A subsidiary of Trojan. People was aimed at the Soul / Funk audience rather than Trojan's usual Reggae buyers, and the majority of its material seems to have been licensed from American companies. According to 'Music Week' of the 28th of July 1973 Webster Shrowder had been made label manager for Trojan's two new Soul labels, of which People intended to be the more 'chart friendly' one; presumably the revived Action (q.v.) was the other. Don Downing's, 'Lonely Days, Lonely Nights' (PEO-102; 1973) justified the 'chart friendly' claim by almost making the Top 30, but that proved to be the label's only success, despite the fact that there were singles by several (past or future) hit-makers - Della Reese, Doris Troy and Donna Summer - in the catalogue. People bit the dust when its parent company ran into terminal financial difficulties, in the summer of 1975; the liquidation happened only days after PEO-119 was listed for release, and so that record may well not have reached the shops. There's no evidence that PEO-117 was ever released, either; it did however see the light of day in 1975 on Trojan Disco Pick (TDP-1; 5/75) and Miami (MIA-404; 9/76) (q.v. both). Copies of PEO-118 with a Trojan logo (2) may be reissues from after the new Trojan company was bought by Saga. Manufacture was by EMI, as the EMI-style demo (3) indicates; distribution was shared by EMI and Trojan. The sleeve shown above was shared by a number of B&C / Trojan labels.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.