YARMOUTH RECORDING STUDIOS

 

The label of the Yarmouth Recording Studios, surprisingly enough.  The studios were run by Roger Foley.  According to the sleeve of Excalibur's 'Sceptre' LP (YRS ST-01; 1973) they were located in Scratby.  Googling dredges up only five 7" Yarmouth records: 'For The Good Times' b/w 'Sing Me Back Home' (YRS-SR-104) and 'Spanish Eyes' b/w 'Crystal Chandelier' (YRS-SR-105), both by Country singer Don Woods; Bob Lee's versions of 'You'll Never Walk Alone', 'If' and 'Sorrento' (YRS-SR-113); The Berrys' rendering of 'Apache' b/w 'To Love Somebody' (YRS-SR-115); and David Valentine's 'Remember The Letter' b/w 'The Wedding' (YRS-116).  The latter two had a mid-blue label (2).  Sadly none of them had dates on them; but YRS-122, which hadn't a label name but can be found here under 'Emily', can with some confidence be dated to 1975, so that at least provides some kind of context for the rest.  Other singles in the YRS-100 series came out on the Fern, Location Sound and Notch labels, and others with a YRS prefix can be found on Viking, Vole and Coastal Music Studios (q.v. all).  The Viking has been dated to early 1976, and the Coastal Music Studios is from 1973, but sadly neither are from the main series.  There was also an LP by Niklestoodley, 'Across The Water', which came out in 1975 and was numbered YRS-TS-101.  According to 'Studio Sound' magazine of March 1974, Yarmouth Recording Studios had its own facilities for pressing records, not just for cutting masters: the Anglia Pressing Co.  Roger has been kind enough to confirm this, as follows -
I started by cutting discs on an old mono cutting lathe bought from Mr. B.E. Sills - the owner of Clementswood Recordings of Ilford, Essex. I cut the demos for City Music and I ran a tape to disc service by advertising in Melody Maker and Studio Sound.  After progressing to a stereo Neumann cutting lathe I opened Yarmouth Recording Studios and acquired a 7" pressing plant, did a lot of work for other studios in the U.K. when runs up to 1000 were required.  The studios I did work for are included in your website such as Box, Canon, Nest and Hollick & Taylor, as well as several groups.  Closed plant down when it became too dear to run.  I also recorded in the studio the 1972 single for Norwich City FC, 'The Canaries'  and 'Norwich City Calypso' - my name is on the sleeve.
An example of an Anglian 'Box' pressing can be found on the Box page.  Needless to say, additions to the horribly sparse discography below would be very welcome.  See also Haig, Lace, Emmex and Stingrab for labels which appear to have had pressings done by Anglia / Yarmouth.  Thanks to Roger Foley for the information and to Nicholas Hough for the first picture.






Copyright 2014 Robert Lyons.