The record label of Fuse Music, a London-based publishing company set up in 1975 as a joint venture between Nigel Haines and French publishing company Dreyfuss ('Music Week', 2nd August 1980). Fuse Music published material by Genesis, Peter Gabriel and Brand X among others. Its venture into releasing its own records came towards the end of the '70s and proved to be sadly short-lived. 'Music Week' of the 17th of November 1979 reported that the label was to make its debut on the 30th of that month with a single 'There Ain't No Age For Rock 'n' Roll' by The Veterans (FUS-1), and that the former lead singer with Trapeze, Peter Goalby, had become the company's first signing. The projected launch failed to happen, however: 'Music Week' of the 5th of January 1980 announced that it had been delayed until the middle of January because of pressing and artwork problems. According to the article the first batch of singles was now supposed to consist of the Veterans' record in addition to Peter Goalby's 'Must Be In Tune' and 'Yes With My Body' by Les Models, a Dreyfuss product. Of these three, only the Veterans' single ever appeared; it had to be pressed in France, as the scan shows. A second single, 'Camellia' b/w 'Discole' by The Support Band (FUS-2), surfaced a few months later, pressed in the UK by Lyntone with a paper label, but that appears to have been Fuse's final release. 'MW' of the 2nd of August 1980 carried the news that Fuse Music had gone into voluntary liquidation, some £230,000 in debt. The previous month 'There Ain't No Age For Rock 'n' Roll' had been picked up by Bronze Records and reissued as BRO-97, with a different 'B' side, 'Nigel Gold Grows Old' in place of the instrumental version which featured on the back of the Fuse record. Strictly speaking, then, despite its first release being planned for 1979 Fuse's only records date from the first half of 1980. As its first single has a '1979' on the label I thought it might be as well to allow its page to remain on this site, partly to avoid confusion and partly out of sympathy with the company's frustrated intentions.
Copyright 2016 Robert Lyons.