HAWK (Ireland)
An oddity. This particular Hawk label was Irish, and was part
of the Tom Costello Organization. Its
records were pressed in the Republic and were generally only available
in Britain as imports; it would not qualify for this site were
it not for the fact that the single shown above, the Cotton Mill Boys' cover of
the classic 'Rainin' In My Heart' b/w 'Orange Blossom Special' (HASP-396) was given a proper
release over here. 'Music Week' of the 30th of October 1976 said that 'By public demand'
the single had been made available through distributors Wynd-up, Clyde
Factors, Record Enterprises, and importers Shannon, of London. It is listed in the 'Music Master'
book of British singles, with a release date of October 1976, and the demand seem
to have been a result of the band winning the ITV
talent show 'Opportunity Knocks'. The record itself is an Irish pressing, made by Pye, but the picture
sleeve in which it came was English - it lists Shannon
as one of the distributors. That particular single - or rather the cover - seems to
have been a one-off, but it's a mildly interesting one. According to
Billboard magazine of the 4th of May 1974 a previous Hawk single,
Brendan Quinn's 'Behind Closed Doors' (HASP-337) had
been playlisted by the BBC; it was currently being imported by Shannon but
Pye were being given the option of distributing it. Whether Pye took up
that option or not we shall probably never know, but if they
did it would have made a mildly interesting factlet. 'Music Week' lists the single and gives a release
date of the 20th of April.
Hawk issued around 150
singles and an equally large number of albums in its native land between 1972
and 1982, via Release Records (q.v.), though the early '80s only saw sporadic
releases. The material on them appears to have been a mixture of
Showband, Traditional, and Country & Irish material - standard
middle-of-the-road Irish fare - and the Cotton Mill Boys single slots in there
nicely. 'Music Week' of the 25th of February 1978 reported that the
company had set up a London office in an attempt to make 'an eventual breakthrough into the international market', and was operating out of it as 'Hawk International' with Brian Molloy as managing director and Peter Knight, previously
managing director of NEMS (q.v.), co-ordinating and supervising. Sadly the attempt doesn't
seem to met with great success. According
to the 'Music Master' book of 'British Pop Singles 1975-84', Shannon imported other Hawk
singles in the second half of the 1970s; they don't qualify as UK releases but they can be found listed on the 'Shannon'
page. Doubtless earlier ones were imported but didn't make it to the
pages of 'MM'.
Copyright 2011 Robert
Lyons.