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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
More to come.... |
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Beltona
More to come.... |
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Big T
More to come.... |
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Blackbird
More to come.... |
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Bonus
More to come.... |
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Brookhill
More to come.... |
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Bruised
More to come.... |
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Bus
More to come.... |
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CBS
More to come.... |
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Chrysalis
More to come.... |
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Claddagh was
founded in Dublin in 1959 by Garech Browne. The first album
it produced was the classic Rí na bPíobairí (King of the
Pipers) by Leo Rowsome. The second Claddagh album was The
Chieftains, the very first recording of the now world-famous
traditional group. Claddagh went on to make many more fine
albums of the Chieftains. (from their website, they are
still on the go today, making them one of the oldest Irish
record companies. |
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CMB records was founded by the Cotton Mill Boys after
years of exclusively recording for the Hawk label. We think
the label mayhave been distributed by Hawk. |
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CMR Records was founded by now Senator Donie Cassidy in
1978. Initially the label recorded mostly bands that were
managed by Donie, the most famous of which is (Mick) Foster
and (Tony) Allen, whose legendary hit single, A Bunch of
Thyme was the label's third release (CM 003) and first
chart success, reaching number one and staying in the Irish
charts for 40 weeks. Other artists on the label included T.R.
Dallas (a.k.a Tom Allen, brother of Tony Allen), Jim Tobin
and the Firehouse and the Morriseys. The label is still
going strong today. |
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Columbia: The
Columbia Graphophone Company (as it was originally known)
was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United
Kingdom. Under EMI, as Columbia Records, it became a very
successful label in the 1950s and 1960s. In Ireland,
especially in the early days of the showband era, there were
no real Irish popular labels (although Claddagh did release
traditional records) Most of the early showband singles were
on Columbia or HMV, or another UK based label. In 1972,
Columbia was renamed EMI Records to avoid confusion with the
American Columbia Records. |
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Crashed Records: Although it's own website dates the
founding of the company to 1983, its first singles actually
were released in 1978, leading us to believe a change of
ownership may have taken place. |
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Cromwell
More to come.... |
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Cuchulainn
More to come.... |
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Dallas
More to come.... |
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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
More to come.... |
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Decca
More to come.... |
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Desert
More to come.... |
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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 ,
started by Oliver Barry and Jim Hand, 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
More to come.... |
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Drive
More to come.... |
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Eagle
More to come.... |
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Ember
More to come.... |
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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
More to come.... |
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EMI/Red Bus
More to come.... |
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Energy
More to come.... |
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Envoy
More to come.... |
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Epic
More to come.... |
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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
More to come.... |
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Fixed
Wheel
More to come.... |
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Flame
More to come.... |
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Fontana
More to come.... |
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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
More to come.... |
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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
More to come.... |
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Golden
Guinea
Pye
More to come.... |
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Golden
Hour
More to come.... |
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Good
Vibes
More to come.... |
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Granauile
More to come.... |
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Harmac
More to come.... |
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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
Records, a subsidiary of Release Records was managed by
the late Brian Molloy and came on the scene in early 1972.
Its early releases were of bands which Brian managed like
the Cotton Mill Boys and Tracy and the Grassroots.
Eventually, the label branched out to include non-roster
artists like Sandy Duskey and Kim Newport. |
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Heritage
More to come.... |
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Hit
More to come.... |
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HMV - The history of the label using the trademark, His
Master's Voice (HMV) is complex and difficult to track. It
was apparently closely link in Europe to RCA which started
EMI in the 1930's.By the time the showband era rolled around
RCA had sold EMI. However, EMI continued to own the HMV
label in the UK until the 1980's. Like Pye, HMV was one of
the first labels to promote artists in Ireland and, in fact,
through the Royal Showband, they were responsible for the
first showband record, Tom Dunphy's Come Down The
Mountain Katy Daly (see photo to the right). |
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Homespun
More to come.... |
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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 issued 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
More to come.... |
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IRF
More to come.... |
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Joy
More to come.... |
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Jump appears to be a label started by Denis Allen of
"Limerick You're Lady fame. Most of its releases
either featured Denis, or songs written by Denis. We will
try to get more info in the future. |
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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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K-Tel
More to come.... |
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Laverne
More to come.... |
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Libra
More to come.... |
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Little
Black Records
More to come.... |
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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
More to come.... |
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Magnet
More to come.... |
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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 (brother of
Mervyn) was the manager
of the Bachelors and along with his wife Dorothy, was a
major promoter of live acts from their home base in London
in the early 60's. Later, he invested in the famous pirate radio station Radio
Caroline. A major promoter of theatrical events in
Dublin as well, Philip sadly passed away in April, 2011. |
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Marble
Arch
More to come.... |
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MCA
Dave Pennefeather was running this label from '85
through 1999, when it merged with Universal. During that
time, he signed acts such as Johnny McEvoy, Cactus World
News, Declan Nerney and Liam O'Connor, among other Irish
acts. When the merge happened with Universal, he also signed
many Irish acts with varying degrees of success, among them
Simon Casey, Tommy Fleming, Bell X One, The Blizzards, Duke
Special, David O'Connor and quite a few more, as well as
working with Irish acts signed by their international
labels. Van Morrison, U2 and Boyzone being among those
artists. |
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Meglo
More to come.... |
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Menlo:
Based in Limerick, unsure how many releases they
produced. |
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Menlo-International |
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Mint
More to come.... |
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Mother:
From Dave Pennefeather: This U2 owned philanthropic
label was, for a few years, run by myself, in tandem with
MCA, out of the Sir John Robertsons Quay complex, which
housed the U2 management offices, as well as Record
Services, our Irish owned distribution company, responsible
for many Irish label's much needed representation. Mother
signed acts for that 'leg up' start that so many acts needed
and was non profit, a hugely generous gesture by U2 and
their team. |
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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 Jimmy Crowley,
Scullion and Pumpkinhead.
They also were heavily involved in promoting Irish punk rock
in late 70's and early 80's including the Boomtown Rats and
others. 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
More to come.... |
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OIympic
More to come.... |
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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 troubled past with disputes with Horslips
(royalties) and the Dubliners (master tapes) which finally
led to the label's downfall in 2004. 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
More to come.... |
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Phoenix - Reported in the February 8th issue of
Spotlight magazine that the
new Phoenix label was started by Mick Nolan and Shane
Redmond |
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Picadilly
More to come.... |
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Plamas -
Started by Danny Hughes in 1978. First release was Liam
Rowsome, son of Uilean piper, Leo. Also recorded bands like
Dingle Spike and Spailpin, very much a traditional Irish
label. |
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Play
More to come.... |
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Plough
More to come.... |
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Point
More to come.... |
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Polydor - The German based company opened up offices
in Dublin in March, 1970 and signed a number of Irish
artists in their first year including Taste, the Urge, Jim
McCann, D.J. Curtin and the Kerry Blues, the East Coast Linemen,
and Johnny Regan and the Tumbleweeds. They also signed Anna McGoldrick through their London office. Over the next decade
the label had hits with a variety of Irish acts including
Bagatelle's Summer In Dublin. |
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PRT
More to come.... |
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Pye - British based Pye, who made radios and TVs, got
into the record business in 1953 when they bought Nix
Records. In 1958, Pye International Records was formed and
licensed recordings from many overseas artists. They appear
to have been the first "major" label, along with HMV to make
records for the "showband" era. When the rights to the name
Pye expired in 1980, the label changed its name to PRT,
which stood for Precision Records and Tapes. Its back
catalogue was later acquired by Castle Communications.
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Quality - Short lived label started by band promoter Con
Hines in the late 60's. Not many releases that we know of
anmd our thanks to Eoin Maloney for the scan of the
single at right. |
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RAK
More to come.... |
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RAM
More to come.... |
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RCA
More to come.... |
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Release
-
Founded in 1968 and headed by Mick Clerkin (who had
previously been with King Records), Release was the
definitive showband record label, and at the time was a
complete package which included management, record label and
music publishing. It's first release was the Fairways, The
Invisible Reilly by the late Gary Street. Over the years, it issued
recordings by many major showband artists and was very
closely involved with the "country and Irish" boom of the
70's. The
label ran into financial difficulties in the early 1980s and
ceased operations. Info from Paddy Brennan's, Golden Era
of Irish Showbands. We understand most of their
master tapes were destroyed. |
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Rex
-
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 one of the
mainstays of the label for many years.
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Rockelly
More to come.... |
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Ruby - The Ruby Record label was started by brother Des
and Johnny Kelly, formerly of the Capitol Showband after
they quite the band and went into management. They had a
roster of country artists which included bands like the
Smokeys and Virginians and created the label to release
their own product. |
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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
More to come.... |
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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
More to come.... |
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Smashed
More to come.... |
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Solo
More to come.... |
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Son: From Dave Pennefeather: Son, I started as a
companion label to Mother. It's purpose was to sign acts
that didn't fit the Mother bill, and was a commercial
venture. Among its releases were 2 of the biggest ever Irish
singles, 'Riverdance' and 'Put em Under Pressure'. Son
also signed the fabulous Christie Hennnesy and launched his
career with the enormously successful 'The Rehearsal' album. |
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Spartan
More to come.... |
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Spider: Spider was
created as a quality Irish pop label in 1979 by Tommy
Hayden, Tony Byrne and Dave Pennefeather, as a vehicle for
THE, a management company. Red Hurley, Gina and The
Champions, Twos Company, Sandy Jones, The Conquerors and
Johnny Logan among the roster. Spider shut down operations
in '82, as it was impossible to operate in a market of
Ireland's small size, creating largely expensive productions
of such high standard. From Dave Pennefeather.
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State
More to come.... |
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Stop - Reported in Disco Chat with Larry Gogan in
Spotlight on May 29, 1975 to have been started by the
Memories. Not sure what future, if any the label had as the
Memories were soon recording on the Hawk label. |
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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 was dormant between 1983 and 2011,
but released a new CD single by Kim Newport in May, 2011.
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Talisman/EMI
More to come.... |
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TAP
More to come.... |
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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 -
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. The label replaced the little known Checker
label. 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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TON Records
- Label run by Ted O'Neill who was managing Chips in 1975.
The label's name is made up of Ted's initials. We know that
Chips released "Love Matters" on the label, but we are
unsure whether there were any other releases. More to
come... |
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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 was 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
More to come.... |
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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
More to come.... |
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United
Artists
More to come.... |
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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 More to come.... |
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WEA
More to come.... |
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Young
Blood/CBS
More to come.... |
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Record Labels
(archive to 1990)
