Look Records was based in Huddersfield, and was established by George Parks and David Whiteley. It was in part a custom recording business, specializing in making records by Club / Cabaret artists and thus enabling them to have something to sell to their fans at gigs, but it also signed artists and produced records by them at its own expense. Look started out in or around 1971 as a label owned by Rockingham Enterprises. The records were made at what was then the Northern Broadcast Recordings studio, and the singles (and albums?) had numbers in the REM-100s. In 1974 Rockingham Enterprises amalgamated with Northern Broadcast Recordings to form Look Records Ltd. Briefly records were numbered in the LK-100s, but the numbers appear to have jumped into the 500s in fairly short order; at that point prefixes were introduced, 'LK/SP' for singles, LK/EP' or 'LK/MLP' for EPs, and LK/LP for albums - sometimes the hyphen is missing or is replaced by a full stop. The numbers seem to have jumped again, into the 5000s, by the end of 1975. They reached 6050 in 1976, probably after another jump - it seems unlikely that the company could have put out a thousand records in one year - and by December 1981 they had got to 6675. Even allowing for the jumps in numbering that indicates a large number of releases, but pressing-runs for albums, EPs and singles alike must have been fairly small.
There were several different label designs. The only REM-prefixed single that I have seen had a similar design to the first one shown above but was coloured white. The orange label (1) is the earliest type for LK-prefixed records that I have tracked down so far; it also came in white (in 1972) and in light blue (2). The second design (3) appears to date from 1975 and came in several different colours, such red-on-white (4) and green-on-white (5). By 1976 that design had been replaced by a blue one with silver writing and a different logo (6). That same year the old round logo returned and injection moulded labels were introduced (7, 8, 9). Amidst the injection moulded singles at least one record was pressed in Ireland, for some reason, and had a plain-looking white label (11) - the scan appears by courtesy of Robert Bowes. A few issues from 1977 were given 'pupils' in the 'OO' of 'Look', turning them into eyes (10). 1978 saw the return of paper labels as the norm, and the logo turning three-dimensional (12). By 1979 the label had changed again, turning pink; it now had the word 'look' in large letters on its lower half (13). For a while in 1979, starting with LK/EP-6366, the artist's name moved to the bottom (14) but by the time LK/EP-6455 came out it had returned to its original position. The pink label lasted into the early mid '80s, though the injection-moulded form made the occasional comeback - the blue one (15) dates from 1979. Pressings were done by Lyntone and Phonodisc, among others. The few 1970s Look 7" records that I have managed to trace so far are listed below, though the list hardly scratches the surface; see also 'September Sound'. Karen Hatchard, the daughter of George Parks, as sent along an account of the company from its earliest beginnings to 1977. It makes for fascinating reading, in my opinion, and as it is a bit on the large side I have given it its own separate page. It can be found by clicking the link below. Thanks to Finn Bernard for the scan of the red injection moulded label, and to John Timmis for the picture of the second pink label.
Copyright 2012 Robert Lyons.