A pioneer in the field of budget-price records. Saga started out in the late '50s as a division of Leonard Cassini's 'Saga Films'. Cassini had intended to release a series of films about Classical composers but he failed to find the necessary financial backing; when Wilfred A. Banks took Saga over he began releasing the music which had been recorded for the films, and other original recordings of Classical music, at a budget price. The venture was a success, and it led to several of the major labels starting their own cut-price Classical labels. Saga soon branched out, and began releasing Folk, Jazz and Pop records; one important offshoot was Joe Meek's legendary 'Triumph' label. In 1964 Saga was sold to Marcel Rodd, and it became part of his Associated / Allied / Dandy Records group. Most of Saga's output consisted of albums - a mixture of licensed and original material - but it made several forays into the singles / EPs market. The late '50s and early '60s saw singles being numbered in a couple of different series, 45-2900 and later SS-500. There were several series for EPs, including EFID-1000, ESAG-7000, STP-1000 AND STP-7000. Then in 1968 an OPP-0 series of singles was launched, with a different label design; many of its records appear to have been issued only in Germany. Finally, March 1972 saw the introduction of a short-lived GA-1100 series (4) which came in a company sleeve (6) - thanks to Robert Bowes for that scan. Saga broadened its musical spectrum in 1975 when it took over the Trojan, B&C and Mooncrest labels; it had made an earlier - brief - foray into the Reggae market with its 'Saga Big Chief' label (q.v.). Allied Records, part of the Saga group, had its own pressing plant, which was active in the '60s and 70s.
Copyright 2008 Robert Lyons.