The vehicle for Jonathan King's second attempt to crack the Singles market by way of the medium of flexi-discs. I don't generally include flexi-discs on this site, as the vast majority of them were either given away with products or used for advertising purposes, but the two that King produced were were intended for sale just like any ordinary commercial disc and are thus worthy of a place here. His first flexi, 'Lick A Smurp For Christmas' by Father Abraphart & The Smurps (Petrol Records, GAS-1) had actually managed to get into the Top 75 for a week shortly before Christmas 1978, and had been transferred to more conventional vinyl as Magnet MAG-139 for the rest of its short Chart run. That flexi had been a boring black colour and had cost a mere 10p per copy. Silver Discs, however, were a bright shiny silver (which explains the unsatisfactory picture) and cost a comparatively expensive 33p - still only a third of the average price for a vinyl single at the time. The first release on the label was a single-sided reissue of Nemo's 'The Sun Has Got His Hat On' (SIL-007), which came out in June 1979. 'Music Week' of the 16th of June quoted King as saying that the records were "aimed at the pocket money market, which cannot afford 99p for a single, or [at people] who want a novelty / Punk single but don't want to keep it for long." The record was manufactured by Sound For Industry (q.v.), and distribution was by Selecta, Lightning, Wynd Up, Terry Blood, and Solomon & Peres. Sadly the first Silver single turned out to be also the last. "Major record companies are resisting this concept of cheaper singles," claimed the text on the label, and it seems that buyers were equally resistant to it. For other flexis see Petrol, Wake Up and Charmers.
Copyright 2016 Robert Lyons.