RECORDS
Independent Irish label: One of Ireland's most prominent record labels, Release was founded by Mick Clerkin, Dermot Hegarty and Jimmy Magee. It put its first single out in 1968, and expired in the early '80s. The vast majority of its records were only released in the Republic, but in 1970-72 a number of them seem to have been pressed and released in Britain. These singles had a different label typeface, lacked the 'Made in the Republic of Ireland' which can usually be found on Release records, and occasionally showed variations from their Irish counterparts - the logo of Larry Cunningham's 'Mother, The Queen Of My Heart' (RL-534; 1970) was different, as were the publishing details on the 'B' side of that single and on both sides of Dermot Hegarty's 'Twenty One Years' (RL-533; 1970). A fair number of Release singles were issued on the mainland later in the decade; these all seem to have been imported, not made here although, as can be seen from the company sleeve, Release did have offices in England. The vast majority of those singles were handled by Irish music importers Shannon, who were at the same address as that given on the sleeve, but a few were handled by Spartan - which doesn't seem to have stocked imports generally - or by Northern Irish distributors Outlet. singles numbers used an RL-500 series, and the pressing of a few was by Pye.
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF RELEASE RL SERIES 1967-1974 CAN BE FOUND HERE
