JAY-LEE

   

Something of a puzzle.  If the catalogue number of Exodus's 'We Are Exodus' LP - JL-11 - is anything to go by, Jay-Lee managed at least eleven issues, but I have only managed to track down half a dozen of them.  The date of operations was from 1977 to at least 79.  Presumably Jay-Lee was a small custom recording concern; the fact that JL-5 was a song in praise of Wrexham F.C. suggests that it may have been based in or around Wrexham, but EJL-10 and JL-11 were both recorded at the Music Bank Studios, in Manchester, so there may instead be a link between the studio and the label.  It would appear that numbering was in a JL-0 series for singles and albums alike, EPs having a preliminary 'E'.  The labels came in various colours, as the scans show - JL-5 was presumably re-pressed, as it can be found with two different types of label (3, 4).  Manufacture was initially by Linguaphone; Decca had taken over by the time the final two records came out - the Deccas have a different look to them and have 'Made in England' above the logo (5).  Thanks to Robert Bowes for the second scan.

Copyright 2007 Robert Lyons.