A custom recording company from the North East of England. HAV operated out of 18, Thornhill Road, Ponteland, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and it offered a mobile recording service. It seems to have been in business mainly from around 1978 to around 1980, though an album, 'Massive' (HAV-198), split between three bands from Norwich - The Herman Herd, Kaiser's Advisers and Eva Valve - is from 1986. Its earlier recordings appear to used a HAV-1390 numerical series, which covered both LPs and EPs. Thus far I have only been able to track down a couple of 7" records, both of them EPs. The earliest was by Rock band Barfly, and it was recorded on 'the HAV Mobile' at the West House, Killingworth. In addition to the tracks shown on the scan it offered two more originals, 'Bad News Boy' and 'Six Foot Three And Crazy'; all four are in a Pub Rock vein. Its catalogue number was HAV-1394, and it came out in 1978. The other EP was 'Glyn Martin Sings Country With The New Directions' (HAV-1398; 1978), which had a black-on-pink label (2). It offered versions of 'I'm Just A Country Boy', 'This Song Is Just For You', 'Please Help Me I'm Falling', and 'Send Me The Pillow,' and it was pressed by Sound Manufacturing. The album by The Squad, 'Out For Revenge' (HAV-1397; 1979), is moderately collectable. News of any additional HAVs would be welcome. Thanks to Stephen Small for drawing HAV to my attention.
Copyright 2020 Robert Lyons.