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Pye Records

Pye Records was a British record label. Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherhood of Man (1975–1979). The label changed its name to PRT Records (distributing as Precision Records & Tapes) in 1980, before being briefly reactivated as Pye Records in 2006.

Pye Records
Parent companyPye Ltd., then ATV, a division of Lew Grade's ACC
Founded1953; 70 years ago (1953)
Defunct1989; 34 years ago (1989)
GenreVarious
Country of originUK

History

The Pye Company originally manufactured televisions and radios. Its main plant was situated off what used to be Haig Road, in Cambridge, and 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 Leslie Clark and Alan A. Freeman to control distribution of the recordings of the former's daughter, Petula Clark. Pye merged it with Nixa Records to form Pye Nixa Records.

Pye International

In 1958, Pye International Records was established. The company licensed recordings from American and other foreign labels for the UK market, including Chess, Disques Vogue (France), A&M, Kama Sutra, Colpix, Warner Bros., Buddah, Cameo, 20th Century, Casablanca Record and Filmworks and King. It also released recordings from British artist Labi Siffre which were produced outside the company.

Expansion

In 1959, Pye Nixa became Pye Records and ATV acquired 50% of the label.[1] ATV bought the other half of the business in 1966.

Under the management of Louis Benjamin,[2] the company entered the budget-priced album market in 1957, reissuing older Pye material on Pye Golden Guinea Records, priced at a guinea (one pound and one shilling). A series of classical recordings was released on Golden Guinea Collector, for example a version of Handel´s "Music for the Royal Fireworks" in 1959. This featured the conductor Charles Mackerras who made other recordings on the label including a Janacek compilation.[3] It was closed in the seventies and was replaced by Marble Arch Records, selling at an even lower price.

Piccadilly and Dawn labels

Another, full-price, subsidiary, Piccadilly Records, was for new pop acts, including Joe Brown & the Bruvvers, Clinton Ford, the Rockin' Berries, Sounds Orchestral, the Sorrows, The Bystanders, Jackie Trent and, later on, the Ivy League. In 1969, Pye launched a less mainstream label for folk, jazz, blues and progressive acts, Dawn Records. The label artists included Mungo Jerry, Man, Donovan, Comus, Titus Groan and Trifle.

Quadraphonic releases

Beginning in 1971 Pye issued a series of "4D Stereo" LP recordings in the UK. These were designed for playback in 4-channel quadraphonic sound. The records were encoded in the QS Regular Matrix system which was licensed from Sansui in Japan. Pye also marketed its own line of consumer electronics used for decoding quadraphonic records. These products were not especially successful. The last LP release in this series was in 1977.

As PRT Records

When the rights to the name Pye (then owned by Philips)[4] expired in 1980, the label changed its name to PRT, which stood for Precision Records and Tapes, via a brief flirtation with Precision. At that time, it had sub-labels such as Fanfare Records, a late 1980s and early 1990s UK-based Hi-NRG label issuing records by Sinitta; R&B Records, a 1980s disco/electro label featuring Imagination; and Splash Records, which featured Jigsaw and the Richard Hewson Orchestra/RAH Band. PRT provided manufacturing and distribution for Gary Numan's label Numa Records, founded in 1984, which went on to release two dozen singles by a variety of acts alongside its eponymous founder, including actress Caroline Munro. Postman Pat songs and music, from the television series of the same name, were recorded at PRT Studios.

PRT's parent company ACC was purchased by The Bell Group of Australia in 1982. In 1988 the Bell Group was purchased by the Bond Corporation. However, the Bond Corporation was suffering financial problems itself and proceeded to quickly sell off most of its assets. PRT's record and cassette factory was sold to another record manufacturer, Meekland. Most of the masters of PRT's catalogue (except classical music catalogue) were sold to Castle Communications, which eventually became Sanctuary Records (now a division of BMG Rights Management). Precision Records & Tapes Ltd, formerly Pye Records Ltd, was officially liquidated in December 2013.[5]

At the same time, EMI acquired masters of PRT's classical music catalogue and assigned them to EMI Classics.

Brief revival

In July 2006, Pye Records was reactivated by Sanctuary Records as an indie and alternative label, featuring artists such as Scottish alternative rock group Idlewild. However, plans for continued usage of the Pye name were abandoned when Universal Music Group bought Sanctuary in 2007. To fulfil conditions imposed by the European Commission following UMG's acquisition of EMI in 2012, Universal sold Sanctuary to BMG Rights Management in 2013.[6]

Current ownership

Warner Music Group, through its Alternative Distribution Alliance division, controls the catalogue of reissues from Pye/PRT artists' releases on Sanctuary's behalf after BMG assigned ADA to distribute them in March 2017.[7][8] WMG owns Pye's American former distributors Warner Records, formerly Warner Bros. Records, and Reprise Records.

With its acquisition of EMI Classics' catalogue in 2013, WMG now owns Pye/PRT classical music catalogue and controls them via Warner Classics.

ATV Music Publishing

Pye Records was a sister company to the better known ATV Music Publishing. This company, which owned Beatles publisher Northern Songs, was bought by Michael Jackson in 1985 and later merged with Sony to form Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

International divisions

Pye in the US

Starting with the "British Invasion" of 1964, Pye placed their artists in the US mostly on labels that they distributed in the UK: the Kinks to Cameo Records and then to Reprise Records, David Bowie, the Sorrows and Petula Clark to Warner Bros. Records, Donovan to Hickory Records, the Searchers to Mercury Records, Liberty Records, and finally Kapp Records, and Status Quo to Chess Records (which issued their records on their newly created Cadet Concept Records label).

From 1969 to 1971, Pye was a co-owner with GRT (General Recorded Tape) of Janus Records, which at the outset served as the US label for such Pye acts as Jefferson, Sounds Orchestral, Pickettywitch, Mungo Jerry and Status Quo, and also re-issued the early (pre-1966) recordings of Donovan. Pye sold its share of Janus back to GRT in 1971.

In 1972, Bell Records set up a short-lived Pye label, featuring Michel Pagliaro, a 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.

In 1974, Pye established an American version of its record label. The label was not a success, however, and closed its US operations in 1976. The head of the US 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 American Pye label (with the catalogue prefix changed from PYE- to PRL-), and Prelude had a string of disco and dance music hits into the early 1980s.

Pye in Canada

Whilst Pye did not have its own operations in Canada, it arranged with Canadian record companies to issue Pye recordings on the Pye label in Canada. Before then, Quality Records issued Pye recordings on the Quality label. Their earliest Pye Canada releases such as Lonnie Donegan's "My Old Man's A Dustman" were distributed by Astral Music Sales. Around 1963, distribution shifted to Allied Record Corporation. In 1968 distribution shifted to Phonodisc.[9]

Roster

(including the US labels that issued records by the artists during the time they were on Pye)

Other artists who recorded for 'Pye' during their careers include Jimmy Young, Dickie Valentine, Russ Conway, Emile Ford, Val Doonican, Jackie Trent, Tony Hatch and Tony Hancock.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Billboard - Google Books". 10 November 1958. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  2. ^ Albert H. Friedlander, "Obituary: Louis Benjamin", The Independent, 23 June 1994. Retrieved 3 December 2020
  3. ^ The orchestra credited for the Music for the Royal Fireworks was the Pro Arte Orchestra, but given the number of extra players used it was effectively an ad hoc ensemble on that occasion. Blyth, Alan (March 1975). "Charles Mackerras talks". The Gramophone. pp. 1, 626.
  4. ^ "Intellectual Property Office - By number results". {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  5. ^ "PRECISION RECORDS AND TAPES LTD - Filing history (free information from Companies House)". Beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  6. ^ Chmielewski, Dawn C. (14 February 2013). . Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013.
  7. ^ Christman, Ed (28 April 2016). "Warner Music's Global Deal for BMG's Catalog Sets Up Showdown With RED". Billboard.com.
  8. ^ . musicbusinessworldwide.com. 7 March 2017. Archived from the original on 13 March 2017.
  9. ^ [1] 19 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "David Macbeth Discography - UK - 45cat". 45cat.com. Retrieved 6 May 2021.

External links

  • Discogs.com discography
  • Official Yahoo! Group for Pye Records

records, british, record, label, best, known, artists, were, lonnie, donegan, 1956, 1969, petula, clark, 1957, 1971, searchers, 1963, 1967, kinks, 1964, 1971, sandie, shaw, 1964, 1971, status, 1968, 1971, brotherhood, 1975, 1979, label, changed, name, records,. Pye Records was a British record label Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan 1956 1969 Petula Clark 1957 1971 the Searchers 1963 1967 the Kinks 1964 1971 Sandie Shaw 1964 1971 Status Quo 1968 1971 and Brotherhood of Man 1975 1979 The label changed its name to PRT Records distributing as Precision Records amp Tapes in 1980 before being briefly reactivated as Pye Records in 2006 Pye RecordsParent companyPye Ltd then ATV a division of Lew Grade s ACCFounded1953 70 years ago 1953 Defunct1989 34 years ago 1989 GenreVariousCountry of originUK Contents 1 History 1 1 Pye International 1 2 Expansion 1 3 Piccadilly and Dawn labels 1 4 Quadraphonic releases 1 5 As PRT Records 1 6 Brief revival 1 7 Current ownership 1 8 ATV Music Publishing 2 International divisions 2 1 Pye in the US 2 2 Pye in Canada 3 Roster 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksHistory EditThe Pye Company originally manufactured televisions and radios Its main plant was situated off what used to be Haig Road in Cambridge and 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 Leslie Clark and Alan A Freeman to control distribution of the recordings of the former s daughter Petula Clark Pye merged it with Nixa Records to form Pye Nixa Records Pye International Edit In 1958 Pye International Records was established The company licensed recordings from American and other foreign labels for the UK market including Chess Disques Vogue France A amp M Kama Sutra Colpix Warner Bros Buddah Cameo 20th Century Casablanca Record and Filmworks and King It also released recordings from British artist Labi Siffre which were produced outside the company Expansion Edit In 1959 Pye Nixa became Pye Records and ATV acquired 50 of the label 1 ATV bought the other half of the business in 1966 Under the management of Louis Benjamin 2 the company entered the budget priced album market in 1957 reissuing older Pye material on Pye Golden Guinea Records priced at a guinea one pound and one shilling A series of classical recordings was released on Golden Guinea Collector for example a version of Handel s Music for the Royal Fireworks in 1959 This featured the conductor Charles Mackerras who made other recordings on the label including a Janacek compilation 3 It was closed in the seventies and was replaced by Marble Arch Records selling at an even lower price Piccadilly and Dawn labels Edit Another full price subsidiary Piccadilly Records was for new pop acts including Joe Brown amp the Bruvvers Clinton Ford the Rockin Berries Sounds Orchestral the Sorrows The Bystanders Jackie Trent and later on the Ivy League In 1969 Pye launched a less mainstream label for folk jazz blues and progressive acts Dawn Records The label artists included Mungo Jerry Man Donovan Comus Titus Groan and Trifle Quadraphonic releases Edit Beginning in 1971 Pye issued a series of 4D Stereo LP recordings in the UK These were designed for playback in 4 channel quadraphonic sound The records were encoded in the QS Regular Matrix system which was licensed from Sansui in Japan Pye also marketed its own line of consumer electronics used for decoding quadraphonic records These products were not especially successful The last LP release in this series was in 1977 As PRT Records Edit When the rights to the name Pye then owned by Philips 4 expired in 1980 the label changed its name to PRT which stood for Precision Records and Tapes via a brief flirtation with Precision At that time it had sub labels such as Fanfare Records a late 1980s and early 1990s UK based Hi NRG label issuing records by Sinitta R amp B Records a 1980s disco electro label featuring Imagination and Splash Records which featured Jigsaw and the Richard Hewson Orchestra RAH Band PRT provided manufacturing and distribution for Gary Numan s label Numa Records founded in 1984 which went on to release two dozen singles by a variety of acts alongside its eponymous founder including actress Caroline Munro Postman Pat songs and music from the television series of the same name were recorded at PRT Studios PRT s parent company ACC was purchased by The Bell Group of Australia in 1982 In 1988 the Bell Group was purchased by the Bond Corporation However the Bond Corporation was suffering financial problems itself and proceeded to quickly sell off most of its assets PRT s record and cassette factory was sold to another record manufacturer Meekland Most of the masters of PRT s catalogue except classical music catalogue were sold to Castle Communications which eventually became Sanctuary Records now a division of BMG Rights Management Precision Records amp Tapes Ltd formerly Pye Records Ltd was officially liquidated in December 2013 5 At the same time EMI acquired masters of PRT s classical music catalogue and assigned them to EMI Classics Brief revival Edit In July 2006 Pye Records was reactivated by Sanctuary Records as an indie and alternative label featuring artists such as Scottish alternative rock group Idlewild However plans for continued usage of the Pye name were abandoned when Universal Music Group bought Sanctuary in 2007 To fulfil conditions imposed by the European Commission following UMG s acquisition of EMI in 2012 Universal sold Sanctuary to BMG Rights Management in 2013 6 Current ownership Edit Warner Music Group through its Alternative Distribution Alliance division controls the catalogue of reissues from Pye PRT artists releases on Sanctuary s behalf after BMG assigned ADA to distribute them in March 2017 7 8 WMG owns Pye s American former distributors Warner Records formerly Warner Bros Records and Reprise Records With its acquisition of EMI Classics catalogue in 2013 WMG now owns Pye PRT classical music catalogue and controls them via Warner Classics ATV Music Publishing Edit Pye Records was a sister company to the better known ATV Music Publishing This company which owned Beatles publisher Northern Songs was bought by Michael Jackson in 1985 and later merged with Sony to form Sony ATV Music Publishing International divisions EditPye in the US Edit Starting with the British Invasion of 1964 Pye placed their artists in the US mostly on labels that they distributed in the UK the Kinks to Cameo Records and then to Reprise Records David Bowie the Sorrows and Petula Clark to Warner Bros Records Donovan to Hickory Records the Searchers to Mercury Records Liberty Records and finally Kapp Records and Status Quo to Chess Records which issued their records on their newly created Cadet Concept Records label From 1969 to 1971 Pye was a co owner with GRT General Recorded Tape of Janus Records which at the outset served as the US label for such Pye acts as Jefferson Sounds Orchestral Pickettywitch Mungo Jerry and Status Quo and also re issued the early pre 1966 recordings of Donovan Pye sold its share of Janus back to GRT in 1971 In 1972 Bell Records set up a short lived Pye label featuring Michel Pagliaro a 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 In 1974 Pye established an American version of its record label The label was not a success however and closed its US operations in 1976 The head of the US 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 American Pye label with the catalogue prefix changed from PYE to PRL and Prelude had a string of disco and dance music hits into the early 1980s Pye in Canada Edit Whilst Pye did not have its own operations in Canada it arranged with Canadian record companies to issue Pye recordings on the Pye label in Canada Before then Quality Records issued Pye recordings on the Quality label Their earliest Pye Canada releases such as Lonnie Donegan s My Old Man s A Dustman were distributed by Astral Music Sales Around 1963 distribution shifted to Allied Record Corporation In 1968 distribution shifted to Phonodisc 9 Roster Edit including the US labels that issued records by the artists during the time they were on Pye Shirley Abicair Long John Baldry issued in US on Warner Bros Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen issued in US on Kapp Chris Barber s Jazzband issued in US on Laurie John Barbirolli and The Halle Orchestra from 1956 as Pye Nixa Acker Bilk David Bowie 1965 1966 issued in US on Warner Bros The Brook Brothers 1961 1964 Brotherhood of Man 1975 1979 Joe Brown singer 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 US on Laurie and then on Warner Bros Clem Curtis Joe Dolan Lonnie Donegan 1956 1969 issued in US on Mercury Atlantic then Dot Donovan 1965 1971 issued in US on Hickory and then Epic Carl Douglas issued in the US on 20th Century Fox The Dummies 1980 Judith Durham The Enid Episode Six issued in US on Elektra for one single only Fabulous Poodles Bud Flanagan The Flying Machine 1969 issued in US on Congress and then Janus Emile Ford and the Checkmates The Foundations issued in the US on Uni Brian Joseph Friel issued in the US on ATV Records Graduate 1979 Davy Graham recorded his album The Guitar Player in 1963 under Pye later reissued by Sanctuary Records in 2003 with eight bonus tracks Benny Hill 1961 1965 The Honeycombs 1964 1966 issued in the US on Interphon and then Warner Bros Idlewild 2006 The Ivy League 1965 1966 issued in the US on Cameo Tony Jackson and the Vibrations 1964 1966 issued in the US on Kapp and then Red Bird Jimmy James amp the Vagabonds John Paul Jones released Baja A Foggy Day In Vietnam on Pye Records in April 1964 issued in US on Parkway The Kinks 1964 1971 issued in the US on Cameo and then Reprise Vera Lynn 1979 1981 Man 1968 1969 Gerald Masters 1977 1980 David MacBeth 1959 1969 includes a spell on subsidiary label Piccadilly 10 Mike McKenzie 1922 1999 Mungo Jerry 1970 1974 issued in the US on Janus and then Bell Olivia Newton John Olivia Festival Australia 1972 Maxine Nightingale The Migil 5 1964 1965 Des O Connor Michel Pagliaro Canadian singer songwriter from Montreal simply known as Pagliaro in the UK Lennie Peters 1966 Pickettywitch 1969 1973 issued in US on Janus Records and then Bell Records The Real Thing 1976 1979 Joan Regan 1960 1961 The Remo Four Donn Reynolds 1958 1959 The Searchers 1963 1967 issued in the US on Mercury Liberty and then Kapp Sandie Shaw 1964 1972 issued in the US on Reprise Labi Siffre 1970 1973 Pye International Hurricane Smith 1976 1977 The Sorrows 1964 1966 issued in the US on Warner Bros Sounds Orchestral issued in US on Parkway Status Quo 1968 1971 issued in the US on Cadet Concept and then Janus Tommy Steele Trader Horne Frankie Vaughan 1973 1978 Johnny Wakelin Velvett Fogg 1969 Geno Washington amp the Ram Jam Band issued in the US on Kapp Mark Wynter 1962 1968 The Human Instinct Dead Fingers TalkOther artists who recorded for Pye during their careers include Jimmy Young Dickie Valentine Russ Conway Emile Ford Val Doonican Jackie Trent Tony Hatch and Tony Hancock See also EditCategory Pye Records albums singles artists List of record labels Nixa RecordsReferences Edit Billboard Google Books 10 November 1958 Retrieved 5 January 2013 Albert H Friedlander Obituary Louis Benjamin The Independent 23 June 1994 Retrieved 3 December 2020 The orchestra credited for the Music for the Royal Fireworks was the Pro Arte Orchestra but given the number of extra players used it was effectively an ad hoc ensemble on that occasion Blyth Alan March 1975 Charles Mackerras talks The Gramophone pp 1 626 Intellectual Property Office By number results a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a first missing last help PRECISION RECORDS AND TAPES LTD Filing history free information from Companies House Beta companieshouse gov uk Retrieved 26 October 2015 Chmielewski Dawn C 14 February 2013 Universal Music agrees to sell Sanctuary Records Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on 15 February 2013 Christman Ed 28 April 2016 Warner Music s Global Deal for BMG s Catalog Sets Up Showdown With RED Billboard com BMG moves distribution of 8 000 albums to Warner s ADA Music Business Worldwide musicbusinessworldwide com 7 March 2017 Archived from the original on 13 March 2017 1 Archived 19 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine David Macbeth Discography UK 45cat 45cat com Retrieved 6 May 2021 External links EditDiscogs com discography Marble Arch Discography Official Yahoo Group for Pye Records Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Pye Records amp oldid 1144196662, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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