DOMINO

 

Domino was owned by the Ditchburn Organisation, of Lytham.  According to a report by head audio engineer Arthur Phillips on David Bryant's left-and-to-the-back blogspot Ditchburn set up a studio in London as early as 1958 in order to make recordings for background music systems, vending machines and the like.  He says that the label name was taken from the company's Domino social club and that the studio recorded demos as well as Ditchburn's own material, which was played by session musicians.  He also states that some of that material was licensed to Danrecord, of Denmark, in the early '60s and released by them.  The company became a manufacturer and importer of jukeboxes; according to 'Record Retailer' of the 26th of March 1969 it decided to venture into the record market after receiving requests for 'sing-along music' from its clients - apparently there was a lot of that sort of thing available on LPs but not much in 7" form.  According to the article the first three Domino singles were due out that week; Pye would be distributing them to the trade, while Ditchburn would be supplying them to juke box locations for sale therein.  Initially much of the material on the records would be licensed from Pye.
There appears to have been some kind of a hiccup in early 1970, as 'RR' of the 31st of January reported that dealing in Ditchburn shares had been suspended.  The studio closed down in that same year but the company continued to trade.  Happily 'RR' of the 20th of July carried encouraging news: Domino had enjoyed 'considerable success' with its first four or five singles and was making its first venture into producing original product, in the shape of an album by Shep's Banjo Boys playing 'live' at the Golden Garter.  The man in charge at that time was Jim Thomas.  Distribution was still by Pye to record shops, with Ditchburn servicing pubs and other locations.  Change was at hand, however.  'RR' of the 15th of August broke the news that a bid by British Electrical Traction for Ditchburn had been accepted and was being put to the shareholders.  There were hopes that more original product would be recorded, and also that there might be a venture into the tape market.  The first of those hopes was realized, as October of the following year saw the launch of a Pop music label Spiral - see 'Spiral (1971-72)'.  1971 also saw the arrival of a second Domino label, Red Domino (q.v.), which offered much the same kind of material as its black sibling.  Domino and Spiral received a mention in 'Billboard' magazine of the 6th of May 1972, which said that Jim Thomas was the boss of both labels at that time.
Another change of ownership followed, in October 1972.  Ditchburn was split into two parts: the Ditchburn Organisation remained part of British Electrical Traction, but MAM bought a slice of its business and formed a new company, 'Ditchburn Music Maker', which was intended to include the Domino and Spiral labels among its responsibilies ('Music Week', 14th October 1972).  In the event a couple of Spiral singles came out on the 27th of that month, but they were to be the last; and there were no more releases on Domino or Red Domino.  Ditchburn received two more mentions in the music press, but not on record-related matters: 'MW' of the 9th of March 1974 reported that the company's juke box division had been taken over by a company called Gainesmead; and the issue of the 6th of April carried the news that a venture called 'Chartpools', which for the past five months had been run by Jim Thomas 'formerly of Ditchburn', had closed.
  Numbering of Domino singles was in the DO-100s, and there were sixteen of them.  In line with Ditchburn's stated policy much of the material on them was pub-friendly stuff, including several medleys.  That said, DO-111, 'Road Of Destiny', by Frankie With The Nocturnes, was apparently a Folk song; so was Steve Benbow's, 'Irish Rover' (DO-113; 1971), though as that was a well-known song it could presumably be easily sung along to.  There were two, closely related, label designs: the first, with a large domino (1) was replaced by one with the name incorporating a domino (2) after the first three issues.  As Domino records were mainly intended for juke boxes, it is not surprising that they are often found dinked ready for use (3); it seems reasonable to guess that Ditchburn dinked these copies at source before sending them out and that the undinked ones were handled by Pye.  Copies without either dinking perforations or juke box centres, such as that shown in the first scan, are rare.  Pye also seems to have been responsible for manufacture - the few Domino singles that I have seen in the vinyl have been Pye pressings.  Some of the tracks on them were licensed from Rediffusion (q.v.).  Thanks to Robert Bowes for the scan of the sleeve, and to David Bryant for bringing the article on his site to my attention.






Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.