A label owned by prominent Soul music dealer Garry J. Cope, and a stablemate to his 'Hit And Run' records (q.v.). Both labels were divisions of Black Grape, which operated out of premises in Bond Street, Wakefield. As was the case with the Hit And Run, Special Agent records featured Soul tracks licensed from sources in the USA. As can be seen by close inspection of the scan shown above, Special Agent's first release, 'Overflowing (For You) by Jewell Bass (SPY-9001), had a date of 1976 on the label, but the matrix number, LYN-7176/77, indicates a Lyntone product from sometime around the middle of 1979 - presumably the '1976' refers to the year in which the track was issued in the USA. Numbering was in a SPY-9000 series. The highest number that I have traced is 9018, which suggests that there should be a lot more Special Agents around than those I have managed to list in the discography below. Thanks to Sam Mauger for bringing the label to my attention.
Copyright 2012 Robert Lyons.