A member of the Phonogram family, Fresh Air was owned by promoter / producer Tony Hall. It issued an interesting mixture of Soul, Reggae and Pop, but failed to crack the charts in Britain; it did however enjoy success on mainland Europe with Velvet Glove's 'Sweet Was My Rose'. Fresh Air's lifespan was from 1973-1975. It issued at least twenty-five singles in a 6121-100 series - most Phonogram-group singles of this period had six-digit catalogue numbers beginning with a '6', and Fresh Air was no exception. A few numbers seem not to have been used. The singles' labels were all injection-moulded; needless to say, the paper LP labels were more attractive. According to 'Music Week' of the 15th of September 1973 the company was undecided about which side of its first single, by Shark Wilson, to promote as the 'A'; it sent out 500 copies to DJs, asked for their reaction, and went for 'Where Are We Going' instead of 'Too Much Pain'. Copies with silver labels and 'Too Much Pain' marked as the 'A' can be found, and are presumably from the original DJ-only pressing of 500. Hall had apparently made an earlier attempt at setting up a label: 'Billboard' of the 8th of July 1967 reported that he had left his job as head of promotions at Decca to set up his own company, T.H.E. (Tony Hall Enterprises), and was seeking his own label from one of the major record companies. Nothing seems to have come of that search at the time.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.