EMI Group UK labels details: the definitive thread

sadly you can't be sure they were pressed in 73, depending on the copies the dates could vary from 73-76 or so...

 

for sure this definately had an effect but i am not sure it had anything to do with the contracting out or the problems at hayes, what it certainly did do is reduced the quality and weight of the vinyl from which British records never fully recovered from....

 

I have the book " Hayes on Record" written by EMI people as a history of the plant. I don't have it in front of me, but I remember that EMI built a new pressing plant near the old Hayes plant. During the change over the old plant pressed
new releases while most of the back catalog was contracted out. Due to the lower capacity with moving presses to the new plant EMI could not press old and new releases.

 

That's it in a nutshell. Record companies started pressing thinner albums as a result of the oil crisis, but EMI shipped out pressings to Pathe Marconi because of other factors. EMI simply didn't have the capacity to press everything.

 

Thank you guys this backs up what I understood to be the case and i welcome more concrete info to support that, I'd be interested in a copy of that EMI at Hayes book if it was still available somewhere...

 

The beginning of the pressing problems at EMI can best be described as a perfect storm. Firstly, they had the factory move from Blyth Road to Uxbridge Road to contend with. The move, which commenced in March 1972 and continued into the second half of the year, introduced a number of teething problems (manufacturing and distribution) that hampered production well into 1973.

Coinciding with the move was the annual two week plant closure, which commenced on the first Monday in August. This put the plant further behind. Of note is that EMI scrapped this tradition the following year. During this time EMI imported fast moving titles from Europe.

Next was an abnormal surge in demand for records, attributed at the time, believe it or not, to new budget titles released by the like of K-tel (ie 20 Dynamic Hits). Apparently these releases reignited interest in recorded music.

This all had the effect that by Oct 1972, EMI was behind 1.5m records in meeting ordrrs, necessitating EMI's MD to issue an open letter to dealers and the industry acknowledging the production problems at both Hayes and the Management offices (remember, Gerry Oord had only just taken over as MD and he was about to embark on major management change).

To combat this, Oord cancelled supplement releases for Nov and Dec 1972 so as to catch up. This had the effect of reducing pressing demand by about 80m, and allowing the plant to focus on the back orders.

EMI facilities outside the UK were also used, primarily EMI Electrola Germany and Capitol USA.

At this stage singles were not affected and distributed labels were given priority over 'house' labels. For internal product, EMI focussed on classical records.

It's worth pointing out that despite these problems, the new Uxbridge Road plant was pressing more records per month than the old plant, so this gives an indication of the demand levels, given the new plant could still only meet about 55% of the demand.

Moving forward, it wasn't long before Oord realised that even Uxbridge, with its 120 EMI 1400 automatic presses, couldn't keep up with demand; by late 1973 he announced plans for another factory, but alas, due to planning and approval problems it fell through.

In response, EMI cut half its catalogue in Feb 1974 (~1500 titles), which boosted production by 15-20%, up to 75%. Of course, overseas facilities continued to supplement...

 

Well: since we are talking about EMI, I think it's worth mentioning that the suffix U stamped in the dead-wax (for example the Pink Floyd album "Meddle" has SHVL 795 A-1U SHVL 795 B-1U ) does indicate that the mastering had been done somewhere other than at EMI's own Abbey Road facilities; it was first added c.1970.
Honestly, I never knew what does the suffix G indicate (for example the Pink Floyd album "Atom Heart Mother" has SHVL 781 A-1G SHVL 781 B-1G ) ...

 

Oh, neglected to mention the UK Government's 'three day week' measure which ran from Jan to Mar 1974 - that contributed to Oord's decision to cut EMI's catalogue.

 

I should add that the oil crisis meant that some companies were pressing thinner vinyl for an extended period. My Brother's (now my) copy of Dylan's 'Desire' bought in the week of release is the thinnest album I've ever seen. It's possible to literally bend it in half. Despite that - and despite the fact that it's 52/53 minutes - it sounds surprisingly good.

 

yes CBS / WEA were pressing on thinner vinyl from 1972 but the vinyl quality was not compromised as much as during and after the oil crisis.

 

As ever Jae you have come in and nailed it and also confirmed much of what i have personally seen and reported on, German and even USA pressed discs as well as the Pathe Marconi ones. And as for the 3 day week i remember it well and we could not believe Heath would throw his dummies out of the pram like that. He was a former whip and knew how to take other peoples toys away if he did not get his own way yet lacked the savvy of a Thatcher as to when to pick a fight. A bitter man totally unsuited to be PM imho, he then called an election and billed it as " who runs the country " the answer if not totally conclusive was still undeniably " ( well not quite sure but ) it's defo not you mate " - a perfect storm indeed !!!

 

As an eight year old, the three day week was a great adventure for me. Power off at 9pm and reading by candlelight!.

 

Yes, I have specific reference here to EMI importing Tamla Motown titles from tbe US. Insofar as continent imports, while EMI was willing to eat the costs for the German and US imports, evidence suggests it limited importing from the continent until after the UK joined the Common Market in Jan 1973 and could thus save on duties. From this point, imports flowed from Italy, and although I can find no written evidence in EMI sources, they obviously flowed from France as well.

Also, to help alleviate the PVC shortages, EMI cannibalised a lot of non-selling pressings to reuse the vinyl.

 

And re the PVC shortage, while most of the blame gets attributed to the 1973 oil crisis (more specifically the shortage/cost of benzine/naphtha), one mustn't forget the impact that the 1974 US cancer scares had. The scare influenced the UK Dept of the Environment to impose new safety measures in mid-1974, which resulted in a production cutback (by up to 15% at some UK suppliers - EMI used CORVIC PVC supplied by ICI) due to fears of liver cancer.

Despite the shortage, EMI was better placed to ride the storm due to its network of international affiliates.

 

Wow; that's news to me.

 

Both changes mentioned (one EMI box / two EMI box and "GRAMOPHONE CO.LTD" / "EMI RECORDS LTD." ) did not happen overnight. In the world of record collecting, any change of details (label design or otherwise) has never been straightforward: there has always been a period of transition and even more so in the topic we are dealing with, that concerns not just a single record label, but multiple labels (all EMI Group labels!).

However having to make a good approximation, we can say that both details you mentioned (two EMI box + "GRAMOPHONE CO.LTD" ) have coexisted between early 1971 and second half of 1973. Then, in the cauldron of all the labels at that time belonging to the giant EMI Group, we can find all the exceptions we want: the purpose of this thread is to give the general lines (general, but still very valid).

 

to clarify EMI rim txt 2 box labels cannot exist before July 1973 and to my knowledge there are NO gramophone rim two boxes know to exist after 1973 but other labels after 1973 can carry the gram rims as I have mentioned earlier in this thread due to old label stock..

 

I was aware of the latter but not of the new regs so thanks Jae, and up until know i thought i was the only person to know about USA pressing Tamla motown due to the copy that i have. Up until now i wondered if i had been continually hallucinating !!

 

Hopefully this link works (I'm using my phone atm); Chapter 5 gives a nice summary of the Cancer situation (including mitigation costs)... https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&q=pvc uk liver 1974&ei=c4JbU6mBN8bs8AX8oYCIBA&url=http://f3.tiera.ru/3/Chemistry/Chemical%20engineering/Polymers/Burgess%20R.H.%20Manufacture%20and%20Processing%20of%20PVC%20(Spon%20Press,%201990)(ISBN%20085334972X)(220s).pdf&cd=32&ved=0CCkQFjABOB4&usg=AFQjCNF5mpJYTwbeSJfFecNDvcYHuQji0Q&sig2=tLm0TgKvAJuhlgbC_BAIPQ

Coincidently the paper was authored by the same company that supplied PVC to EMI UK.

Nb: this was not my source for my earlier post (my sources are all EMI documents), just something relevant I found after a quick search.

 

To paint a picture, in Sep 1972 EMI had 8000 current catalogue items. At the end of 1973 it was 3000, and by Feb 1974 it was 1500. So a cut of 6500 titles in 18 months!

Anyway, getting back to the labels, do we have a definitive date for when the RENTING text was added? Was it April 1984?

 

In the spring of 1984, the rim-text was altered introducing the inscription: “UNAUTHORIZED COPYING, HIRING, RENTING, PUBLIC PERFORMANCE AND BROADCASTING …”.

In the second half of 1987 the rim-text was again altered introducing the inscription: “UNAUTHORIZED COPYING, PUBLIC PERFORMANCE, BROADCASTING, HIRING AND RENTAL ..."

 

If any of you had a way to contact someone who worked at EMI, it would be very interesting to finally unravel the mystery of this famous letter G stamped in the trail-off ....

 

I cannot help with the renting issue but your post above also explains something i had noticed at the time, that a lot of EMI Lp's did not survive past 1973 as there are no EMI rim text issues for them, only mostly the big boys made it past that date, Beatles Floyd, Purple etc etc, I don't think even much of Cliff's back cat made it past 73 save for a greatest hits or two....

 

I recently bought an absolutely stone mint copy of The White Album, here is what the label looks like. Notice Made in Ireland on the lefthand side.



JG