Good Earth was the record label of producer Tony Visconti's Good Earth studio and production company. News of the formation of the production company was broken by 'Music Week' of the 30th of September 1972, which stated that it had signed an exclusive deal with EMI and that its products were to be issued on the Regal Zonophone label. Mary Hopkin's 'Mary Had A Baby' b/w 'Cherry Tree Carol' (RZ-3070; 11/72) was the first single to be released under the deal; records by Flamenco, the Sarstedt Brothers, Gas Works, Billy Cadman and Tony Visconti himself followed, the final one being issued in August 1974. There was a credit to 'Good Earth Productions' on the labels, but no logo.
Visconti continued to produce records throughout 1975, working with Sparks, Marc Bolan and David Bowie, but the next that was heard of his production company came towards the end of that year when 'MW' of the 6th of December reported that RCA had signed a licensing deal with him, and that as a result his records would come out on an actual Good Earth label. The new label got off to a decent start early the following year, registering minor hits with its first two releases: The Surprise Sisters' 'La Booga Rooga' b/w 'Seashore' (GD-1, 2/76) and 'If You Love Me' b/w 'Tell Me Now' by Mary Hopkin (GD-2; 2/76) both got into the Top 40. The Christmas Day issue of 'MW' for 1976 listed Good Earth's interests as being an agency, a production company, a studio and a record company, and said that it intended to expand its activities in 1977. It planned to establish a 'solid' identity for its label, and Tony Hall had been recruited to join John Myers in charge of the record-issuing side of things, Myers being joint head with Tony Visconti.
As 1976 had done, 1977 started well for the company: the RAH Band gave it its first Top 10 placing with 'The Crunch (Parts 1 & 2)' (GD-7; 1/77). Sadly, however, that was to be the lot as far as chart successes were concerned, and hard times were not far away. 'Billboard' magazine of the 9th of April 1977 reported that the Good Earth agency offices had closed and the acts which it had managed had moved elsewhere; on the record label front, what turned out to be the final Good Earth single came out a couple of months later. Later in the year 'MW' of the 10th of September stated that Good Earth had recently moved from RCA to Phonogram; it added that Hall had left and had formed his own label, Ebony (q.v.). It may perhaps be that the injection moulded labels of 'The Crunch' (2) date from the Phonogram period, as it could have been re-pressed due to continuing demand, but it is more likely that they are custom pressings, made at a time when the single was in the Charts and RCA's own presses were either unavailable or fully occupied - several other RCA singles from 1977 can be found in injection moulded form. There doesn't appear to have been any new product issued on Good Earth after the move, and it may well be that it was the production company rather than the label which linked up with Phonogram - a Good Earth Productions LP and single by Tony Visconti came out on Mercury in October 1977. The following year 'MW' of the 28th of October 1978 confirmed that Good Earth had 'demised', and that Visconti was concentrating on his studio and on record production.
Good Earth's singles were numbered in a GD-0 series, and, with the exception of the copies of 'The Crunch' referred to above, were manufactured, marketed and distributed by RCA. One label design - an eye-catching one - served throughout (1); it looked better without dinking perforations. Demo copies were marked after the RCA fashion of the time, with a medium-sized hollow 'A' and the appropriate wording (3), but at least one set had stickers applied to issue labels (4), which happened every now and again with RCA releases. There was no dedicated company sleeve, but singles tended to be sent out in a black sleeve which RCA used for its 'Red Seal' (q.v.) releases.
There was a regrettable postscript to the Good Earth story: 'Billboard' of the 4th of March 1978 reported that the Sunday Times had listed 'The Crunch' as one of several singles which it claimed had been 'hyped' into the charts. The accusation was that in conjunction with another company, 'Marketforce', a company called Campus General Trading had posted copies of the records to chart survey shops and had bought them back, using 'a network of housewives and students', thus boosting the reported sales of the records and either gaining a Chart placing or improving one. Apparently RCA became aware of the process, and disapproved of it strongly. Billboard carried a quote from an RCA spokesman which is worth repeating here: "We became concerned and disturbed about certain promotional methods which RCA suspected Good Earth was using, and expressed that concern in strong terms. Later the licensing deal was terminated by agreement. We have never done business with any company concerned with buying back records or similar practices designed to give unjustified entry of any RCA product." At the time of the Billboard report the matter was in the hands of the British Phonographic Industry, the UK music business's watchdog. There doesn't seem to be any record of the outcome, online.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.