A Reggae label, initially a member of the Bamboo Records stable. Tropical was started by Rupert Cunningham, one of the founders of the Ashanti label (q.v.). It issued more than fifty singles, in an AL-000 / AL-0000 series, between 1972 and 1976; though there was a break between 1972 and 1974. Two different label designs and several colour schemes were used. Early singles had palm-trees on the left-hand side and came in various colours, while ones from the second incarnation had a swirly appearance and kept their basic black-and-orange colouring throughout (7) - the label name turned white with AL-051 and its font altered slightly (8). In September 1975 Tropical was taken over by Jamaican production company Sound Tracs; the new owners signed a pressing and distribution deal with President and the label was run from that company's offices ('Music Week', 24th January 1976). The resulting wider availability may well have contributed to the Chart success of Paul Davidson's 'Midnight Rider' (AL-056) in late 1975. 'Marketed by President Records' appeared on the labels from March 1976 (9), which suggests that the scope of the deal may have been broadened. Demo copies from the President era have a small 'A' on the appropriate side, after the President fashion of the time (10). The takeover led to the appearance of two new labels: Tropical Sound Tracs and 2nd Tracs (q.v. both). Cunningham stayed on at Tropical initially but 'MW' of the 5th of June 1976 reported that Sound Tracs had signed a management agreement with Power Exchange (q.v.), which involved that company's managing directors Paul Robinson and Barry Authors acting as managers for Tropical's three labels; their duties were also to involve merchandising, marketing and promotion. Sadly, however, Sound Tracs seems to have run into trouble fairly soon after that, and the last release on any of the Tropical labels came in November 1976. See also 'Treble C'. Thanks to Robert Bowes for the illustrations of the palm-tree labels, and to Mark Griffiths for the ownership information.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.