Back To The Future

THE REISSUES INDUSTRY: special report by Chas De Whalley Part 2: THEY CALL IT DEEP CATALOGUE

There are two sorts of record collector in this world. Those who want the original discs as close to Mint condition as possible and are happy to trawl through the second-hand shops and the record fairs looking for them. Then there are those who are happy just to have the music to play whenever the mood takes them, regardless of the format or the label.

Since the 1960s, all the major record companies have run departments and separate label identities tasked with satisfying public demand for the great songs and artists of the past. But as rock went gangbusters in the 1970s, and the (then) likes of EMI, CBS, Warner Brothers, Polydor, Phonogram, RCA, Island and Chrysalis concentrated their firepower on the era’s big singles and album acts, a myriad of minnow labels sprang up, specialising in rare rockabilly, blues, soul and country sides.

Happy to feed alongside the giants – and sometimes feeding off them by licensing songs, artists or sometimes entire imprints that were otherwise not going to be included in the majors’ reissue schedules – labels like Flyright, Red Lightnin’, Old Gold and of course Charly Records were run largely by enthusiasts out to prove that it was possible to make a profit out of their passions.

In 1976, two Irish ex-pats based in London by the name of Ted Carroll and Roger …

by Chas De Whalley
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