One of Jonathan King's many creative marketing ideas. Petrol's sole offering was a one-sided flexi-disc, 'Lick A Smurp For Christmas' by Father Abraphart & The Smurps (GAS-1), which came out shortly before Christmas 1978 and retailed at a mere 10p - around a tenth of the cost of a standard vinyl single. It was manufactured by flexi-disc specialists Sound For Industry (q.v.) and had a matrix number of SFI-368. According to 'Music Week' of the 9th of December, King had high hopes for the record: he is quoted as saying that it could be "an important breakthrough in marketing," and that judging by the reaction it would be a very big-selling single that Christmas. It did in fact manage to get into the Top 75, but it only spent a week there before being transferred to conventional vinyl as Magnet MAG-139. King must have been encouraged by the result, as he issued a second one-sided flexi in June of the following year; instead of being dull black, however, the second record was shiny silver, and it was released on the Silver Discs label (q.v.). I don't normally include flexi-discs on this site, as the vast majority of them were intended to be given away or were used for advertising purposes, but as the singles on Petrol and Silver Discs were actually intended for sale, like any ordinary record, I reckon that they deserve inclusion. The only other label that I am aware of which issued flexi-discs commercially was Wake Up (q.v.), but also see Charmers.
Copyright 2016 Robert Lyons.