Constellations singles B&S reviews 1968

[Rick Cooper]

• Looking through some old Blues and Soul mags came across these reviews for the Constellations singles on Gemini Star.
• 

I think the "Bell Sounds" reviews were probably done by Trevor Churchill as he was at EMI looking after the Bell group issues for the UK. It wouldn't have been possible to order these from your local record shop, unless that was Soul City. I suppose it was to try to raise the profile of the records from the Bell group. He must have been sent every release from the US unless Soul City got them for him. Anyone got any more info?

Would EMI have been sent every US release on the labels they represented? If so what happened to them? Imagine every Veep, UA,Capitol,Tower, Okeh, Musicor, Amy,Mala and all the rest arriving weekly.

Rick

[Ian Dewhirst]

• Looking through some old Blues and Soul mags came across these reviews for the Constellations singles on Gemini Star.
• 

I think the "Bell Sounds" reviews were probably done by Trevor Churchill as he was at EMI looking after the Bell group issues for the UK. It wouldn't have been possible to order these from your local record shop, unless that was Soul City. I suppose it was to try to raise the profile of the records from the Bell group. He must have been sent every release from the US unless Soul City got them for him. Anyone got any more info?

Would EMI have been sent every US release on the labels they represented? If so what happened to them? Imagine every Veep, UA,Capitol,Tower, Okeh, Musicor, Amy,Mala and all the rest arriving weekly.

Rick

I'm sure they would have but I don't know where they were sent. Most of the UK majors automatically got sent US releases which were generally kept in archive somewhere. The only archive I ever had access to was the Decca/London archive and that had every copy of every U.S. release religiously filed in catalog number order. I think exactly the same for RCA UK. I'm not sure about EMI, even though I worked there for a few years in the 80s.

Many of the UK major publishers also had similar archives full of U.S. singles. Every so often, one of those 60s record company/publishing guys rolls up at a London record fair with a stall of goodies rescued from their lofts......

Ian D

[Steve G]

• Looking through some old Blues and Soul mags came across these reviews for the Constellations singles on Gemini Star.

Would EMI have been sent every US release on the labels they represented? If so what happened to them? Imagine every Veep, UA,Capitol,Tower, Okeh, Musicor, Amy,Mala and all the rest arriving weekly.

Rick

Almost certainly most of them I'd say after the tariffs on releasing non British music were abolished in the mid 60s. But not all. I'd imagine most of them have long been absorbed into collections here.

Nice post.