A production company, working out of premises at 43 Huntsworth Mews, London NW1. Composer / producer / multi-instrumentalist Jeff Wayne appears to have been the driving force behind The Sound Department, with Tony Hertz also heavily involved. The company didn't issue any records as such, but its products were often made available to the public in the form of promotional records which were given away by non-record businesses. Sometimes they featured songs or music which had been used in commercials, as is the case with the two shown above - the single by The Us features a pre-stardom David Essex. Each had its own unique label, generally highlighting the product which was being advertized, but some of them show their common origin by the use of the letters 'SD' in the prefixes of their catalogue numbers. Perhaps unavoidably, given the ephemeral nature of such recordings, the 'discography' below is very sketchy. It contains records which seem to have been just credited to 'Jeff Wayne Music' rather than to The Sound Department and which have no obvious input by Tony Hertz. Dates for the company's operation are equally fuzzy: 'Late '60s and early '70s' is as much of a guess as I would care to make. Wayne went on to enjoy phenomenal success in both the Album and Singles Charts with his musical adaptation of 'The War Of The Worlds', on CBS (CBS-9600; 1978).
Copyright 2020 Robert Lyons.