Based in Wembley, Spartan started out in 1978 as a record distributor. Billboard of the 15th of July of that year says that it was owned by Pran Gohil, Tom McDonnell and David Thomas, and that it was intended to offer a nationwide service to independents. It soon started putting out singles on its own label, using a SPAR-0 numerical series; there seems to have been just the one issue in the '70s, the Robert Broberg single 'I Wanna Be A Machine' b/w 'I Love Things' (SPAR-1) which came out in June 1979. In the '80s the company had another stab at the market; this time the prefix was changed to SP, apparently starting at SP-5, which was issued in June 1983. Numbers reached SP-39 in 1985. Spartan was still issuing records in 1989. It used a variety of different labels during the period of its existence. The Robert Broberg single was licensed from Hkftatk of Sweden and was pressed in clear vinyl.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.