One of two labels owned by Dover Records. 'Music Week' of the 28th of August 1976 carried a report about Dover: it said that the company had been set up by Adrian Boyd and Barry Austin in partnership with Rob Day, who had formerly been promotions manager with Trojan, and that it would feature 'Black music'. According to the report Boyd ran a company called Adrian Boyd Associates, while Austin was the managing director of the Atlas publishing company. It added that Dover was operating out of premises at 11-12 Dover Street, London, and that it intended to run two labels, Pacific and Trench Town (q.v.). In addition it had a publishing arm, White Cliffs Music. The first single was to be by Ken Boothe and was the result of a one-off deal. Pressing was to be by Phonodisc, with Dover handling sales and distribution itself.
The Ken Boothe single, 'Love Come Tumbling Down' b/w 'Tumbling Dub' (PAC-001; 8/76) duly appeared; it was followed by just three more, though sister label Trench Town proved more prolific. Both labels featured Reggae, with Trench Town appearing to be dedicated to rootsier material. Pacific catalogue numbers were in a PAC-000 series, though on one occasion the '00' was dispensed with. Pressing was by Phonodisc for the first three singles, which resulted in injection moulded labels in silver (1) or metallic blue (2); the fourth was pressed by Orlake and had a paper label which kept the same design, including the enclosing grid (3). Dover seems not to have lasted into 1978; ditto Pacific and Trench Town.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.