Genie - 'Music With A Touch Of Magic' as the slogan has it - was an offshoot of publishing firm the Barrester Music Company. Barrester had had a previous stab at releasing records in 1971, via its 'BMC' label (q.v.) but it had concentrated since then on selling its 'Genie' anti-static record cleaning and holding mat. 'Music Week' of the 6th of December 1975 reported that the company were having a second go at cracking the record market with a newly-formed label, Genie. The article quoted director John Barratt as saying that Barrester were "...Interested in signing more artists", which suggests that at least one had already been signed. Genie singles duly began to appear, albeit sporadically, with numbering in an RWS-0370 series and distribution by Pye. There's no sign of an RWS-0371, but Guy Steel's 'Stop The Wedding' b/w 'Nothing', which came out on Ruby Records (q.v.) in January 1976, has an almost indeceipherable partly-obliterated matrix number 'RWS-03??' in the run-off, alongside its Ruby matrix number, so perhaps that may initially have been intended to be the first Genie release. RWS-0372, a Christmas single by Norman Wisdom, 'Do You Believe In Christmas' b/w 'All Over The World', did come out; it was listed in the 'New Singles' leaflet for the 2nd of January 1976, which suggests that it was actually released in mid / late December 1975. There was a lull until November 1976, when the Scorry Band's 'Scorry' (RWS-0373) appeared, with RWS-0374, Soho's 'Sunhill' b/w 'If Only', following shortly afterwards. 'Music Master' had all three records as being available through Lightning from December 1976, so presumably the agreement with Pye had been for twelve months only and Barrester had looked elsewhere at the end of it. There don't seem to have been any more Genie releases, though Discogs has the Soho single as being from 1980 - was it reissued, perhaps? While records on Genie are more common than ones on BMC they still don't surface very often. The Scorry Band and Soho records seem to be moderately collectable.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.