thank-you philmh; i think that counts as part of your awesome extended memory banks™; and no, i've no memory of reading/hearing about an announcement that mgm uk was making a switch to the pye record group: the merkin parent corps' yanking on the choke-chain must've been almost instantaneous.
Well, I didn't have the exact date in my memory banks, only a general notion that it was 1971, but Billboard of 28th November 1970 had the full scoop, deal coming into effect on February 1 1971. There's also useful info in that article about a copy of other labels distributed by Polydor, including Stax starting from January 1971 in the UK. Also, I never knew that MGM once tried to switch UK distribution from EMI to Pye.
this polydor uk mgm lp was definitely not released 2/1970: emi/the gramophone co. still had the license then.
polydor's uk licence for mgm records seems to've commenced january-february 1971, so far as i can see - philmh prob'ly has the precise date in his awesome memory banks™...
remember the (p)publication year date of a recording does not necessarily indicate any particular subsequent disc's release date.