - 79, Washington Street, Glasgow, G3 8BD.

All of the above were prominent independent record distributors. Keith Prowse, H. R. Taylor, Lugton and Clyde Factors worked together as the British Independent Record Distributors - BIRD - for a time; the formation of the group was reported in 'Billboard' magazine of the 7th of October 1967.  They had no labels of their own, they made their money warehousing and distributing other people's labels.  They served as outlets for a large number of small companies including the President group, with its fleet of associated labels.  Generally agreements seem to have been signed with the members of the BIRD group as a whole, but sometimes its constituent parts appear to have acted individually.  Occasionally there were changes: 'Record Retailer ' of the 2nd of April 1969 gives Record Enterprises as another Scottish member, and 'Billboard' of the 26th of September 1970 includes Northern Irish firm Solomon Peres among the group, while Keith Prowse Wholesale was taken over in 1971 and seems to have ceased distributing - 'Billboard' of the 20th of March reported that the contents of the firm's warehouse had been sold.  Individually or collectively the members of the group seem to have handled singles on the following labels at various times during the '70s:

Independents - Big Bear, Charly, Koala, Saydisc, Velvet, Wanted;
The Rediffusion labels - Gold Star, Koala, Rediffusion, Rim;
The President group and associated labels - Alaska, Aquarius, Beggar's Banquet, Boxa, Channel, Charly, Chiswick, Cream (1), Dart, Den-Mark, Enterprise, Galaxy, Gemini, Gold, Jay Boy, Mint, Phoenix, President, PVK, Rainbow (1), Riverdale, Seven Sun, Seville, Sioux, Sky, Spiral (2), Sticky, Strawberry, Sunlight, Superbad, Survival, Tangsong, Torpedo, VC, Zara.

Robert Pool, who worked for Clyde Factors from 1971 to 1993, has been kind enough to send this additional information, which reveals that Clyde Factors had a wider base and a larger range of stock than the others:

Clyde Factors, 79 Washington Street, Glasgow were Scotland's largest Record, Electrical, Hi-Fi & Video distributors and were part of the Philip Woolfson Group which was founded in 1912 and traded in the Trongate, Glasgow. Clyde Factors was created by Mr Edward Woolfson in 1964 to be a distributor of gramophone records, radios and electrical appliances. They had depots in Glasgow (head office), Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Manchester and Newcastle. They distributed virtually all major records and associate labels from the 1960's to the early 1980's including EMI, RCA, Camden, Jewel, Soul City, Hallmark, Island, Pye, Polydor, Philips, Polygram, CBS, WEA, Transatlantic, Lismore, Warwick, Pickwick and Pickwick International, Young Blood, Badger, Mother, Arcade, K-Tel and many more.
All the senior members of the record department were ex musicians; saxophone players, drummers, trumpet players, guitarists, keyboard/piano players etc. A few of the sales representatives were ex band members; Jim Divers and Colin Finn of 'The JSD Band' fame as well as others. The company received a Platinum Album Disc from Arcade Records for the distribution sales of the 'Elvis's 40 Greatest Hits' album which followed his death in 1977, Gold Album Disc from Warwick Records, Gold Album Disc from K-Tel Records, Silver Album Disc from K-Tel and a gold 'Mr Pickwick' bust for record sales of that label.
In 1977 Clyde Factors introduced, in association with the Record Industry, 'The Scotstar Awards'. The awards were presented to Scottish artists across all styles of music as well as artists from TV, Theatre and Films. The event was held at Tiffany's, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow with the final awards presented in 1982 at the Albany Hotel, Bothwell Street, Glasgow. A few of the artists who received the award were Billy Connolly, Barbara Dickson, Nazareth, Claire Grogan, Dee Hepburn, John Gordon Sinclair, Lena Zavaroni, Alastair McDonald, The Tannahill Weavers, Jimmy Shand and Rikki Fulton plus a lot more that l can't remember.
In 1989 Clyde Factors moved from Washington Street, Glasgow to The Buchanan Business Park, Stepps, North Lanarkshire. They were bought over in 1991 by AAH Ltd and moved to South Street, Glasgow in 1992. The AAH-Clyde Factors company was later sold on to The British Distribution Company in 1995 who only wanted the customer base and closed the distribution offices and warehouse for the final time later that same year.

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ENTERPRISE / PRESIDENT

SalesOffices:
ENTERPRISE - (1972) 37, Winchelsea Road, London, NW10
ENTERPRISE - (1976) Enterprise House, Arklow Trad. Est., Arklow Road,London, SE1. (1978) 1, Westbourne Gardens, Porchester Road, London, W2 5NR. (1979) 2, Faraday Way, Westminster Trading Estate, Woolwich, London, SE18.
PRESIDENT - (1978 on) 2, Faraday Way, Westminster Trading Estate, Woolwich, SE18; 1979 - Listed as distributor of own and other labels. Same in 1978.

Enterprise appears to have started out as a record label ('Record Retailer', 7th November 1970) and to have moved into distribution.  It took over distribution of the President family of labels from the 2nd of April 1973 ('Music Week', 31st March), which had previously been available through Selecta and the BIRD group ('MW', 23rd Octobet 1976), but suffered a catastrophic fire a couple of months or so afterwards ('MW', 2nd July 1973) and went into the hands of the Official Receiver in October that same year.  Its assets were bought by President who formed a new company, Enterprise Records 1973.  President seems to have continued to rely upon some members of the BIRD group - Lugton, H.R. Taylor and Clyde Factors - to service certain parts of the country, and from August 1977 independent Wynd Up took over distribution of President product in Scotland and the North of England (MW', 13th August).  Enterprise and its successor appear to have handled records on the following labels in the 1970s:

The President group and associated labels - Alaska, Aquarius, Beggar's Banquet, Boxa, Channel, Charly, Chiswick, Cream (1), Dart, Den-Mark, Enterprise, Galaxy, Gemini, Gold, Jay Boy, Mint, Phoenix, President, PVK, Rainbow (1), Riverdale, Seven Sun, Seville, Sioux, Sky, Spiral (2), Sticky, Strawberry, Sunlight, Superbad, Survival, Tangsong, Torpedo, VC, Zara.
Independents - Pickwick, Rediffusion, Supraphon.

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TRANSATLANTIC

Sales Office: 812, Acton Lane,London, NW10 7HH; 1976.

An idiosyncratic producer and importer of records, Transatlantic had been in the business of making and distributing its own products since the early '60s.  It ploughed its own determinedly individualistic furrow until 1977, when it was sold to Marshall Cavendish; 'Music Week' of the 27th of August reported that the distribution facility was being closed.  Transatlantic counted among its associates labels devoted to Blues, Jazz, Reggae, Folk and obscure Classical Music.  The ones which issued singles during the '70s were:

Big Bear, Big T, Black Lion, Chipping Norton, Eve, Granada TV, Improv, Jama, Love, Milestone, Pebble Beach, Rubber, MWM, Nonesuch, Trailer, Transatlantic, Village Thing.

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PAMA

Head Office: 78 Craven Park Road, London, NW10.

Arguably the main competitor to B&C / Trojan in the Reggae field in the first half of the decade, Pama had a fruitful stable of labels.  Some of its records were given a wider distribution through Pye. Lugton, H.R.Taylor and Enterprise at various times.  The Pama family included the following labels:

Bullet, Camel, Crab, Escort, Fab, Gas, Pama, Pama Supreme, Punch.

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OTHER PROMINENT MINORS


FAULTY PRODUCTS - 27, Dryden Chambers, 119, Oxford Street, London W1.
One of several distributors to start up in the Punk Rock era, Faulty Products dealt with such prominent Punk labels as Deptford Fun City, Illegal and Step Forward, as well as more ephemeral ones.

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GOLDEN AGE - 180, High Street, Harlesden, London, NW10.
There was a large market for Reggae records in big cities such as London and Birmingham, and several distribution companies sprang up to handle the host of labels which featured that kind of music.  Golden Age was one of them.  It seems to have started life c.1977.

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LIGHTNING - 841, Harrow Road, London, NW10 5NH.
Lightning started out c. 1976 as a distributor of other companies' Golden Oldies, but it soon started licensing them and issuing them on its own, prolific, 'Old Gold' label.   It moved on to launch the 'Lightning' label for modern recordings, and it was a also prominent distributor of Punk and New Wave records.

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MOJO - (1978) 55, Boscombe Road, London, W12 9HT.
(1979) 94, Craven Park Road, Harlesden, London, NW10.
(1979) 137, High Street, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B70 6NY.
Another prominent distributor of Reggae records, Mojo had a branch in the Midlands as well as a Head Office in London.  It handled a plethora of labels, both big and small.

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PINNACLE - Electron House, Cray Avenue, St. Mary Cray, Orpington, Kent.
Pinnacle was only a small player in the 1970s - it started out c.1975, apparently just distributing its own 'Pinncle' label - but it blossomed in the '80s and ended up as one of the biggest independent distributors, dealing with a shoal of different companies.

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REDIFFUSION - (1979) Ramillies Place, London, W1V 1DG.
Rediffusion was a major dealer in budget-priced records.  It shared the job of distributing some of its products with the quartet of Enterprise / Taylor / Lugton / Clyde Factors, with Selecta joining in from 1978 onwards.  Most of its records were albums, so it doesn't feature heavily on this site, but some labels associated with it issued singles, including Gold Star, Koala, Rediffusion, and Rim.

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ROUGH TRADE - 202, Kensington Park Road, London W11.
Rough Trade started out as a record shop.  It was prompted to move into the record making and distribution business, c.1978, by the advent of Punk Rock.  In the '70s it was very much one of the minors, but it made great strides in the '80s and '90s, and ended up as a prominent independent label / distributor.

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SPARTAN - 3, Sevenex Parade, Wembley, Middlesex.
A latecomer on the scene, as far as this site is concerned.  Spartan appears to have started out as a distributor c.1979, and to have started its own label not long afterwards.  It seems to have concentrated on Punk and New Wave labels at first, notably Cherry Red, and it flourished in the 1980s.





Copyright 2007 Robert Lyons.