Oyster was an offshoot of Purple Records (q.v.). According to Billboard magazine (14th June 1975) Purple had gained a reputation as a Heavy Metal label, and Oyster was intended to bring in a bit of balance. 'Music Week' of the same date clarified matters by revealing that Purple would be kept solely for Deep Purple's own records in future and that records by all other Purple artists would come out on Oyster. It added the information that the design of the label was causing problems; if they weren't solved the label might be dropped. Happily a solution must have been found for Oyster made its debut in August of that year. It released a handful of singles in 1975-76, using an OYR-100 numbering series; the singles had slightly different label designs for their A-sides (1) and B-sides (2). Manufacturing and distribution were by EMI, as they were for the parent company. In June 1976, however, Oyster signed to Polydor worldwide for distribution and marketing, in a three-year deal ('MW' 5th July 1976). Sadly it ceased to have its own dedicated label and it became merely a logo on the Polydor label (4); from that point catalogue numbers were taken from Polydor's '2066-000' series. White Oyster / Polydor company sleeves exist - an example can be found on the 45cat site - but there aren't many of them around and it may be that they were just used for promo copies. The same applies to Polydor sleeves which were given Oyster stickers (5). Deep Purple split in 1976, and from December of that year the Purple label was used only for back-catalogue product; all new material came out on Oyster. The only Oyster record, of either variety to ever enter the Singles Chart was Rainbow's live EP with 'Kill The King' on it (2066-845), which didn't quite break into the Top 40 - it did well enough to be reissued in 1981 as POSP-774, when it managed a three-place improvement, reaching No. 41.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.