A small independent label, based in Slough, Berkshire. The news of Motor's launch was reported in 'Music Week' of the 21st of October 1978. According to the article the company had been set up by Don and Colin Gallagher and Chris Blackburn, and it was aiming for 'a wide range of styles in product'; the first single, 'Dr. Who' b/w 'Time Traveller' by Mankind (MTR-001-12), had been released on the 13th of October as a 12" single in blue vinyl, with the pressing run consisting of 10,000 copies. A second single, 'Dry Your Eyes' b/w 'I'm Too Afraid' by Roger The Cat, was in the pipeline. 'MW' failed to mention that there had been a previous pressing of the Mankind single: according to a posting on the 45cat site by Don Gallagher, an initial pressing run of 7" copies had been done by SRT, but he "... left it to SRT to design the label, and I hated it so much that I had the fattest, ugliest stamp made to go across the label, saying 'Advance Copy Only' to cover up the fact that they were intended for release." The first scan shows such a label; as can be seen, it was one of SRT's standard plain, no-frills, efforts (1). 'MW' of the 7th of April 1979 added the information that Motor had begun life as Vehicle Music; it gave a different figure, 5,000 copies, for the first 12" pressing of 'Dr. Who', and added that after the single had sold successfully through a variety of one-stop distributors the demand led to a one-off licensing deal with Pinnacle being signed. Finally the article said that contractual problems had led to releases by a Rock band and by a MOR male vocalist being postponed.
In its Pinnacle version (PIN-71), which was available in both 12" and 7" form, the Mankind single got into the Charts, and reached the Top 30; the follow-up, 'Chain Reaction', came out on Pinnacle (PIN-13; 3/79) rather than Motor but had the Motor logo on the label (3). A few more Motor singles appeared, however. The Roger The Cat single came out as MTR-002-7; its label design was the same as that of the 'Dr. Who' 12", being black with the label name at the top in a 'script' font, complete with four small 'puffs of exhaust'. MTR-003 was 'Midnight Man' b/w 'Running Away' by Angel Street (11/79), which is reported to have been in a Heavy Metal vein and was distributed by Pinnacle; that featured a new, 'clockwork head', label design (2). Some 7" copies of 'Dr. Who' can be found with that kind of label; I would guess that they were re-pressings, made after the licensing deal with Pinnacle expired. Paul Martinelli's 'Keep It Up' (INT-591; 7/79) was another Motor production but it was licensed to EMI and came out on EMI International with a Motor logo - that may have been the delayed MOR single to which 'MW' referred. Motor's last release seems to have been a single by Ramon Bugatti, 'When The Night Comes' b/w 'Come On Home With Me', which came out April 1980; its different catalogue number, MOT-01, indicates that by that time Motor changed its numbering system for some reason. Thanks to Sam Mauger for the scan of the Angel Street record.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.