RECORDS
Part of the Decca group, London issued records that were licensed from American sources. Licensing companies were credited on the label; occasionally their logos were featured as well. London started life in 1949, in 78rpm format. Numbering appears to have begun in a HL-8000 series, but often another letter was appended to the 'HL'; this third letter indicated the company from which the record had been leased - see below for details. During the decades of the label's existence the numbers moved on into the 10000s. London was basically a label for popular music, so its products tended to correspond with the current musical trends. As far as the 7" format is concerned its glory days were in the late '50s and early '60s, during which period it was the British outlet for such companies as Monument, Atlantic and Dot; when those labels set up their own British operations London's importance faded somewhat. It pressed on throughout the '70s, issuing a mixture of Soul, Rock and Pop, along with the occasional novelty item, but it rarely bothered the chart compilers. Initially labels were tri-centred and had the name at the top in a rather curly script. Up to c.1956 the printing was in gold, from.1956-1958 it was in silver. EPs had plum-coloured labels. The familiar silver-topped label was introduced in 1958 and lasted until 1967, when it was supplanted by a silver-on-black 'box' label. The 'box' design was used until the label's twilight, in 1979, when it was supplanted by a rather more adventurous design featuring a star. Singles licensed from Atlantic had their own 'Tombstone' design from 1960 until 1964, when it became a label in its own right. The 'Tombstone' was also used for singles from Monument from 1962-1964, and Dot from 1962-1965. Records in the 'Demand Performance' series of reissues, dating from.1969, had orange labels; 1970 saw a short-lived Reggae series, with red printing on yellow labels. The tri-centred labels made a brief comeback in 1978 on a couple of reissue EPs: one was gold-on-black, the other silver-on-black; the demos were white. At first, London demos were orange and were often single sided; they turned yellow in the early '60s, then white, then yellow again, then orange again; by the end of the '60s they had become yellow once more. Early '70s demos were merely issue labels with overprinting; from some point in 1972 they were coloured red, in common with several other Decca family labels. After the years covered by this site, London was revived as a contemporary Pop / Dance label, in which form it enjoyed considerable success. London Records Former Address: 1-3 Brixton Road, London S.W.9.
A fragmentary list of third prefix numbers (there may well be licensee companies which have been omitted):
A (early) = Cadence; A ('70s) = Prodigal; C = Savoy; D = Dot; E = Atco; F = Bryan, Atlantic; G = Liberty; H = Challenge; I = Warwick; J (early) = Josie (J in the '70s was used for the Reggae series); K = Atlantic; L (early) = Carlton, Guaranteed; L ('70s) = GNP Crescendo; M (early)= Chess, Argo; M ('70s) = Bang; N = Era, Dore; O (early) = Specialty, Dot; O ('70s) = Artists of America; P = Imperial; R = Kapp; S = Sun, Ace; T = United Artists; W = Jamie, Liberty; X = Big Top; Y = Specialty, Everest; Z (early) = RKO, Shout; Z (70s) = Bang, Magna Glide, Bomp (and others?). U covered a host of other labels, which presumably didn't merit their own letter or which were allocated a letter later on : Hi, Monogram, Carlton, etc. Thanks to Robert Lyons for the info.
