Pye Records
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pye Records | |
|---|---|
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| Parent company | Pye Ltd. |
| Founded | 1953 |
| Distributing label | ATV |
| Genre | Pop, Rock, MOR |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Pye Records is a British record label. In its first incarnation, Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956-69), Petula Clark (1957-71), The Searchers (1963-67), The Kinks (1964-71), and Brotherhood of Man (1975-79). The label changed its name in 1980 but was reactivated in 2006.
The Pye Company originally sold televisions and radios. It entered the record business when it bought Nixa Records in 1953. In 1955, the company acquired Polygon Records, a label that had been established by Petula Clark's father to control distribution of her recordings, and merged it with Nixa Records to form Pye Nixa Records. In 1959, the name was changed to Pye Records and ATV acquired 50% of the label. ATV bought the other half of the business in 1966. Two subsidiaries were created during the sixties, Pye Golden Guinea Records (for cut-price albums) and Piccadilly Records (for new pop acts). In 1970, it launched a less mainstream label for folk, jazz, blues and progressive acts, Dawn Records, the most successful Dawn act being Mungo Jerry.
When the rights to the name Pye expired in 1980, the label changed its name to PRT, which stood for Precision Records and Tapes. Its back catalogue was later acquired by Castle Communications.
In 1958, Pye International Records was started. The company licensed recordings from American and other foreign labels in the UK including Chess Records, A&M Records, Kama Sutra Records, Colpix Records, Buddah Records, 20th Century Records, and King Records. It also released recordings from British artist Labi Siffre which were produced outside the company.
The company entered the budget-priced record market in the 1960s, with first Golden Guinea and then Marble Arch reissuing older Pye material.
In July 2006, it was announced that Scottish alternative rock group Idlewild would sign to Pye Records, which was being reactivated by the music group Sanctuary for bands that were seen to be more indie and alternative than the 'heritage acts' that were signed to their main label.
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[edit] Pye in the U.S.
Starting with the "British Invasion" of 1964, Pye placed their artists in the U.S. mostly on labels that they distributed in the U.K.; The Searchers to Mercury Records and then Liberty Records (1 single each), and finally Kapp Records, The Kinks to Cameo Records and then to Reprise Records, David Bowie and Petula Clark to Warner Bros. Records, and Status Quo to Chess Records (which issued their records on their newly created Cadet Concept Records label).
In 1972, Bell Records setup a short lived Pye label, featuring Michel Pagliaro, a French-Canadian artist whose first English language album was issued on UK Pye (largely recorded in England), and Jackie McAuley, whose lone solo album was originally issued on UK Dawn.. The label only lasted for a very short time.
In 1974, Pye established a American version of its record label. The label was not a success, however, and closed its U.S. operations in 1976. The head of the U.S. division, Marvin Schlachter, then started Prelude Records, named after one of Pye's acts of the time, Prelude; its initial LP and 45 catalogue series were carried over from the ill-fated U.S. Pye label (with the catalogue prefix changed from PYE- to PRL-), and Prelude would have a string of disco and dance music hits into the early 1980s.
[edit] Artists on Pye Records
(including the U.S. labels that issued records by the artists during the time they were on Pye)
- The Bachelors
- Long John Baldry (issued in U.S. on Warner Bros. Records)
- Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen (issued in U.S. on Kapp Records)
- Acker Bilk
- Chris Barber's Jazzband
- David Bowie (1965–1966) (issued in U.S. on Warner Bros. Records)
- The Brook Brothers (1961-64)
- Brotherhood of Man (1975–1979)
- Max Bygraves made a successful series of singalong albums for Pye
- Petula Clark (1957–1971) - in addition to dozens of singles, her output for Pye included seventeen albums. (Issued in U.S. on Warner Bros. Records)
- Clem Curtis
- Joe Dolan
- Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969)
- Donovan (1965–1971) (issued in U.S. on Hickory Records and then Epic Records)
- Carl Douglas
- Episode Six (issued in U.S. on Elektra Records for 1 single only)
- The Flying Machine (1969)
- Emile Ford and the Checkmates
- The Foundations (issued in the U.S. on Uni Records)
- Brian Joseph Friel (issued in the U.S. on ATV Records)
- Benny Hill (1961–1965)
- The Honeycombs (1964–1966) (issued in the U.S. on Interphon Records and then Warner Bros. Records)
- Idlewild (2006)
- The Ivy League (1965–1966) (issued in the U.S. on Cameo Records)
- Tony Jackson and the Vibrations (1964–1966)
- Jimmy James
- Jimmy James & The Vagabonds
- The Kinks (1964–1971) (issued in the U.S. on Cameo Records and then Reprise Records)
- David MacBeth
- Man
- Gerald Masters (1977–1980)
- Mungo Jerry (1970–1974) (issued in the U.S. on Janus Records and then Bell Records)
- Maxine Nightingale
- Des O'Connor
- Lennie Peters (1966)
- The Real Thing (1976–1979)
- Joan Regan (1960–1961)
- The Remo Four
- The Searchers (1963–1967) (issued in the U.S. on Mercury Records, then Liberty Records and finally Kapp Records)
- Sandie Shaw (1964–1972) (issued in the U.S. on Reprise Records)
- Labi Siffre (1970–1973) (Pye International)
- Hurricane Smith (1976–1977)
- The Sorrows (1964–1966) (issued in the U.S. on Warner Bros. Records)
- Status Quo (1968–1971) (issued in the U.S. on Cadet Concept Records and then Janus Records)
- Tommy Steele
- Frankie Vaughan (1973–1978)
- Geno Washington
- Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band (issued in the U.S. on Kapp Records)
- Mark Wynter (1962-1968)
- Olivia Newton John Olivia 1972
