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PhilMH ● 17th Dec 2014
| | Oops, my bad, should have checked in the UK London page before I posted before! I wonder what the reason for switching from blue to black actually was? Possibly an intent to have different colours for different territories, as the first Australian Londons from 1950 were maroon (a few shades of them, going by the Australian London page here, just as there seem to be different shades of blue for the US labels, and the US r&b and country series were green). Anyway, I'm still sure about the absence of publishers on the US releases. (I think). |
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soultwinz SUBS 17th Dec 2014
| | All very strange indeed, sure there was/is a plausable explanation to it all...another twist to this is i have both L 500 Al Morgan and L 501 Jack Teter on BLUE with publishing credits and made in England, tho it does look like a slightly deeper Blue than the Sam Browne scan as above, but definately not black, The first Black one i have is L 512 Jerry Murad. |
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PhilMH ● 17th Dec 2014
| | Also::
The London label wasn't launched in the UK until 1949, with the first number being L 500, Al Morgan's "Jealous Heart" in November (though the first one actually released was L. 501, The Jack Jeter Trio's "Johnson Rag" in October), so anything before October 1949 with a number lower than 500 is not a UK release.
And:
Any UK or European (and the occasional southern African!) artist on London would have to have been released in the Americas, Japan, The Philippines, and possibly other Far Eastern countries, all places where British Decca didn't own the Decca name after WW2. Decca did export to Europe, Africa and Asia, but they could use the Decca label for the aforesaid artists. They did also export London (-American) releases later, but I don't know whether or not they exported any pre-HL series Londons to non-American destinations. |
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PhilMH ● 17th Dec 2014
| | A couple of other distinguishing features I've noticed about the Londons: the UK releases had black labels and publishers logos, whilst the North American ones had blue labels and no publishing info. I'm puzzled about how it all worked as well - I know that Decca had a second factory close to Southampton Docks in southern England (the main factory being at New Malden in Surrey, about nine miles south of central London), and apparently this is where most, if not all, of these pressings emanated from, but whether they were initially all pressed there as a matter of course, or (maybe later) used to supplement US pressings in the event of a big hit, I'm not sure. soultwinz's comment suggests that the former theory might apply here - this was only a few months after the company's US launch, after all - and maybe there were no US pressings made. |
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Jock_Girl 16th Dec 2014
| | London is a problem child. It is safe to say that any London release from the era that says Made in England and does not have an "L." (letter L and a dot) is USA/ Canada and not a UK market product. If you look through the London listings you will see the same record as 'Made in England', 'Made in USA' and 'Made in Canada'. How it all worked is unclear.
I think some US pressings were done by RCA in Cannonsburg in the US state of Pennsylvania, and the Canadian ones were done by Compo. |
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PhilMH ● 16th Dec 2014
| | Hi soultwinz, this is a US release that was made in England, as were many US London releases going right up to the 1960's (some pressings of Rolling Stones albums) and I think beyond (classical albums). |
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soultwinz SUBS 16th Dec 2014
| | i have this on UK Decca, is this a US copy or a Brit export copy...wudda been a bigger hit Stateside if it were more available |
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doberman 14th Jan 2013
| | Sam Browne formerly with the Bert Ambrose Orchestra. 'Tree in the Meadow' reched No. 24 on the Billboatd DJ chart in Sept. 1948. Released in GB on Decca F.8830 in Jan.1948. |
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