45worlds Forum - View Single Post - Tape media inlay sheets, Et cetera, and the printers involved......

Latest Posts » Tape Media » View Topic

View Single Post

Topic: Tape media inlay sheets, Et cetera, and the printers involved......

25th Jun 2014, 1:27 PM
	BiggieTembo Member since Mar 2014 101 Points	OK YankeeDisc, I think I've kind of ½-cracked the EMI Data Packaging Corp vs. Delga Press conundrum: We know that SoundHog's EMI cassettes fansite states that EMI used Data Packaging Corp, and that their logo or ID is DP. I checked on the great Pink Floyd Archives site, and it too says that G&L, E J Day and Data Packaging Corp printed cassettes for EMI. Some crafty internet searching resulted in the following: In Billboard's 7th November 1970 issue, page C29, there's an advert for Hellermann Data Packaging Ltd, which mentions that Data Packaging Corporation is a US company, which has now opened together with electronics company Hellermann, at a new premises in Crawley, Sussex. The advert shows tapes and 8-tracks (but not mentioning any printing of inlays). Billboard's 1st August 1970 issue, page 57, carries the same advert, and these adverts crop up in at least 5 occasions duting 1970 - so by this, we can assume that from a date of not earlier than 1970 and onwards, Data Packaging Corp were making cassettes for EMI. The company address was Gatwick Road, Crawley, Sussex, and there is mention of the company being jointly owned by Bowthorpe Holdings Ltd (Hellermann's original electrical fittings company) and Data Packaging Corporation USA. Interestingly, Data Packaging's logo, a sort of art-deco lower-case “d” and “p” in a circle, shows itself on many of the cassette shells on the Pink Floyd Archives cassette shell scans - see an early 1972-issue “Piper” here, and an early “Ummagumma” here. Other examples of Data Packaging's logo on cassette shells include white shell/green label Beatles tapes such as Let It Be and A Collection Of Beatles Oldies. According to the great Beatles UK Cassettes website, these shell types came with the "white" inlays from 1970-1971 Additionally, in the historical research spirit of not trusting one single source; a look on HellermannTyton's company website, in their history section tells us that in 1972, “...Hellermann Data Packaging [was] formed at Crawley, moulding and assembling cassettes...” Mmm... 1972 aye!- The Billboard adverts date from 2 years earlier...!!! Well I guess it goes to show that the documentation guys at HellermannTyton are not the Sherlock Holmes's we expect them to be... :-s So that pretty much clears up the identity of who Data Packaging Corporation actually are/were (Hellermann Data Packaging). But curiously, I can't find any concrete proof that they printed the blimmin' inlays... only that they made the snap-fix shells! The Billboard advert only mentions tape manufacturing, not printing or ”finishing” the product (by printing the inlays)... But the Pink Floyd Archives site says they printed the labels, and logically, if they printed the labels then theoretically (with a stretch of the logical imagination, without concrete evidence) they could have printed the inlays too, right? Next tasks: 1) Find some concrete evidence that Data Packaging Corporation actually printed the inlays... 2) Who the f*k are ”KPL”? Edited by BiggieTembo on 25th Jun 2014, 1:54 PM*