SMR - 'Soundtrack Mobile Recordings' - was set up by trumpet player and teacher Harry Smith in the early '70s. It was based in Bristol and was a custom recording concern. Jules Smith is credited as engineer on several SMR albums, so it seems a reasonable bet that he was involved with the label. The few SMR records that I have seen listed were dated from 1973 to 1981. In the main they consisted of the usual kind of 'private pressing' fare: recordings by school choirs and orchestras, brass bands and religious / church organizations. Most of the ones that I have tracked down were albums, but fortunately for this site there was at least one 'maxi-single', 'Speedway' b/w 'The Motor Bike' and 'Wait And See' by Keeth (SMR-018; 1977), and an anonymous EP, 'Carols From St. Brandon's (SMR-01003; 1979), both of which are pictured above - thanks to Ade Macrow of the 45cat site for the use of the St. Brandons' scan here.
The company appears to have gone through several different numerical series for its records during the course of its existence, all of which seem to have been shared by albums, EPs and singles alike. They started out in the SMR-000s, became SMR-01000s in 1979, and changed again three times in fairly short order in the early '80s. As is the way with custom recording concerns, SMR's products have turned out to be fairly google-proof, but a trawl brought up the few that are shown in the discography below. As can be seen, there are more gaps than entries, so help with filling them would be welcome - people may well be knee-deep in SMR records in the Bristol area. The Keeth maxi-single was pressed by Decca. In the early '80s SMR made some recordings for a company called Auracle Records, but Harry Smith moved to St. Lucia in that decade, which may have spelled the end for SMR.
Copyright 2014 Robert Lyons.