UK 12" Promos - Aug 76 to May 77

[Greg Wilson]

Just been going through a couple of old books, where I wrote down all the promotional records I received between June 1976, until I stopped listing them in May 1978 (1,733 up to this point :o ). The overwhelming majority of these were on 7”, the 12” format still finding its feet (for example, between Jan – May 1988 I received approximately 400 records from the club promotions departments in London, of which only 10% were on 12”).

Here’s a list of the 12” promos I received, starting with Lalo Schifrin’s ‘Jaws’, the first 12” I ever owned, which was sent to me at the end of August 1976. The list goes up until Shalamar’s debut single, ‘Uptown Festival’, at the end of April 1977.

LALO SCHIFRIN ‘Jaws’ (CTI)
JAMES WELLS ‘Baby I’m Still The Same Man’ (Polydor)
THE WHO ‘Substitute’ / ‘I’m A Boy’ (Polydor)
THE ORIGINALS ‘Down To Love Town’ (Motown)
RICK DEES & HIS CAST OF IDIOTS ‘Disco Duck’ (RSO)
BRENDON ‘Gimme Some’ (UK)
ULTRAFUNK ‘Gotham City Boogie’ (Contempo)
JALN BAND ‘Life Is A Fight’ (Magnet)
SILVER CONVENTION ‘Everybody’s Talking ‘Bout Love’ (Magnet)
JAMES WELLS ‘All I Ever Need Is Music’ (Polydor)
MASS PRODUCTION ‘Welcome To Our World Of Merry Music’ (Cotillion)
DEODATO ‘Peter Gunn’ (MCA)
ENCHANTMENT ‘Dance To Music’ / ‘Gloria’ (United Artists)
UNDISPUTED TRUTH ‘Let’s Go Down To The Disco’ / ‘You + Me = Love’ (Whitfield)
GLORIA JONES ‘Go Now’ (EMI)
20TH CENTURY STEEL BAND ‘Dance Away’ (United Artists)
FLEETWOOD MAC ‘Go Your Own Way’ (Warner Bros)
ARTHUR PRYSOCK ‘When Love Is New’ (Polydor)
BARBARA PENNINGTON ‘You Are The Music Within Me’ (United Artists)
WILTON PLACE STREET BAND ‘Disco Lucy’ (Island)
GEORGIE FAME ‘Daylight’ (Island)
EDDIE QUANSAH ‘Che Che Kule’ (Island)
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA ‘Showdown’ / ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ (Harvest)
CAROL WOODS ‘I’m In Wonderland’ (RCA)
AVERAGE WHITE BAND ‘Goin’ Home’ (Atlantic)
SERGIO MENDES ‘The Real Thing’ / ORLEANS ‘Reach’ (Elektra / Asylum)
BUMBLE BEE ORCHESTRA ‘Love Bug’ / LIONEL PETERSON ‘I’ll Keep Coming Back’ (Sky / Seville)
TRAMMPS ‘Disco Inferno’ (Atlantic)
DETROIT SPINNERS ‘Could It Be I’m Falling In Love’ EP (Atlantic)
JOHN DAVIS & THE MONSTER ORCHESTRA ‘Up Jumped The Devil’ / GRAMOPHONE REVIVAL ‘Disco Carmen’ (Polydor / RSO)
SHALAMAR ‘Uptown Festival’ (Soul Train)

Interesting to note that acts like The Who, Fleetwood Mac and the Electric Light Orchestra were pressed on 12”, whilst many of the biggest club tracks of the period were only ever issued on 7”.

I’d also forgotten that a few records were pressed with different labels on either side (Sergio Mendes on Elecktra with Orleans on Asylum, Bumble Bee Orchestra on Sky with Lionel Peterson on Seville, John Davis & The Monster Orchestra on Polydor with Gramophone Revival on RSO).

[DISCODISK]

Interesting to note that acts like The Who, Fleetwood Mac and the Electric Light Orchestra were pressed on 12”, whilst many of the biggest club tracks of the period were only ever issued on 7”.

yes very strange all handled very badly,though its worth pointing out some labels used u.s promos warners did that sometimes,i see some things missing too at the top there should have been barbra pennington 24 hours a day the b******s never sent you that :o case in point about big club tracks only coming out on 7" the two i never understood was barbra pennington and james wells baby im still the same man [polydor] they both rocked the ritz in manchester then these tiny little 7s came out :o they sold well but both could have charted with a 12" release,i have levines polydor james wells 7"acetate which is probibly a one off this is strange too as the b.side didnt carry the instrumental,its uncredited but i know its a late 60s instrumental from harthon records in philly :o the only reason i could think of is ian asked polydor to stick that on the back as a favour for his use or polydor planned to release it.did you use the james wells 12" and what was the reaction on merseyside,i can see it may have been too long for some clubs,the americans didnt get this theyed have lapped it up,some french collector told me a year or two ago hes been searching for this for 25 years!
did you ever 'weigh in' any of those promo 7" i ask because there was this great shop in your home town i used to visit round 79/80 stacked with 70s promos i used to go over and spend the day there ,everything 14 pence each :P i aslo used to go over with my brother to the north west warner brothers reps house he lived on the wirral between you and me bromborough?? think his name was ian no wonder disco records wernt making it as he was selling all the promos singles 16 pence 12"/albums 50 pence :P
another strange story from warners in the mid/late 70s they were often at blackpool mecca they saw it as an important club [which it was ]they used it as a testing ground,they used to quiz the kids in the foyer hand us a list of records to be ticked in order of merit and in return you could take ANYTHING from the piles of new albums they had stacked on tables,dennis coffey,cerrone c.j &co,promo samplers,happy times :P
hey ive just realised one of those 12" singles on your list is now in my house under armed guard cheers greg

[Greg Wilson]

its worth pointing out some labels used u.s promos warners did that sometimes :

Yeah, that was Fred Dove who headed up the club promotions for WEA. It was really difficult to get on their mailing list (they sent to much fewer DJ's than the other labels), but once you were on their list you were well sorted out. Like you said, they'd often send you US promos. CBS followed WEA's lead and I got my first Prelude twelves in this way (Prelude wasn't a UK label until '82).

i see some things missing too at the top there should have been barbra pennington 24 hours a day the b******s never sent you that :

I'm sure they did mail this out, but I wouldn't have been on their list at that point (I also believe I missed out on a Brass Construction 'Changin'' spoken intro 12").

did you use the james wells 12" and what was the reaction on merseyside:

As you know, the Northern scene never took off on Merseyside, which was much more Funk based within the clubs, so I didn't really get much use out of the James Wells 12".

did you ever 'weigh in' any of those promo 7" i ask because there was this great shop in your home town i used to visit round 79/80 stacked with 70s promos :

That would have been Reaction, which was just up the road from where I used to live. Bernie Golding, someone you used to know from the Northern days, would take my unwanted vinyl in bulk. Bernie would later promote the Manchester Ritz and Tiffany's All-Dayers I used to do (also 'Angels' in Burnley and a few across in Yorkshire) with Richard Searling.

Do you remember that RCA used to have a regional club promo department in Piccadilly Plaza in Manchester, where Richard worked alongside a guy called Derek Brandwood? I used to go in there whenever I was in Manchester to pick up stuff (this would have been when I first met Richard). RCA had the Salsoul label at the time, so there was always lots of good stuff in the office.

another strange story from warners in the mid/late 70s they were often at blackpool mecca they saw it as an important club [which it was ]they used it as a testing ground,they used to quiz the kids in the foyer hand us a list of records to be ticked in order of merit and in return you could take ANYTHING from the piles of new albums they had stacked on tables,dennis coffey,cerrone c.j &co,promo samplers,happy times :

Yeah, Fred Dove mailed all these records out to his DJ list. Like I said, he was a real innovator when it came to club promotion in this country.