OUTLAW
A
small independent label, run by agency / management company Outlaw Artists. 'Music
Week' of the 5th of May 1977 described the agency as 'newly formed' and said
that it was run by Paul King, who formerly been with Good Earth (q.v.). Artists
signed to the company included Motorhead, Japan, Stray, Nutz, Urchin and Strife.
King was quoted as saying that he hoped that an independent label would be
formed in the near future to handle unsigned acts. By that time however
the first single on the Outlaw label had already been out for a couple of
months: it was Strife's 'School' b/w 'Go' and 'Feel So Good' (OUT-001), which
was manufactured by Phonodisc and issued in March via Virgin. It proved
popular enough to be picked up by EMI and reissued on the EMI International
label (INT-534; 7/77). The band, a heavy rock trio, had already made an album
for Chrysalis, 'Rush' (CHR-1063) in 1978; the year after 'School' was
released they were signed by the Gull label (q.v.) and put out a second album 'Back To Thunder' (GULP-102).
Despite King's hopes, Outlaw didn't develop as a record label; it seems to
have concentrated on its main lines of business instead. It did eventually
manage a second single, 'Outside Looking In' b/w 'Women In Love' by John
Dark (JD-01), but that didn't surface until 1984. As well as being the
second Outlaw record it appears to have been the last,
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.