GL

  

The record label of the London Management Agency.  As early as 1970 'Record Retailer' was reporting on the possibility that London Management would 'ultimately' launch its own label ('RR', 12th September), but although it was already involved in the field of record production via its offshoot, G.L. Productions ('RR', 14th November 1970), its records continued to be placed with other companies until 1973 - examples include Bobby Crush's 'Borsalino' (Philips, 6006-248; 1972), Larry Grayson's 'Shut That Door' (York, SYK-529; 1972), and Stephane Grappelli's '1971' album (Pye, NSPL-18360; 1971).  The company was busy, however: Billboard of the 29th of January 1972 reported that London Management had acquired a controlling interest in Kennedy Street Holdings, which was the parent company of management concern Kennedy Street Enterprises, publishers St. Anne's Music, and the Strawberry recording studios.  According to the article, it intended to expand its music production activities and would be launching its own label.  Under its manager, Bernard Lee, the G.L. Productions company undertook twelve months of negotiations ('Music Week', 10th March 1973), which resulted in an agreement being signed with RCA, and the emergence, in March, of the GL label.  Unfortunately the 'Music Week' article of the 24th of February, which broke the news of the deal, neglected to say whether it was a licensing one or merely covered pressing and distribution.  GL got off to a decent start: its first release, the Handley Family's 'Wam Bam' b/w 'Rum, Dum and Baccy' (GL-100; 3/73) reached No.30 in the Singles Chart.   After that, however, the Law of Diminishing Returns seems to have set in.  The label issued ten singles during its lifetime, and seems to have expired in the autumn of 1974.  After that point G.L. Productions went back to licensing its material to other companies.
Numbering was in a GL-100 series, which started at GL-100.  The label design remained the same throughout, but the manner of overprinting for demos changed: the first five releases had a hollow 'A' in the centre and the information at the bottom of the label (1); while for the last four the 'A' shrank and was filled in, and the information shrank and rose (3).  Manufacture was by CBS, which was responsible for pressing most RCA singles at the time, but the final three releases look more like the products of RCA's own factory and may perhaps have been pressed there using CBS-cut masters - the matrix numbers and other markings in the run-off are in the CBS style.  Judging by its catalogue, GL appears to have specialized in middle-of-the-road Pop.  Its records aren't commonly met with; if you stumble across one it's highly likely to be 'Wam Bam'.






Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.