The second Spiral label to appear in the '70s. This Spiral made its debut as a production company early in 1976: 'Music Week' of the 10th of January revealed that it had been formed by Alan A. Freeman, formerly general manager of Spark Records, with songwriter and producer Harold Spiro. According to the article the company intended to concentrate on Pop, with a leaning towards MOR, and it was open to material from other production companies. No label was planned at that moment but one was reportedly at the back of the management's minds 'for when the time is right'. The right time came some ten months later. 'MW' of the 9th of October broke the news that Spiral Records had been formed by Freeman and Spiro with boss of President Records Ed Kassner, and that the trio had also formed an associated publishing company, First Music.
Spiral issued its first singles in November 1976, using an SPF-7000 numerical series, and lasted into 1978 without apparently doing anything worthy of reporting by 'MW'. In agreement with the aim stated in the first 'MW' article its products seem to have been fairly middle-of-the-road Pop. It had some famous names on its catalogue: its first release was by comedians Mike & Bernie Winters ('Mums And Dads'; SPF-7000); Arthur Lowe, of 'Dad's Army' fame, made two singles ('Makin' Whoopee', SPF-7001; and 'Sonny Boy', SPF-7013), and '60s hitmaker Kenny Ball provided a couple more, including the theme tune to the popular BBC TV programme 'Saturday Night At The Mill' (SPF-7003; 3/77). Despite their high recognition factor neither these nor any other Spiral records ever troubled the Chart compilers. Freeman and Spiro continued to produce singles together after the demise of Spiral, but they leased them to other companies.
As was the case with most President family labels Spiral's records were distributed by that company and by members of the BIRD group, including Lugton and H. R. Taylor. The same label design was used throughout; to be pedantic, it features concentric circles rather than a spiral, but there you go. Promotional copies were marked with a small black 'A', usually at 4 o'clock (2) or 2 o'clock (3), after the President fashion of the time. It seems likely that President would have handled manufacture (via its British Homophone arm) as well as distribution, but the first single shown above appears to have been pressed by Saga (if anybody in the entire world gives so much as a cat's burp).
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.