A mixed bag of a label, offering a fair amount of Reggae and some Rock and New Wave things along with André Dudek's cello records and a novelty singalong single by Jimmy Tarbuck & Kenny Lynch. According to 'Music Week' of the 24th of March 1979 Laser was formed by Alan Davison after his amicable departure from Lightning Records (q.v.); he had previously been with EMI. The article stated that he was taking most of Lightning's acts with him, but in the event only Dennis Brown, Joe Gibbs and Samson had records out on both labels. It added that Laser had signed a worldwide deal with WEA; the deal seems to have been similar to that of Lightning, in that it entitled Laser to put out independently any material that WEA didn't schedule for release. Having a major behind it gave Laser a certain amount of thrust, and it worried the Top 30 in 1979 with Me and You's 'You Never Know What You've Got' b/w 'Got Again' (LAS-8), but sadly the company doesn't appear to have lasted past 1980. A plan to release forty singles by popular Reggae producer Joe Gibbs over the course of a year was reported in Billboard for the 28th of April 1979, but for some reason it seems to have been carried out only to a much reduced extent. 'MW' of the 7th of June 1979 reported that 'The Dictator' by Your Hero (LAS-10; 8/79) was going to be issued as a 'back to front' record - presumably one that played from the inside out - but that seems not to have happened. A company called G.H.M. Productions (q.v.) appears to have got in first with that particular gimmick, so perhaps Laser decided not to bother. The discography below only covers the 1970s.
