A member of Graeme Goodall's Doctor Bird group of labels, along with Doctor Bird itself, Attack, and, for a while, Treasure Isle (q.v. all). Pyramid started and ended its life as a Reggae label, though it dipped a toe into the Pop market in between. It was launched in 1967 by agreement with Jamaican producer Leslie Kong as a U.K. outlet for records that he had made for his Jamaican label, Beverley. Perhaps surprisingly, as Rock Steady / Reggae was not part of the mainstream British music scene at the time, it enjoyed a Top 20 hit with its fourth release, '007' by Desmond Dekker & The Aces (PYR-6004; 1967). Dekker and the band fired a few blanks after that, in Chart terms at least, but went on to hit the No.1 spot a couple of years later with 'Israelites' (PYR-6058; 1969). 'It Miek' (PYR-6068) got into the Top 10 shortly afterwards, and 'Pickney Gal' provided a lesser hit for Dekker without the Aces when it tickled the Top 50 in January 1970.
Encouraged by the successes, Pyramid attempted to widen its appeal by issuing some Pop records. 'RR' of the 21st of May 1969 commented on the development, and said that the label's first Pop single would be 'I Live' by a group from Jersey called Marjorine (PYR-6069; 5/69). A single by idiosyncratic Pop band Stavely Makepeace, 'I Wanna Love You Like A) Mad Dog' (PYR-6072; 8/96) followed in the summer; it led to an appearance on 'Top Of The Pops' but not to Chart action. The band recorded a follow-up, 'Reggae Denny' (PYR-6082; 12/69), which was pressed but had its release cancelled. Doctor Bird seems to have run into some kind of difficulty around that period, for at the start of 1970 it linked up with Trojan. Records on the Doctor Bird, Attack and Treasure Isle labels were issued under the Trojan umbrella until the end of 1970, when Goodall's company hit the financial buffers and was put into liquidation; for some reason Pyramid was treated differently, and the Reggae artists who had been on the label during 1969 - Desmond Dekker, The Maytals, The Pioneers and Millie - were moved on to Trojan label. Trojan appears to have acquired the Doctor Bird labels after that company's demise, as Attack and Pyramid were revived as Trojan offshoots; the former in 1972, the latter in 1973. This second incarnation of Pyramid saw it being used as an outlet for 'rootsier' Reggae, but it only survived for eight or nine months before expiring in the spring of 1974.
Catalogue numbers of the original company's singles were in a PYR-6000 series; those of the revived Trojan label were numbered in the PYR-7000s. Perhaps because of the demand cause by the Chart successes, '60s pressings seem to have been done by a variety of firms, including British Homophone (1), Polydor / Phonogram (2) and Pye (3). During the Trojan years Orlake handled the job most of the time, as it did for most of the Trojan family's less commercial releases (4). The company sleeve was apparently common to Doctor Bird and Pyramid singles. As for distribution, according to an advert in 'Record Retailer' of the 13th of February 'It Miek' was being distributed by a combination of Island, Keith Prowse, H.R. Taylor, Lugton and, in Scotland and the North, Clyde Factors; it may be that the same arrangements applied to at least the rest of the releases from 1969. The 'discography' below only covers the period of Pyramid's revival by Trojan in 1973-74. Thanks to Robert Bowes for the fourth scan.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.