A comparatively short-lived sibling to Concord (q.v.). According to 'Record Retailer' of the 21st of February 1970 Harvard had been formed recently by music publishers Campbell Connelly and the manager of the Duke of York Theatre, Edward Horan; it may have had a link with Norman Newell's 'Harvard Music' publishing company, as Newell produced at least one record on the label. There seem to have been at just three singles on Harvard. Two of them, 'I've Got You' b/w 'A World Of Love' (HARV-001; 1970) and 'Look Up And Around' b/w 'Merry-Go-Round'(HARV-003; 1970) were by The Strangers; a group of that name had several singles out on Pye in 1967-68, but that seems to have been a different (Irish) outfit. The other single, 'Bubblegum' b/w 'Hard Rider', was by Denis King, one of the King Brothers. There were also a couple of albums, by The Poole Family ('The Poole Family', HARVS-1001) and Denis King ('Easy Does It', HARVS-1002), both of which came out in February 1970. The style of the matrix number in the run-off of 'I've Got You' suggests that that particular record was pressed by Pye. Initially distribution was by the BIRD group - 'British Independent Record Distributors' - but it switched to CBS in September 1970. Roy Berry of Campbell Connelly is quoted in 'RR' of the 22nd of May 1971 as saying "So far we have failed to establish the labels [Concord, Harvest] but success does not come overnight." Sadly the lack of any more Harvard material after that point suggests that the struggle for success on that particular front was abandoned soon afterwards.
Copyright 2007 Robert Lyons.