RADAR
Radar was a
joint venture between the Cladhurst (later Radarscope) company, which
was set up by ex United Artists men Andrew Lauder and Martin Davis, and
WEA. 'Music Week' of the 26th of November 1977 said that the new label was
to be autonomous but that it would be able to call on WEA's marketing and
promotional strength. According to Billboard of the 3rd of December 1977, Radar
was primarily intended to be a satellite of WEA, developing that company's British
talent roster. There was a slight hiccup early on,
in the form of a conflict over the label's name: 'MW' (17th December
1977) reported that a legal challenge had been made by Calum Kennedy, who
had formed his Radar Records in 1976 and had registered the
name in Edinburgh in February 1977. The article quotes Martin Davis as saying
that he had no knowledge of the other Radar and was very surprised to hear
of its existence. At that point the matter was in the hands of solicitors;
it must have been resolved to the satisfaction of both sides, as they both
continued to use the Radar name on their labels. Cladhurst's name was changed
to Radarscope Records in April / May, however, perhaps as the result
of the legal challenge. An early boost for this Radar came
when, having left Stiff Records (q.v.), Jake Riviera brought Nick Lowe, The Yachts and
Elvis Costello & The Attractions to the label under a licensing deal. 'MW' of the
21st of February revealed that Radar would be based at 60, Parker Street, London WC2, while that of the 11th of February carried an
advert for the new label and for its first single. A licensing agreement
with the American company International Artists led to material by the
likes of The Red Crayola and The 13th Floor Elevators appearing on
Radar ('MW', 7th October 1978); they and other
records
originating in America were given a red label instead of the
usual green one (2).
A major development came
towards the end of 1979. 'Music Week' of
the 3rd of November broke the news that the 50:50 partnership between Radarscope and WEA appeared
to be floundering, and that 'comprehensive negotiations' about Radar's future were
under way. Just over a month later the issue of
the 22nd of December revealed that WEA had bought out Davis and Lauder and had
turned the licensed Radarscope company into a wholly-owned one. The plan was
for the artist roster to be retained and the style of the label continued, but the
label would be administered by Elektra / Asylum manager Stuart Hornall. In early
1980 Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe moved to Andrew Lauder's new 'F
Beat' label, leaving Yachts, Bram Tchaikovsy and The Inmates as Radar's mainstays. Later
in the year the first two also moved on to pastures new. After
The Inmates' 'Heartbeat' single (ADA-63) in April 1981 that band was transferred
to the WEA label and Radar was shelved. It did however make a reasonably
long comeback in 1995-97, as an independent.
Elvis Costello and his band proved to be Radar's most
successful artists, though Nick Lowe got a trio of singles into the Chart in
1978-79, including the very first release, 'I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass'
(ADA-1; 2/78). The Inmates also registered once. The label was
generally green with a white wavy line, though, as mentioned
above, some singles by American bands had red ones; the red wavy line
on the Nick Lowe single shown above seems to have been a one-off (3). The
change of the company's name from
Cladhurst to Radarscope in the Spring of 1978 was
reflected immediately
on the picture sleeves,
but only later in the perimeter text. The green labels kept the 'Cladhurst Ltd' reference
at 8 o'clock (1, 3) until February 1979, when,
with a couple of early exceptions, it was replaced by a 'Radarscope
Records' one (4) - presumably a large quantity of already-printed labels
was being used up. Several records had label designs which were specific to them. Manufacture was
through WEA: CBS were responsible for most WEA pressings until the middle of
1979, when the contract ran out and WEA were able to
make full use of their own pressing plants. Occasionally some pressings of popular singles were contracted out
- the single in the company sleeve, with the narrow push-out perforations, is an
RCA product. Just for once the discography below extends into the early
1980s.
Copyright 2006 Robert
Lyons.