The label of music publishers George Porter Music. After experiencing a degree of frustration in finding outlets for the products of the writers who were signed to his company George Porter set up his own label, Badger, in February 1975. It issued several singles in 1975-76, all of which appear to have sunk leaving little trace; I had to hunt for awhile before finding the examples pictured above. The company had a Canadian counterpart, perhaps through Bobby G. Griffith - he returned to his native Canada at some point after his first Badger single - but not everything that was issed in one country was issued in the other. The badger featured in the logo looks distinctly constipated at first glance, but closer inspection reveals that it is in fact wearing headphones. The first batch of Badger singles (1, 4) came out in April 1975 and were numbered in a BAD-000 series. According to 'Music Week' of the 24th of May they were being 'leased through' Revival (q.v.) and distribution was by Enterprise and (in Scotland) Clyde Factors. The same issue says that singles by Tandem and Mongrel were forthcoming, but in the event they seem not to have forthcome. 'Music Master' has these three singles numbered in the BAD-1000s, but as I've only ever seen them as 000s I suspect that that was a mistake.
In February 1976 Badger signed a licensing deal with Music World Scotland (see 'MWS') and came under that company's umbrella ('MW', 7th Feb). Changes of number, label design, manufacturer and distributor accompanied the move: the first two 1976 Badgers were numbered in the BAD-2000s, had brown labels, were pressed by Lyntone and distributed by Clyde Factors (2). Having the company based in London and its licenser in Glasgow led to problems; they were resolved by MWS taking Badger over and making it their Pop label. 'Music Week' (29th May 1976) stated that George Porter would continue to organize the A&R side of the label but that other producers would also be involved. The label design was tweaked to show the new ownership; records were now were pressed by Decca and distributed by Selecta (3). Sadly the new arrangement only lasted for around six months: MWS went into voluntary liquidation towards the end of February 1977 ('MW', 5th March) and Badger appears to have gone with it. Various kinds of music featured on Badger records, from the Soul of Rosetta Hightower to the Rock of Megan Davies by way of the Singer/Songwriter material of Steve Bogarde and Bobby G. Griffith. David Bailey had previously had an album and a couple of singles out on the Gold Star label (q.v.).
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.