A member of the Plastic Fantastic family, which explains its use of the 'PF' prefix. Free Range was an offshoot of the Free Range Studios of Tavistock Street, London W2. It seems to have issued just a couple of singles, the first being 'Never Wanna Leave' b/w 'Seventeen' by Punk band The Red Lights (PF-005; 1978), which is now fairly collectable. The second, Kim Tracey's 'Love Me' b/w 'Through The Looking Glass' (PF-51), was mentioned in 'Music Week' of the 23rd of June 1979. Oddly the article said that that record was to be Free Range's first release, which it wouldn't have been. For some reason its catalogue number doesn't fit in any of the Plastic Fantastic series - perhaps the PF-50s were intended specifically for Free Range? The article also said that Marsha Abson and Neville Wills were directors of the company, with Neville Johnson being the General Manager. It added that the label was intended to concentrate on Rock, Reggae and Disco, with future product coming from The Afflicted and The Loved Ones. Sadly no more records seem to have materialized, though The Afflicted did go on to have several out on their own 'Bonk' label (q.v.). An article on the Red Lights single can be found on the Bored Teenagers site. Thanks to James Denholm who runs the Worthless Trash site and who supplied the first scan; thanks also to Lee Older who confirmed that the Kim Tracey record existed and sent a scan of it along. One thing that sets Free Range apart from all the other labels of the 1970s that I have seen is that one of its singles had the copyright date in Latin numerals - MCMLXXVIII. Manufacturing and distribution of the Red Lights record were by Pye, as they were for other Plastic Fantastic records at the time. The Kim Tracey single was to be marketed by Pye but distributed by Spartan, according to the 'Music Week' article. Another article, the following week (30th June 1979), reports that Kim was a clairvoyant.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.