Concert Record "Gramophone"

Biography - Concert Record "Gramophone"

Sweden

Concert Record "Gramophone" later became HMV.

Adapted from : SOME NOTES ON SCANDINAVIAN HMV by Björn Englund
(Originally published in Talking Machine Review No 2, February 1970 with corrections and additions in TMR 3)

In the archives of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation there is an 1898 Berliner zinc disc with a Swedish song, recorded in Washington. The 1900 Berliner stock list also reveals several Scandinavian recordings, but they were probably recorded in London or Berlin. The earliest known local recordings were made in 1903. These appeared in the 80000 black label series which was common for all the Scandinavian countries (it was subdivided, of course, like all other Gramophone series, i.e. 82000 for male vocal, 83000 for female vocal, etc.). A 280000 green label "popular series" was begun in 1910, and in 1915 there was a 580000 brown label "cheap series."

These discs were all pressed by Deutsche Grammophon in Hannover. This company was taken over by Polyphon Musikwerke in 1917, something which was to create much trouble. The Gramophone Company in Hayes naturally claimed it was the sole firm having the right to the "Gramophone" trade mark in Scandinavia, and all Scandinavian HMV discs issued between 1913 and 1939 were pressed at Hayes. By some oversight, however, the Gramophone trade mark had been registered in the Scandinavian countries not in the name of the Gramophone Company of Hayes, but in the name of Deutsche Grammophon (DG) of Berlin and Hannover. This company also tried, unsuccessfully, in 1919 and 1920 to claim its right to this trade mark in the Scandinavian countries. Finally, on March 30, 1922, a Swedish court expressly forbade the DG company to use the Gramophone trade mark. This mattered little to DG, who had started the Polyphon label instead in 1920, a label that continued the HMV numbering system! (See the Nationaldiskoteket Lauritz Melchior discography pp. 10-11 for an example of this).

A few pre-1915 Scandinavian H.M.V. recordings on the illegal Opera label (a Deutsche Grammophon product) from the early 1920's using the original H.M.V. catalogue numbers have been seen. Some Scandinavian H.M.V. issues were pressed in Riga [See Footnote]. They probably date from the 1915-16 period when the Hayes factory would have faced difficulties, owing to the war, in pressing and supplying all foreign issues.

To avoid confusion the Gramophone Company started their Scandinavian series all over again, but with a 7- prefix for the 10" records and a 2- prefix for the 12" records (thus 7-80000, 7-280000 and 2-0800000).

In fact, the Polyphon label only was used in the Scandinavian countries from 1920 to 1932 when it was replaced by the Polydor in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The Polyphon label was kept in Denmark where it exists today. Fortunately the recording ledgers for Danish Polyphon still exist and have been copied onto microfilm by the Nationaldiskoteket. The ledgers for the Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian recordings have apparently been lost long ago.

Since all discs were double-sided by this time, the use of the old system was unnecessarily complicated. In June, 1921, there were started four new letter-prefix series, as follows:
X green (later plum) label 10" Popular (First plum label issued in 1923).
Z green 12" Popular.
V black 10" Artistic.
M black 12" Artistic.

In 1922 the company started to release a cheap blue label with AL prefix. Most of the AL issues, however, were never pressed as such! Every month the local HMV agency circulated among record dealers a list of (presumably slow-selling) discs to be "re-labelled" with the cheaper label. The dealer then sent for the desired number of labels and pasted them on the records!

A minor reorganisation took place in 1931. The AL series was still a cheap series, but the other price classes were abandoned, and though many V- and M-issues were kept in the catalogue, they were re-pressed with a red label (still retaining their original issue numbers) but priced like the X and Z issues. The AL series was dropped in Sweden, where it had reached AL 1177. It continued in Denmark and Finland, where it reached at least AL 1412. Denmark even had a 12" blue series, running from AR 1 to AR 18. Norwegian issues had earlier been part of the common series, but now there was started a local series from AL 2000. These AL issues were priced like the X issues.

With the occupation of Denmark and Norway in May 1940, these countries no longer could have their records pressed at Hayes. Instead, they were pressed by The Carl Lindström firm in Berlin. Sweden also had difficulties keeping contact with the mother firm, so Swedish issues were pressed locally. While the records were still pressed at Hayes, the catalogue numbers had been assigned there with no specific "blocks" for any one country. This changed with World War II. The following table shows how the X series was split between Denmark and Sweden. (X 1-X 4999 and X 6000-X 6499, issued 1921-1940, had been common to all of Scandinavia.)
X 6500 - 6599 Sweden 1940-41
X 6600 - 6699 Denmark 1940-41
X 6700 - 6799 Sweden 1942-43
X 6800 - 6999 Denmark 1941-47
X 7000 - 7199 Sweden 1943-46
X 7200 - 7299 Denmark 1947-51
X 7300 - 7999 Sweden 1946-54
X 8000 - 8499 Denmark 1951-
X 8300 - 8699 Sweden 1954-67

The X series was later used for 45 rpm singles, and the highest 78 r.p.m. issue in the X series seems to be X8601 from 1956; higher numbers are 45 r.p.m. discs only. The discographical documentation of the more than 10,000 Scandinavian HMV issues is progressing. Mr. Carl L. Brian, Sweden, has catalogued most acoustic issues, and Nationaldiskoteket of Denmark is busy preparing lists of the X, Z, V, and M series, of which the last has already been published.

Footnote
The Gramophone Co. established a factory in Riga - then part of the Russian Empire - in 1902. In 1913 a much larger factory, capable of supplying all Russia was opened in Riga.
From the Fred Gaisberg autobiography (HMV chief record expert ):
In the Spring of 1915, I happened to be in St Petersburg when the order was given to evacuate the machinery from our plant and destroy the building. We searched St Petersburg and Moscow for a suitable location to which to transfer our large stock of thousands of copper matrices and our pressing plant.
....
Only in 1917 were we able to collect the scattered segments of our plant and set up in Aprilerka, outside Moscow, twenty or so presses - in fact, just in time to be taken over by the revolutionaries. To the best of my knowledge this factory is being operated even today [1943] by the U.S.S.R.

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