With “PROFIT” or “loss” all-important words, along with “bottom-line,” in the music business where chart success is the all important factor of survival, it is not surprising that many of the independent record companies spawned in the U.K. during the 1960s and early 1970s have long since gone under.
To this high mortality rate, add the fact that the established majors have all, at some time or other, tightened corporate belts, laid off staff, cut budgets and production just to keep afloat in a business which becomes tougher and more competitive each year.
Without a doubt the two most successful of the 1960s indies are Chrysalis and Island, both originally formed as “shoestring” operations, working out of one-room offices.
Since the early days, both companies have grown in size through careful management and a great deal of luck. Chrysalis, for instance, has grown so substantially that its Group of Companies has added acquisitions (Wessex Studios and AIR London) and has established itself as a major force in the U.S. record industry.
While Island Records has not been without its problems over the past couple of years, the company is still very much in business to propagate the independent philosophy.
Hardly a week goes by without some new label being introduced on the U.K. market. In many cases, they are gone inside a few months. The reason is simple: money, or the lack of it.
It is virtually impossible to track the number of labels which have been launched and subsequently failed. Many were launched with lavish parties, costly promotional campaigns, huge artist advances – and have then gone under in the first year of actual operation.
Distribution of product is always a major problem for the small label. It’s fine going into the studios and creating product at a relatively low cost, but not if there is no suitable distribution available.
EMI Records decided to split its U.K. record operation into Group Repertoire and Licensed Repertoire and this latter division, headed by Alan Kaupe as managing director, is solely responsible for acquiring labels under license.
“We get two or three approaches a week from labels wanting us to handle product, but we don’t actively seek new deals,” he says. “The advantages of the small indies is that they can use all their money on the creative aspects of the industry and then the labels we handle can depend on us for distribution.”
To this end, the Licensed Repertoire operation bears all stock costs and problems regarding distribution and in most cases handles advertising, press and promotion, usually a costly area in the selling of a record.
“We pay an annual advance against royalty payments to our licensed labels who can then get on with the business of finding and developing new talent,” says Kaupe.
An example of the help a major like EMI can give is that of the small Chiswick label. Towards the end of 1978, Chiswick, formed in 1975 by Ted Carroll, a former manager of Thin Lizzy, and fellow Irishman Roger Armstrong, signed a deal with EMI Licensed Repertoire division.
Chiswick currently has a small roster of artists including Rocky Sharpe and the Replays, who scored a U.K. hit with the Mike Vernon-produced “Rama Lama Ding Dong” single, the Bishops, Radio Stars, Whirlwind, Sniff & the Tears, Disguise and Dan Kelleher.
Kaupe reveals it was through EMI’s experience and contracts that Rocky Sharpe and the Replays appeared on BBC’s influential “Top Of The Pops” television show, thus picking up valuable sales and exposure and insuring a high chart position for the Chiswick label.
Chiswick started life with an EP by the Count Bishops (now just the Bishops). The band went into the then relatively unknown Pathway studios and laid down 12 tracks, four of which were issued as the “Speedball” EP, at an overall cost of $300.
“Having a drink one night at Dingwalls, I saw an act called the 101’ers and cut some sides with them. Judge Drummer later left the band and joined Clash and another member, Dan Kelleher, is still with Chiswick,” says Carroll.
During the early days, the Rock On shop financed the record label. After a spell with President, Chiswick then licensed its product to CBS through a deal with Anchor Records U.K. Carroll admits he had to have a deal with a major because “we didn’t have the muscle to cope with hits. At the end of the Anchor deal, we shopped around and came up with the current EMI deal which has obviously been very beneficial to us. “Now Chiswick has a good catalog of singles and albums – some 54 singles and 20 albums.
Chiswick has also built in the field of golden oldie re-issues, put out on the Ace label. The company now has the rights to the U.S. Ace catalog for the U.K. only, plus the extensive Starday catalog for the world outside the U.S. But this aspect of Chiswick activities does not fall under the EMI contract and Carroll negotiated a distribution deal with Pinnacle Records early this year.
Now he is constantly on the look-out for labels with catalogs from the 1950s and 1960s.
Carroll reports Chiswick turnover from September 1977 until the end of last year at around $1 million worth of records at U.K. dealer price. And his label now employs a full-time accountant, a promotion man, three people hired on a semi-independent basis handling press, and Trevor Churchill, a former manager at EMI. It was Churchill who registered Swift Records Ltd, which now trades as Chiswick.
Says Carroll: “He had a ready-made company and was ideal for our operation, having all the contacts. Our main advantages are that we are more in control of our product and can make our own decisions, as well as our own mistakes. The main disadvantage is that I don’t get paid a salary. All the money is spent on promotion and the signing of new talent.
Another small label fighting the establishment is Charly, set up late 1975 by a former EMI Records executive Joop Visser, with Frenchman Jean Luc Young. The label soon scored with a relatively obscure U.S. disk from the King catalog, “Jungle Rock” by Hank Mizell, and since then it has re-issued product from the Sun label, and launched an associate label Affinity, which has put out avant-garde jazz product recorded for the French Byg label by such names as Wes Montgomery, Archie Shepp and John Coltrane.
In recent months, Charly has started signing acts direct, and the roster includes Steppin’ Out, a jazz-rock group called National Health; new-wave band the Softies and the group Here and Now. It has a staff of 12 in the U.K. and pays a great deal of attention to promotion, especially in the servicing of discos and clubs throughout the U.K.
After a spell with President, Visser and Luc-Young turned to Pye for distribution and the partnership has proved highly successful.
Distribution remains one of the main problems facing the independents, though Paul Lynton had a ready-made network available to him when he joined as managing director of the Pinnacle Records’ operation in mid-1978. A former general manager of Hansa Records U.K., and partner with Paul Grade is his own production and
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