The record label of a company called Contemporary Music Consultants, of 29 Gloucester Place Mews, London W1. 'Music Week' of the 17th of December 1977 reported on the formation of R2 as both a music and publishing company, and added that its first record, 'What Kind Of Dance Is This' b/w 'Ferme La Porte' by Veronica Unlimited, had been relicensed to EMI International (it came out in January 1978 as INT-546). Managing director Robb Eden was quoted as saying that forthcoming releases were expected to feature 'many Chart acts' from Europe. According to the article a second single, by a Belgian group called 'Trinity', was supposed to be 'out shortly', but there seems to have been a slight delay - it wasn't until the 18th of March 1978 that 'MW' was able to announce that R2 had finally launched its operations and that 'Pretty' b/w 'We Love The Pirate Stations' (RTU-0001; 3/78) would be out 'this week'. That article provided the background information that Contemporary Music Consultants had been formed by Eden with Harvey Cazaly the previous October, and that the company was also active in the area of film production. In addition there was a quote from Eden to the effect that the company wanted to 'establish R2 as a Heavy Rock label, as opposed to Pop'. The Veronica Unlimited and Trinity singles were sourced from the Netherlands arm of Phonogram, and the second single on the R2 label, 'City Boy' b/w 'I Don't Wanna Go' by the Flyin' Spiderz (RTU-0002; 4/78), was also from that part of the world - 'MW' of the 15th of April, commenting on its release, said that it had been licensed from EMI Bovema and was available either via mail order or, in the South East, via a van sales service. That looks to have been R2's last mention in 'MW'. Googling has failed to reveal the existence of any other records on the label, and Music Master is equally barren; so, sadly, it would seem that the company's long-term ambitions came to nothing. Thanks to Robert Bowes for alerting me to R2's existence and for sending me the scan.
Copyright 2008 Robert Lyons.