MINT

   

A subsidiary of Emerald Records.  Mint received its first mention in 'Music Week' in the edition of the 23rd of August 1975, which said that Decca was introducing the label for material which didn't fit naturally onto the main Emerald label.  The report said that the possibility of a new label had been aired some three years ago, and that it had been under serious consideration for a couple of years - apparently people associated Emerald with Irish product, and Mint was a way of getting around that.  The first Mint singles duly appeared, numbered in a CHEW-0 series.  'MW' of the 27th of December 1975 reported that Emerald had signed a licensing deal with the Soundland / Shadybrook company, of California, which would lead to singles by The Mystic Moods and Bobby Vee coming out on Mint.  The following year Mint and Decca parted company: 'MW' of the 29th of May described the parting as 'amicable', and quoted Emerald's boss Mervyn Solomon as saying that he felt that it was necessary to control the label more directly himself.  With immediate effect Mint records were to be handled by President, and were to be available though that company and its independent wholesalers.  Emerald itself was unaffected by the deal, and remained with Decca.
In 1978, after the arrangement with President ended, Mint seems to have concentrated its attention on Ireland: CHEWs 22 to 28 aren't mentioned in the 'Music Week' pages of new releases, nor in 'The New Singles' or 'Music Master', which suggests that they may well have been only released in Ireland - they have an Irish look to them (3).  The material on them seems to be Irish Pop, in contrast to the varied fare to be found earlier.  In 1979 Mint appears to have started acting as Emerald's singles label, with the parent label only featuring LPs.  Selected singles began appearing in British listings, with distribution handled by independents such as Wynd Up and Lugton initially; Spartan took over the job in the early '80s and continued to handle Mint for several years.  A couple of Mint singles came out in 1989, but they appear to have been the last.  By that time numbers had reached CHEW-120.
Mint offered a varied catalogue: as well as Irish records it issued Disco, Pop, Country, MOR and at least one Tyrolean single - the Gilde Duo effort pictured above, which came out in 1977 and was reissued in 1983.  Manufacture and distribution were by Decca for the first six singles (1); after the switch to President the basic design remained the same but the layout changed and the legend 'Marketed by President Records' appeared (2).  As stated above, singles from 1978 into early 1979 look Irish (3) and may only have been released in that country.  The origin of the 1979 singles which were released here remains to be determined (4).  In 1981 Mint's colour changed from ordinary mint to a fresher peppermint; the label design was revamped completely late in 1984.
Demo copies in the Decca days were marked with a medium sized black 'A' and the appropriate wording (5); the marking on President-era demos was just a smaller black 'A' (6).  Mint never got any of its records into the UK Singles Chart, but it appears to have served its niche market effectively.  It left behind at least one very collectable single, Kellee Paterson's 'I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby' (CHEW-10; 8/76).  The discography below only covers the 1970s.






Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.