A rarely-encountered label, Zara Music was owned by Spartacus R., author, poet and founder of African Rock group Osibisa. What seems to be its sole mention in 'Music Week' came in the issue of the 25th of September 1976, which said that the company had moved from Kensington Church Street to 75 Victor Road, London NW10. According to Music Master it released four singles in 1975-77, three of which were by Spartacus himself, and there was also a 1976 album by Spartacus, 'Watching You Grow' (ZMRL-101). The company then appears to have turned its attention to 12" singles, issuing two of them in 1979. 'Music Master' lists a 7" version of 'Mother Sucker' by Spartacus with a catalogue number of ZMR-1 and a release date of June 1979, but there's no sign of any copies of it online; only the 12" (ZMRL-1). After that there seems to have been something of a gap, with the next records not coming out until 1983.
Unsurprisingly, given its owner's musical roots, the fare on offer on Zara Music seems to have had an African flavour. ZMRs 002 to 004 were marketed by President, with distribution was by Lugton and H. R. Taylor; it would seem likely that manufacture was handled by President too, though ZMR-004 appears to be a Saga pressing - 001 was an Orlake. There were two different label designs in the '70s, the first of which lasted for just the one single (1). Promo issues of the later type were marked with a small black 'A' at 4 o'clock, after the usual President family manner (3). The first record pictured above has no catalogue number on the label, but the matrix number on the run-off shows it to be ZMR-001.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.