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ARA - stands for Allied Recording Artistes (more to
come....)
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Bandbox - Started by former EMI boss, Guy Robinson in 1978. Cathal
Dunne was among the first releases. |
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Banshee |
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Beltona |
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Big T |
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Blackbird |
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Bonus |
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Brookhill |
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Bruised |
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Bus |
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CBS |
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Chrysalis |
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Claddagh |
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CMB |
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CMR |
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Columbia |
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Crashed |
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Cromwell |
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Cuchulainn |
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Dallas |
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Danceline started out in
the mid 1980’s as a venue in Dublin promoting acts such as
Aslan, Light A Big Fire and Paul Cleary. As well as hosting
the biggest Irish name rock acts of the day, the Danceline
Club developed a policy of promoting ‘new/up-and-coming’
bands which gave newcomers an opportunity to play in the
prestigious venue. By the late 1980’s, Danceline had also
established a record label and music publishing company and
put out its first single in 1988. |
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Dead
Fly |
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Decca |
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Desert |
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The Denver label may be closely associated with the records of
Big Tom, but the label was actually founded by Johnny
McCauley in 1967. Born in Fahan, Co. Donegal, Johnny went to
England when he was sixteen and ended up as the resident
singer at the Galtymore Ballroom in London's Cricklewood
where he also honed his songwriting skills. He has written
many hits and is credited with coining the term "country n'
Irish." The first release from the label was his own version
of his song, Pretty Little Girl from Omagh (which was
covered by many other Irish showband artists). Big Tom
joined the label in 1970 and together, they never looked
back. |
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Dolphin released
its first record in March, 1968-Sean Dunphy and the
Hoedowners' Two Loves. The record reached
number two in the charts and got the company off to a flying
start. In the time since, the label concentrated on the
country and ballad side of the industry. Their artists
include Sean Dunphy, Gene Stuart, The Wolfe Tones, Paddy
Reilly, and the Dublin City Ramblers. The record company had
a chain of record shops and is still going strong today with
many of the same artists it started out with. Info from
Paddy Brennan's, Golden Era of Irish Showbands. |
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Dolphin |
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Drive
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Eagle |
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Ember |
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Emerald
Music was founded in 1964 by Mervyn Solomon in
Belfast with a branch in Dublin as well. Although Mervyn was
the first person to record Rory Gallagher and Van Morrison,
the label specialised in Irish showband and country music
and provided
the showband scene with one of its biggest chart successes
in Frankie McBride's Five Little Fingers. The label
was one of the major outlets for some of the smaller
showbands in the 60's and 70's. Among the acts that released
singles with Emerald were Big Tom, The Black Aces, Witnesses
Showband and the Plattermen. They are still in business,
although they now do mostly traditional music and
compilations. |
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EMI |
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EMI/Red Bus |
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Energy |
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Envoy |
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Epic |
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Evergreen
Records was owned by the same company as Harp Records,
Pickwick which was bought out by Stoic Records and then
Stoic went into liquidation. All the masters were then
bought by Billy McBurney at Outlet, who issued countless
compilations until told by the High Court in Belfast to
stop, which led to the closing of Outlet Records. Our thanks
to Bobby O'Brien for this info. |
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Failte |
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Fixed
Wheel |
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Flame |
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Fontana |
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Gael
Linn was started in the early 1950s,
by a
dynamic group of graduates and undergraduates who were searching
for a way to raise and invest funds and pressure the Irish
government to take a more proactive role in promoting the
Irish language and associated culture.
Founded by
Dónall Ó Móráin in 1953, the
Gael Linn label produced mostly Irish language recordings
until the start of the showband era. Although the label only
played a very small role with showbands, it continues to
promote the Irish Language today. |
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Galaxy |
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G.I.
Records
was formed in 1978 by Arthur Walters for Spud and Kenny Ryder
Superband releases. |
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Glenside |
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Golden
Guinea
Pye |
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Golden
Hour |
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Good
Vibes |
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Granauile |
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Harmac |
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Harp
Records was started by Pickwick Corporation, who opened
up shop in Dublin in the early 1980's and re-issued a lot of
the Release, Hawk, and Play catalogues. The covers were
superior to anything previously done on the afore mentioned
labels. However, many people were misled into believing
these were all new recordings, and ended up re-buying the
same recordings they already owned. Our thanks to Bobby
O'Brien for the info. |
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Hawk |
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Heritage |
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Hit |
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HMV |
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Homespun |
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Honey
was founded by Cork's Dixies in 1969. The label was one of the
first started by a showband for its own recordings. It
operated as both a record company and promotions agency
concentrating mainly on showbands from the Cork area
including The Victors, Michael O'Callaghan Showband and the
Regal Showband. It issues 29 singles and two albums over a
short lifespan. Info from Paddy Brennan's Golden Era of
Irish Showbands. |
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Hotwire
was founded by Horslips drummer, Eamonn Carr, initially as a
vehicle for releases by The Zen Alligators, the group he
formed in the early 80's with Johnny Fean after the breakup
of Horslips. The label released records throughout the
1980's with Light A Big Fire being their biggest act. |
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ID |
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IRF |
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Joy |
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Jump |
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King was started by Bennie and Rita Isen in a
stall in Petticoat Lane in London in 1959. The label
specialized in the "skybeat" genre (i.e. blues and jazz) and
did very well. It released a number of
showband records in the mid 60's via its UK office,
and in 1967 it set up shop in Dublin with Mick Clerkin as
Managing Director and Larry Cunningham also a director. It
promptly signed the Royal Showband (as well as continuing to
put out Larry's records). It also released the
first record for the Clipper Carlton. Other artists: Dermot Hegarty and the Hilton Showband. Some info from Paddy
Brennan's, Golden Era of Irish Showbands.
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King |
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K-Tel |
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Laverne |
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Libra |
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Little
Black Records |
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Lunar was a
division of Hawk Records which was idle for some time before
Brian Molloy rekindled it in the early 1980's. Marcus
Connaughton ran the label in the early going. Although it
release records by all types of artists, it generally stayed
with pop and rock artists. |
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M & M |
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Magnet |
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Major (Not
to be confused with Major Minor which operated at the same
time, 1966). This label, started by Mick Quinn, ceased operations after a small
number of releases, including an EP, For Ever and Ever by the Michael
O'Callaghan Showband, Ramblin' Boy by the Blarney
Folk and Step It Out Mary from Danny Doyle. |
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Major Minor was
formed by Phillip Solomon in 1966. Phillip was the manager
of Bachelors, ran the famous pirate radio station Radio
Caroline and was a major promoter of theatrical events in
Dublin as well. |
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Marble
Arch |
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MCA |
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Meglo |
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Menlo-International |
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Mint |
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Mulligan Records was founded by Donal Lunny
of Planxty in 1976 and was primarily an outlet for folk and
traditional artists such as Paul Brady and Moving Hearts.
Mulligan still exists today with a strong catalog of Irish
artists. |
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Mystery
-
Late 80's label, we don't know how many singles they
released. |
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Nest |
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OIympic |
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Outlet - Billy
McBurney set up his first recording studio at the rear of
the old St Mary's Hall in Bank Street, Belfast. He then
moved to a designer studio in Smithfield and formed Outlet
Records in 1968. The company released many home grown
artists but had a trouble past with disputes with Horslips
(royalties) and the Dubliners (master tapes) which finally
led to the labels downfall in 2004. Both both cases were
lost by the label which resulted in them going into
voluntary liquidation, although Billy had retired in 2002 at
age 71. |
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Phillips |
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Picadilly |
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Plamas -
Started by Danny Hughes in 1978. First release was Liam
Rowsome, son of Uilean piper, Leo. |
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Play |
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Plough |
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Point |
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Polydor |
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PRT |
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Pye |
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RAK |
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RAM |
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RCA |
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Release
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Founded in 1968 and managed by Mick Clerkin, Release was the
definitive showband record label. Over the years, it issued
recordings by every major showband artist and was very
closely involved with the "country and Irish" boom of the
70's. Release also expanded into artist management. The
label ran into financial difficulties in the early 1980s and
ceased operations. Info from Paddy Brennan's, Golden Era
of Irish Showbands. |
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Rex
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Record distributors, Irish Record Factors (now owned by
Decca Records) introduced the REX label in 1965 to issue
product for the Irish market (i.e., showbands, ballad
singers, solo performers, etc.). Among the artists who had
their first releases on REX was Dana, Ireland's 1970
Eurovision winner. Another band that had a series of
releases on REX were The Memories. The label ceased to
operate in the early 80's when Decca was purchased by
Polygram.
Info from Paddy Brennan's, Golden Era of Irish Showbands.
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Ritz Records was started in the early 80's by the man behind
much of the early showband record success (Release Records),
Mick Clerkin, who owned the label until he sold it in 2002.
In 1985, Mick discovered Daniel O'Donnell who was the
mainstay of the label for many years.
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Rockelly |
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Ruby |
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Scoff - The
Scoff label was founded in 1978 by Deke O'Brien and Johnny
Lappin, who also managed Stepaside (who later started
Sidestep records). The label focused on Dublin rock groups
including The Atrix, Mama's Boys and the Rhythm Kings among
others. They finally went out of business in the mid 1980's.
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Sidestep |
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Silver
- Apparently only released one record by The Foottappers
Showband in 1966. Info from Paddy Brennan's, Golden Era
of Irish Showbands. |
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Sine |
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Skylark |
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Solo |
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Spartan |
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Spider |
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State |
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Stop |
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Sunset -
Initially founded in 1980 as an outlet for
releases by The Kim Newport Band, the Sligo based label
developed a close relationship with Headford Studios outside
of Tuam and released a series of records for artists that
recorded in the studio, including The Duskey Sisters, Pluto,
Donal McLynn, Joan and the Silver Wings, Vinnie Mongan and
T.J. Farrell. The label's last release was in 1983.
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Talisman/EMI |
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TAP |
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Tara Record's had it start (as many Irish labels did) in a
record shop. The shop was owned by Jack Fitzgerald of Dublin. In the early
70's, Christy Moore released an album called Prosperous
which went nowhere but featured the future lineup of Planxty
and to satisfy demand from his customers, Jack Fitzgerald
bought the rights to the album and released it on a label
of convenience calling it Tara Records. In the thirty plus
years since, the label, under the direction of MD, John
Cook, has been a mainstay of the Irish traditional music scene.
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Target/Pye -
Target was started by The Tom Costello Organization in 1967.
It's products were distributed in the United Kingdom by Pye
records and hence, they used the same numbering and catalog
system as Pye. Info from Paddy Brennan's, Golden Era of
Irish Showbands. |
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Tempo
- Label run by Tony Boland in the mid 1960's. This info from
Paddy Brennan's Golden Era of Irish Showbands. |
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THE - Tommy Hayden
started his career as a member of The Nevada showband with
brothers Bunty and Peter. He soon left the band and started
managing. T.H.E became one of the most successful Irish
promotion s company in the 70's and 80's and included Louis
Walsh among one of its younger protégés. They started the
label in the early 70's to promote records from their own
stable of acts. |
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Top
Spin was started by Castleblaney's
entertainment magnate, the late Tony Loughman in September,
1974, and it's first release qwas Philomena Begley. Tony also owned Top
Rank promotions and published Entertainment News
magazine. The label was used almost exclusively for artists
signed to his management company including Philomena,
Shelley (Jan Lynch) and many more. Our thanks to Bobby
O'Brien for info. |
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Transatlantic |
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Tribune -
Dublin born Noel Pearson, producer of the films, My Left
Foot and The Field, founded Tribune Records in
1967 and signed artists such as The Sands, The Pacific, The
Chessmen, Danny Doyle and Jim McCann. |
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Triskel |
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United
Artists |
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Velvet Records debuted in early 1971 when Tommy Fee and
the Cajon Sound released The Engineer's Child with
the catalog number VE.001. The label was the brainchild of
Jimmy Smith of the Mighty Avons, who not only played in the
band, but started to get involved in the management side of
things as well. We know the label released at least 30
records...more to come. |
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Vixen |
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WEA |
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Young
Blood/CBS |
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Record Labels
(archive to 1990)
