American. Sire started life in 1968, and was run by Seymour Stein. One if its main functions seems to have been introducing British and European rock talent to the States: in the '70s it put out records by the likes of Barclay James Harvest, Climax Chicago, Stackridge, Renaissance and Focus, while in the following decade the Pretenders, Echo & the Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, the Smiths, the Cure, and many others, had LPs out on Sire in the USA. In the days of Punk Rock, however, the tide flowed in this direction, most notably with the Ramones and Talking Heads. As far as the Sire label in Britain is concerned, some pre-'70s material was licensed to Decca (the Deviants' 'Ptoof' LP); the actual Sire label took its bow in 1976, through Phonogram, in a 6078-600 series. Labels were injection moulded; the first few singles were coloured yellow-green (1), the remainder were goldish (2). In 1978 it moved to WEA for marketing and distribution, gaining a paper label (3) a company sleeve (6) and a new catalogue series, SIR-4000, in the process. Manufacture also appears to have been through WEA, either through its agreement with CBS or, from early 1979, via its own facilities, which included the Damont plant by that time. Some popular singles appear to have been pressed first by CBS then by WEA. Occasionally singles were issued with the American numbering, SRE-1000, while a short SIR-6000 series seems to have been reserved for singles by The Sports. The design of the paper label remained basically unchanged, but there was one minor variation: from the start of 1979 singles can be found with a smaller logo and with a hollow 'A' on the appropriate side (4). Many singles can be found with both kinds of label; some have a large logo on one side and a small one on the other. Promotional copies were marked in a way that was distinctive to WEA family labels (5). Sire's success continued through the '80s and into the '90s, particularly with Madonna. The discography only covers the 1970s.
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Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.