Top Deck was a management / agency / publishing company, operating out of London. It was set up in 1975 by Peter Hippolyte - who was also known as 'Sir Washington' - to handle his family group and other acts. As a record label it seems to have been short-lived, issuing just three singles, all of them in 1977. Catalogue numbers were in a TD-000 numerical series. Two of those singles were by the Hep-O-Lytes / Hippolytes themselves; their singles both tend to appear in Reggae lists but the second is in fact in Soulful Pop territory. The group had been signed to EMI, Pye, CBS and Ember in the past, but while some tracks had been laid down no releases had been forthcoming, so perhaps a 'DIY' approach was the logical next step. Top Deck distributed the first record themselves. 'Music Week' of the 5th of November 1977 said that the third was being handled by independent distributor Relay Records.
Two label designs were used over the course of the three singles. That of the first two featured a 'record deck' logo (1), that of the third a cityscape (2). There were two pressings of 'Voodoo Magic' b/w 'Want Ads' by The Hep-O-Lytes (TD-001; 1977); both of them had a label in the same design as the first shown above, but one came in a much less vibrant yellow. The first two singles were manufactured by Orlake, the third by Damont. Googling reveals no trace of the 'Don't Make Promises' album which was 'forthcoming' according to the label shown in the second scan; there was however a German single, in 7" and 12" form, on Steyrer Disco records in 1980, 'Party People' b/w 'Baby Let Yourself Go' (SD-10.216). According to the 'Music Week' article several other artists were in the process of being signed to the agency: Earling Bentley (presumably the Earlene Bentley who had recorded for Surrey International, q.v., and who went on to record for a couple of other companies in the 1980s), Punk band Southern Riders, and female singers Zane Winn and 'Diane'. However, they don't seem to have made any records for Top Deck - in fact the latter three don't appear to have made any records at all.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.