The record label of the Grail Society, a Roman Catholic organization whose primary interest was in book publishing. Most of Grail's records featured arrangements of psalms. There weren't many of them, and they tended to be widely spaced. The first EP, which exists in both 7" and 10" form, came out in 1958, the fourth in 1962, and there were at least three more during the remaining years of the '60s. Thankfully for the purposes of this site, what appears to have been the final Grail EP came out in or around 1971 - its sleeve notes refer back to 1970, which at least fixes it in our decade. The EP in question was 'Songs Of Hope' by the Westminster Cathedral Choir; it offered settings of four psalms, with music by conductor Colin Mawby, and its catalogue number, SRS-7087, was taken from a series used by Studio Republic, through whom the recording was made. It looks to have been by manufactured by Linguaphone - those pressing marks are found on Linguaphones of that period.
Three label designs were used. The design for the first three 7"-only EPs was rather quite exuberant-looking and came in mid-blue and crimson as well as in red (1). From the fourth EP onwards a trendier look was adopted (2, 3). Catalogue numbers were initially in a G-0 series, where each side had its own number. Later issues had Studio Republic numbers. Early pressings were by Philips, while at least one from the mid '60s - the second scan above - was done by CBS.
Copyright 2022 Robert Lyons.