Arny's Shack was the record label of the recording studio of the same name. Situated in Poole, Dorset, the studio started life in 1973, under the ownership of Tony Arnold; it has hosted many famous names over the years, including King Crimson and Andy Summers, and is still going strong today. The label, which was an outlet for custom recordings, seems to have had a shorter life: it issued its first record in 1975 and its thirty-sixth in 1980. The highest catalogue number I have found so far, AS-058, dates from 1984. LPs and singles generally shared the same AS-000 numbering, though an album by First Impressions and an EP by Jerry Rainbow were both numbered 005; the album was distinguished by its ASLP prefix. Googling reveals no other ASLPs, so presumably the split was short-lived. There were no dates on the labels for a while, but sometimes LPs and EPs came with picture sleeves which mention years. The majority of Arny's Shack products appear to have been albums, but there were a fair number of 7" EPs. The records from the '70s that I have managed to trace are listed below; for the sake of interest I have included albums, which are in brackets. They include a couple by Freddie & The Dreamers, who by that stage had a much-changed line up and were past their hit-making days. One label design served throughout that period, but the position of the credits changed, as can be seen - thanks to John Timmis for the first scan. Pressing was often done by Pye, a fact which was sometimes mentioned on the labels (2).
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.