Vertigo 2 Spiral Staircase

Barry Winton continues his survey of one of the most collectable rock labels of all time

In 1969, Olav Wyper, A&R chief with the giant Philips record company, had the foresight to start up a subsidiary label to showcase heavy and underground acts as well as folk and esoteric artists. He was following a trend that was already established among the major record companies. EMI had launched Harvest (which I detailed in issues 139 and 140). Decca had started Nova. Even Pye had got in on the act by starting up Middle Earth and Dawn. Olav’s inspiration was sparked off by the influential samplers of the day like The Rock Machine Turns You On and You Can All Join In: he realised that Philips also needed an outlet for artistic freedom.

Manager/producer Gerry Bron, who was soon to start his own Bronze label, was a kindred spirit and offered Wyper a deal with his record acts, including Colosseum, Juicy Lucy, Manfred Mann and Uriah Heep. And that’s pretty much how it all began.

In 1971 Olav Wyper decided to move on and start up a new label, RCA – Neon, which like Vertigo has become highly collectable. Neon albums were all very similarly packaged to Vertigo, and indeed six of them had been scheduled for Vertigo release: The Running Man, Brotherhood Of Breath, Indian Summer, Shape Of The Rain, Dando Shaft and Tonton Macoute. Four of these acts were managed by Ken Howard and Alan Blakey, of Dave …

by Barry Winton
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