According to an article in Music Week of the 11th of February 1978, commenting on its launch, Wanted Records was formed by Dave McAleer - who had previously been head of 20th Century Records' UK branch - and Craig Bagueley, and was an offshoot of the Music Farm publishing company. An advert in a subsequent issue of 'MW' (27th of May) gave the company's address as 72 Newman Street, London WC1. Wanted seems to have come and gone during 1978, managing just three singles in the process; a single-sided test pressing of a fourth exists (2), but it doesn't seen to have got past that stage. The Wanted record which sold best was a reissue of the single voted The World's Worst Record by listeners to the Kenny Everett Show, Jimmy Cross's, 'I Want My Baby Back' b/w 'Play The Other Side' (CULT 45-101; 3/78), but neither it nor the other two made any impression on the charts. The first Wanted single was pressed by Pye, while the next two were manufactured by Decca and distributed by Selecta; according to 'Music Master' the Jimmy Cross single was promoted by Rollercoaster (q.v.).
Unsurprisingly, one label design served throughout; however for some reason two different numerical series were used, CULT 45-000 and CULT 45-100. Despite its comparatively brief existence Wanted had a few records released abroad. 'Billboard' of the 18th of February 1978 observed that the company had signed a deal with Benelux Music Industries for the launch of the label in the Netherlands and Belgium. As a result of that deal both 'Crazy Paving' b/w 'Back Street Billy' by the Billy Karloff Band (CULT 45-001) and John Rossall's 'But I Do' b/w 'Loosen Up' (CULT 45-102) came out in the Netherlands, as WAN-2653 WS and WTD-2645 WS respectively. The Billy Karloff single also came out in Spain (on the Chapa Discos label) and Germany (on Jupiter). A Billy Karloff Band album was recorded by Wanted but it seems to have only come out in Spain and Germany, again on those two labels. Thanks to Robert Bowes for the scan of the company sleeve.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.