The second Safari label of the '70s was launched in early 1978 by John Craig (ex of the Purple and Oyster labels, q.v. both), Tony Edwards and Andreas Budde. Initially it had Pop leanings, but after Budde left there was a change of direction and the company embraced New Wave, signing such artists as Toyah Wilcox and Wayne County & the Electric Chairs. Wayne County's EP, 'Blatantly Offensive' lived up to its title, so much so that the staff at Pye, Safari's distributors at the time refused to handle it; a one-off distribution deal with Lightning was hastily arranged. From 1981 to 1983 a succession of Toyah Wilcox records took Safari into the Charts, but those successes and others in mainland Europe weren't enough to keep the company going, and it expired in 1985. In the beginning manufacture and distribution were by Pye. Spartan took over distribution in 1979, the SAFE-0 numbers and the label design remining unchanged. At least sixty singles were released by the company during its existence, some of which were given artist-specific prefixes - eg: TOY (Toyah) and WC (Wayne County). Safari now has a website, which can be found here. The discography below only covers the 1970s.
Copyright 2014 Robert Lyons.