RECORDS
Pye was formed in 1955 as a result of the amalgamation of Alan Freeman's 'Polygon' company and Hilton Nixon's Nixa Records. Electrical distributors Pye bought shares in both companies, and a reshuffle followed, during which the Polygon label disappeared and Pye Nixa was born. As well as the standard purple label there was a red one for Classical EPs. The 'Nixa' part of the name was dropped in 1959. As well as signing talent from these islands, Pye looked abroad: it set up the Pye International label in 1958, to handle products licensed from independent American companies such as Vanguard and A&M. Two other American labels, Warner Brothers and Reprise, came on board, in 1960 and 1963 respectively; these appeared on their own labels. During the Trad Jazz boom of the late '50s and early '60s the company started a black-labelled 'Jazz Today' series, with catalogue numbers in a 7NJ-2000 block; this evolved into the Pye Jazz label proper, which lasted into the mid '60s. There was also a green-labelled series for EPs of Classical music, which was numbered in the CEM-36000s, a Strict Tempo series, which shared catalogue numbers with the Popular releases, and an eight-shilling 'Pieces Of Eight' EP series, which was numbered in the PEP-100s and seems to have been dedicated to light Classics. Budget LP label Golden Guinea also had a 7" EP offshoot.parent company Pye had sold half of its shares in Pye Records to ATV in 1959; it sold the remainder to them in 1966,but retained the distribution network. In the '70s a certain amount of diversification took place: the company started its own Progressive label, Dawn, and a label for Northern Soul, Pye Disco Demand. Many other labels came under the Pye umbrella - there was actually a company sleeve with a picture of an umbrella on it , for Pye-related releases. 1976 was a good year on the singles front,In 1978, however, the Pye International label closed down. The Pye label as such bit the dust three years later, when owners ATV renamed it PRT. PRT almost made it to the end of the '80s, The company's back-catalogue was sold to Castle Communications.Pye used four different labels in the 1960s: the late '50s plum one lasted until.1963 before being replaced, very briefly, by a plain white one, which quickly turned pink. This was followed by the famous pink-and-black design and then, in 1967, a rather plain powder-blue one without the round Pye logo. The logo returned when the old pink design was readopted in 1968, but the powder-blue colour remained. The blue label lasted until 1973, when it was replaced by a pink-fading-into-purple design, on some copies of the last blue-and-black-labelled single the blue was turquoise. Initially the writing on the new pink-and-purple labels was in silver, but this was eventually altered to black, presumably for the sake of legibility. This lasted until 1979, when a white-fading-into-black label was adopted. Around 1976 some singles appeared with injection-moulded labels, these were made by Polygram - at times when pressing facilities were overstretched it was usual for companies to have pressings done by other firms. Until 1966 demo singles on Pye and its associated labels, such as Piccadilly, Warner Brothers and Reprise, had rather plain white labels and small artist credits, from 1967 they were coloured yellow. In the early '70s promos were given the same layout as the standard labels but kept their yellow colouring, they were also given a special sleeve of their own. From 1974 standard issue labels were used, but with a large black 'A' and the words 'NOT FOR SALE' and 'PROMOTION COPY' overprinted on them. Pye was always an eager recycler of its old favourites; during the second blue-label era a short-lived 'Mini Monster' EP series was introduced, with numbers in a PMM-100 block. The design of the company sleeves changed as the labels changed. Numbering for the main Pye label started at 7N-15001 back in the Pye Nixa days; after 15999 it jumped to 17000 (1966); another leap followed in 1970, from 17999 to 45000. The 45000s became 46000s in the fullness of time; in 1979, around the 46250 mark, the old 7N series was replaced by a simplified, 7P-100, one. Several Mungo Jerry singles appeared in 1970-71 with 7N-2500 catalogue numbers; these were 45 rpm issues of tracks which appeared on 33 1/3 rpm Dawn label EPs, and they may have been intended primarily for use in jukeboxes.
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PYE 15000 SERIES 1955-1965 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PYE 17000 SERIES 1965-1970 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PYE NJE 1000 SERIES 1955-1962 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PYE 7NJ 2000 SERIES 1967-1970 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PYE NEP 24000 SERIES 1967-1970 CAN BE FOUND HERE
