American, owned by manager and producer Clarence Avant and based in Los Angeles. Sussex was launched in late 1966 as a production company ('Billboard', 12th Nov); it was developed into a record label in 1970, with distribution by Buddah in the States. It got off to a good start, scoring Top 50 hits in the Hot 100 with The Presidents, Dennis Coffey & The Detroit Guitar Band, Wadsworth Mansion and Gallery in its first two-and-a-half years, but the only artist to perform the feat more than once was Bill Withers, who managed it three times. 'BB' of the 16th of June 1973 revealed that Sussex was to split from Buddah on the 1st of July; it was recruiting its own sales and promotional staff and would be using independent distributors. The split seems to have been delayed, and it was not till the issue of the 18th of August that 'BB' could say that it had taken place - Buddah were given a sell-off period until the 2nd of February 1974 for material that had already been released.
As part of the drive for independence Sussex launched a new label, Clarama, in February 1974. According to 'BB' of the 16th it was intended to accommodate eleven or twelve new artists who had been signed recently. A new album from Bill Withers in the summer, after a gap of two years or so, was expected to provide another boost: 'BB' of the 1st of June observed that he had already provided Sussex with several hits. Some three months later Sussex, which had been known primarily as a Soul label until that point, had a crack at the Country market, with a Jack Rainwater single on Clarama. The single made no impact, however, and Clarama itself was shelved in the early autumn, after putting out just four singles. The final single on the Sussex label was issued in July 1975. 'BB' of the 27th of November 1976 reported that Avant had transferred his attentions to a new label, Tabu (q.v.). The new company was to have a limited number of staff, no more than five - Avant was quoted as saying that employing more people than that gave him headaches. Finally 'BB' of the 18th of December 1976 confirmed that Sussex was 'defunct'.
Quite early in its existence Sussex signed a worldwide distribution deal with A&M for countries outside the USA and Canada ('BB', 10th April 1971). This naturally covered Britain, and Sussex records began to appear here on the A&M label with a 'Sussex' logo added. The first four singles had a black logo in a box (1), while for the rest a red-black-and-white logo was used (2) - the white showed as yellow on promo copies (6). As was the case with all of A&M's records, pressing and distribution were by Pye until February 1974, at which point CBS took over those functions ('Music Week', 9th February). The discography below lists these singles before the actual Sussex-label ones.
The Sussex label as such (3) appeared over here in 1974, via B & C, after the company's agreement with A&M came to an end. It issued nine singles in an SXX-0 numbering series, before disappearing in mid 1975 when B&C hit terminal financial difficulties. As stated above, its American parent only survived it by a matter of months. Both pressing and distribution of these records were handled by EMI. Promo copies of several early singles had the 'A' side on both sides, which was the standard B&C practice at the time; they had a small black 'A' on the label (4). Promo copies of the final three singles were the same as the issues and had a large black 'A' on the appropriate side (5). Bill Withers provided Sussex with its only Chart hit here, reaching the No.18 spot during the A&M years with 'Lean On Me' b/w 'Better Off Dead' (AMS-7004; 6/72).
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.