American, from Chicago. Mainstream was founded in the first half of the '60s, by Bob Shad. It offered varied fare, ranging from Jazz and Blues through Soul to Rock; its catalogue featured artists as diverse as Sarah Vaughan, Lightning Hopkins and Ted Nugent. In Britain, Mainstream arrived late on the scene. Billboard magazine of the 7th of April 1973 reports that the label was going to be launched here by Pye, but the first single on the label didn't arrive until August of that year. It issued some forty-odd albums over here, but only six singles, which were numbered in the MSS-300s. The first Mainstream single to be issued through Pye was Afrique's 'Soul Makossa', which came out on Pye International (7N-25616; 5/73); it is possible that the missing MSS-301 number in the discography below may have been intended for that record. Mainstream seems to have expired towards the end of 1976. It never troubled the Chart compilers in the U.K., but Kevin Johnson's 'Rock And Roll' (MSS-304) was a hit in 1975 when it was picked up by Jonathan King and reissued on his UK Records.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.