Unhappily, this is anouther of those cases where information on a label has proved impossible to find. Neither Google nor the main record-searching sites have revealed the existence of any Planar records other than Rod King's 'Hawaiian Wedding Song', the 'B' side of which is shown above; they didn't even mention 'Hawaiian Wedding Song' itself. The catalogue number, P-111, suggests that there should be other Planars out there, but if there are - which I doubt - they are horribly shy. There's not even a date on the label, but it looks - and the record sounds - Seventiesish enough for me. Rod King is reported to be one of Britain's leading steel-guitar players; he featured as a session musician on a number of '60s and '70s recordings, working with the likes of Gerry Rafferty, and had a self-financed LP out on the SRT label in 1978, called 'Big Steel Guitar' (SRTZ-78391). There was also an album called 'Two And A Half Yards Of Steel', which had a catalogue number of RKRLP-101 but no label identification or date. Hawaiian Wedding Song' is a pleasant Easy Listening instrumental, but I personally prefer 'St. Louis Blues', where every so often the guitar sounds like a cat trying to sing. The style of the matrix number suggests a Pye pressing.
Copyright 2009 Robert Lyons.