The label of Impulse Studios, Wallsend. Under studio manager David Wood, Wudwink made records throughout the '70s and into the '80s. It was primarily a custom recording label; what appears to have been its only mention in 'Music Week' came in the issue of the 29th of May 1976, which referred to Impulse Studios' "Be Your Own Record Company" project. According to the feature Impulse offered a complete recording / mastering / processing / pressing / artwork deal; in addition photographs could be supplied and distribution handled. The service was described as 'Excellent for groups and artists working the Club / Cabaret scene in the North East', and it was claimed that a group named 'This, That And The Other' had achieved sales figures that a few major groups might envy. As might be expected, then, most of Wudwink's products are typical Cabaret / Club fare. It does however have a claim to fame in that it issued two of the first records to feature Sting, in his pre-Police days. One was a single, 'Whispering Voices', by Last Exit (WUD-01; 1975); the other was an album by the Newcastle Big Band (IS/NBB/106; 1972).
Despite the evidence of the Last Exit single, Impulse's seven-inch records generally appear to have been issued in an IS/xxx/1000 numerical series, where xxx, were either the initials of the artist ('Holy City', by the Vince Clayton Trio, was numbered IS/VCT/1051, and the self-titled EP by This That And The Other was numbered IS/TT/1008) or the first few letters of the artist's name. An EP by Cassie Collins, which has an IS/LC prefix, would seem to be either an exception or a misprint. This unusual practice extended to the albums, as can be seen from the Newcastle Big Band LP referred to above. Initially the prefix appears to have been reversed, with the 'IS' part coming second, but by the time of IS/BB/1003 what proved to be the standard form had been adopted. Other examples of Impulse Studios numbers can be found on the Rigid, Magpie, Beverley, Fleet, Our Own, and Angelic Upstarts labels (q.v. all). The label was usually black-on-white but the printing can be found in other colours, such as green or blue. Up to and including IS/G-1009 the words 'Studio Label' appeared under the 'Wudwink', as can be seen from the first scan. The Impulse Studios / Wudwink 7" records that I've managed to track down are listed below: any gap-filling information would be welcome. Thanks to Christophe of Inoxydable Records, Paul Lynch, Stephen Small and Paul Thompson for filling various gaps.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.