A slightly odd one. Southern Sound appears to have been an enthusiast's label, run by somebody who liked the tracks enough to license them and make them available to like-minded people. That 'somebody' was Terry Waghorne, and his company operated out of premises in Grafton Road, London. It issued at least five singles during the years 1972-74, most of which seem to have been Rockabilly; though the Danny James record shown above, 'Your Gravy Train' (BT-100; 1972) might very loosely be described as 'Swamp R & B'. Several different label designs and two sets of catalogue numbers - BT-100 and SSR-500 - were used. Pressing of the Danny James record was by C. H. Rumble, of 15, Bedford Row, London W1; they were a firm which patented a new process for pressing the labels on to records, one which never really caught on. The matrix number of the Narvel Felts singles shown above suggests that they were at least initially made through custom recording firm John Hassell Recordings (q.v.). There were also a couple of albums, by Hank C. Burnette and the Dave Lee Sound. A May 1974 issue of 'Billboard' magazine revealed that Southern Sound had signed a contract with Sea Cruise Productions of St. Louis, USA, to release its product here on the Sea Cruise label (q.v.), but little seems to have come of it and the company appears not to have issued any records after 1974. Thanks to Neil Thompson for bringing the label to my attention, and to Tapio Väisänen for supplying discographical information and the scans of the Narvel Felts singles.
Copyright 2008 Robert Lyons.