An independent company, started by John Rush and Paul Rodriguez. According to 'Music Week' of the 29th of January 1977 Rush had worked as a concert promoter and as label manager of Satril Records (q.v.) when that company was set up; he had struck out on his own two years ago and had set up a publishing company, 'Rush Release Music'. Rodriguez was a musician; he too had a publishing company, which was based at the same premises as that of Rush. The article reported that as well as the Plastic Fantastic label itself there were to be three others: Ultra, for 'black' music; Blue Bag, for Jazz; and Marquee, for contemporary Rock. The latter was to be run in conjunction with the Marquee group of companies, which operated out of the same building as Rush and Rodriguez's publishing firms. A manufacture and distribution deal had been signed with Pye; the first Blue Bag LP was due out that week, while the first Plastic Fantastic single was yet to be selected - at the time a record by Pete Goodall was the likely choice (it never appeared). Ultra (q.v.) proved moderately prolific, and Blue Bag, which appears to have been album-only, managed at least four releases, but Marquee seems not to have got off the ground.
Plastic Fantastic appears to have operated from 1977-c.79. In addition to its own labels it handled a variety of others, which strongly suggests that it offered marketing and - via its agreement with Pye - pressing and distribution facilities to small independent companies. Records on these associated labels often had catalogue numbers with a PF or PFU prefix, but not always; they also tended to have 'Marketed by Plastic Fantastic' on the labels. The companies involved included Aries, Blackbury, Free Range, Lorelei No. 1, Manic, MHG, Night Owl, Pearl, Rospel, Sabanoh International, Soul Breakers, Stag, T and P, Umbrella, Warm, and Wisdom (q.v. all). Spartan took over distribution at some point in 1979, and pressing, too, moved elsewhere - the only single from this era that I have seen in the vinyl was manufactured by Lyntone. The discography below covers all of the Plastic Fantastic family labels apart from JA-UK, which only issued 12" singles.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.