There have been a few Flair labels, over the years. The company responsible for this one appears to have been a small independent, specializing in Country & Irish records. As can be seen from the scan of the company sleeve, it was based at 266 Blyth Road, Hayes. All of the Flair singles that I have seen pictured were produced by Pat Sherlock and Keith Freeman, so it may well be that they were the men behind the label. Catalogue numbers were in the FPK-0s and they reached at least FPK-13. One label design served throughout, but after FPK-8 the 'STEREO' and '45 r.p.m.' on the right-hand side (1) swapped places and the letters in 'STEREO' were more widely spaced (2). There was some overlap: FPK-7 came in the later form, while FPK-6 can be found in both forms, presumably as the result of a re-pressing.
Sadly there were no dates on any of Flair's records, and internet sites place them as far apart as 1964 and 1985. I'm quietly confident, however, that they were from the earlyish mid '70s. The Flair label bears a distinct family resemblance to that of Crotchet (q.v.), with which it shared an address, and Pat Sherlock also produced records on that label, which indicates that there was a close link between the two concerns. I haven't as yet found a Crotchet with a number lower than 17, which makes me suspect that Crotchet's numbers started where Flair's left off but were given a different prefix. The resemblance between the Crotchet and Flair labels suggests that their records are likely to have been made by the same manufacturer and not too far apart in time, and we have a reasonably secure date of 1976 for Crotchet EP CRM-020. If my theory that Flair was the precursor to Crotchet is correct, that would give an approximate date of 1973-75 for the Flair singles. Further evidence for the '1970s' dating came by way of a comment on the 'Bad Dog Café' Country music forum, where a contributor wrote that he had played in a band called Tony Griffin & Blueberry Buckle in that decade. As can be seen from the gappy discography below, that band was responsible for FPK-11, 'Here Comes A Million Memories' b/w ' 'Talk Back Trembling Lips'. In addition, the singles are stereo, which would have been very unusual in the '60s; and they are marked as stereo, which would have been hardly necessary in the '80s.
The Flair singles that I have seen in the vinyl appear to have been pressed by EMI, but I suspect that it was done at EMI's Irish factory - the fonts look Irish, and the push-out centres have a slightly rough appearance. Some other companies were sourcing their singles from Ireland around 1973-74: Indigo and occasionally DIP spring to mind (q.v. both). In addition EMI is reported to have closed its Irish pressing plant around 1979-80, which would rule the '80s out as far as Flair is concerned. "Ipso fatso my case rests," as Nigel Molesworth used to say.
Copyright 2015 Robert Lyons.