What record labels series do you miss ?

[Colonel Danby]

I have just one 10 inch LP, but it's a Philips release with Isaac Stern playing the Brahms Violin Concerto with the RPO under Sir Thomas Beecham Bart. I'm not sure whether it a Fontana issue, but it certainly kicks butt IMHO.

[Chris Newman]

Westminster Records had some wonderful recordings and even more extraordinary Record Sleeve Designs:

Here is an example: http://www.westminstergold.com/WGS-8112a.jpg

And here are the rest (click on the pictures to enlarge.....) http://www.westminstergold.com/

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Decca Phase 4 is a label I don't miss. I still have a couple of the original LPs, notable for unnatural orchestral balance and limited dynamic range. Out of curiosity, I tracked down the Phase 4 HMS Pinafore to see whether it lived up to its reputation of being the worst Gilbert & Sullivan recording ever. It did. It's unbelievable that Decca, possibly the finest recording company of all time, should have got involved with such artificial classical recordings.

[Ferretfancy]

Alpensinfonie

You are certainly right about HMS Pinafore, particularly because the earlier Decca set is so good. Don't forget that the classics division of Decca were in no way responsible for Phase 4. I suspect that there was a large element of luck in whether the end results of all the multi-tracking were any good, and of course the whole series was aimed at a public listening on cheap players. That said, as I've mentioned already, some of them were fun!

[Barbirollians]

That Fremaux SS 3 is still available on CfP I think.

[PJPJ]

Yes, it is, though I do wish EMI would remaster for SACD release.

[Colonel Danby]

and a very happy birthday to Louis Fremaux, who celebrated his 90th last Saturday: his tenure with the CBSO was not exactly a happy one, but he did produce some decent recordings including John McCabe's 'Notturni ed Alba' and Lalo's Cello Concerto, and the Symphonie Espagnol, with a very youthful looking Yan Pascal Tortelier.

[Roslynmuse]

A great nostalgia trip reading through this thread! Decca - Ace of Clubs (some G & S releases had significantly higher catalogue numbers, presumably to distinguish them from the more 'serious' ACL 1 onwards releases; what was the name of the Decca label with the prefix SKL?); Ace of Diamonds, Eclipse, Turnabout, World of..., Jubilee - were there any other mid-price labels like that? - and then the SXLs etc... EMI - Concert Classics, of course, Classics for Pleasure and its precurser Music for Pleasure. Someone mentioned the HQSs; anyone remember Studio Two? Both Groves with the RLPO and Fremaux with CBSO recorded for that. Philips - Universo (wonderful thick card sleeves!) and Fontana - still have a Szell Brahms 1 which as far as I know hasn't been reissued. Also a 10" Overtures disc with Szell - Figaro, Thieving Magpie, Bartered Bride; can anyone remember what else? Mercury - Dorati's Beethoven 5 plus overtures with Michelangeli's Sistine Chapel on the cover! (How many of these releases from the 50s and 60s had aspirational art references - Greek or Roman ruins, Renaissance art, Classical sculpture - one exception was the near naked Scheherazade on a Philips release from Ormandy and the Philadelphia!) DG - Heliodor in its various incarnations, Privilege (always thought there was something a bit tacky and cheap about those sleeves) and later Accolade (Beethoven/ BPO/ Karajan). Anyone remember the Classics Club? Do-it-yourself sleeves! Some good stuff though - Leibowitz doing La boutique fantasque was a favourite. Also a few subsets of Saga like Summit, Delta and Society - very dodgy production values but full of memories!

[makropulos]

A great nostalgia trip reading through this thread! Decca - Ace of Clubs (some G & S releases had significantly higher catalogue numbers, presumably to distinguish them from the more 'serious' ACL 1 onwards releases; what was the name of the Decca label with the prefix SKL?); Ace of Diamonds, Eclipse, Turnabout, World of..., Jubilee - were there any other mid-price labels like that? - and then the SXLs etc... EMI - Concert Classics, of course, Classics for Pleasure and its precurser Music for Pleasure. Someone mentioned the HQSs; anyone remember Studio Two? Both Groves with the RLPO and Fremaux with CBSO recorded for that. Philips - Universo (wonderful thick card sleeves!) and Fontana - still have a Szell Brahms 1 which as far as I know hasn't been reissued. Also a 10" Overtures disc with Szell - Figaro, Thieving Magpie, Bartered Bride; can anyone remember what else? Mercury - Dorati's Beethoven 5 plus overtures with Michelangeli's Sistine Chapel on the cover! (How many of these releases from the 50s and 60s had aspirational art references - Greek or Roman ruins, Renaissance art, Classical sculpture - one exception was the near naked Scheherazade on a Philips release from Ormandy and the Philadelphia!) DG - Heliodor in its various incarnations, Privilege (always thought there was something a bit tacky and cheap about those sleeves) and later Accolade (Beethoven/ BPO/ Karajan). Anyone remember the Classics Club? Do-it-yourself sleeves! Some good stuff though - Leibowitz doing La boutique fantasque was a favourite. Also a few subsets of Saga like Summit, Delta and Society - very dodgy production values but full of memories!

What a mouthwatering list! I think SKL was just one of Decca's regular prefixes (usually for more popular releases, and certainly for some of the G&S). As for that Szell Brahms 1, I think it's the same one that surfaced not long ago on United Archives. Fortunately most of the very best Mercury material resurfaced on CD. Less fortunately, most of it has now vanished again...too bad.
But Classics Club - heavens yes - those dark grey/brown plain sleeves with labels stuck on them - there was some interesting stuff. One of the first classical records I ever remember listening to (when I was about 7) was a Classics Club of orchestral dances - I particularly liked the Dance of the Tumblers (Rimsky), as indeed I still do (!)

Oryx - now there's a label that I don't think has had a mention yet? There were some rather nice 7 inch discs including lots of historic organs (I remember a splendidly raucous Spanish one), things like Pachelbel harpsichord pieces and - and among others - there was a record of CPE Bach Flute Concertos conducted by one Pierre Boulez.

And at the dodgy end of the market, there was Hallmark and Marble Arch which I used to find in the Reading branch of Woolworth's. The former had the Mindru Katz/Boult Khachaturian Piano Concerto on it, and Marble Arch had several of Boult's "Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra" discs, as well as Hugo Rignold et al.

Oh - I liked Wing too - mostly Philips stuff, but some interesting other things: Konwitchny's Beethoven Symphonies cycle with the Leipzig Gewandhaus was my first ever boxed set.

There's another label whose name I simply cannot remember - help me here. They used to turn up in WHSmith sales at insanely cheap prices, and the sleeves had a coloured band at the top with the title information, and then a black and white reproduction of a painting - a bit like a cheap and cheerful Ace of Clubs look about them - and some Classics-Club type performances... Anyone else remember this one?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I seem to recall that Decca SKL was a medium price label, around 32/6 when SXL was 37/6 and ACL was 20/6. But memory sometimes plays trick, though it is the sort of utterly useless information I often remember.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What were those garish-paper-sleeved Philips 7 inch EPs featuring short pieces such as overtures? The first record I was ever given was in this series. I don't know who was performing, but it was Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, with the slow introduction side one. What a bad place to have to stop and turn over? How lucky we are today.

[barber olly]

I seem to recall that Decca SKL was a medium price label, around 32/6 when SXL was 37/6 and ACL was 20/6. But memory sometimes plays trick, though it is the sort of utterly useless information I often remember.

I think LK/SKLs were 32/2 to EMI's Parlophone PMC (Beatles LPs) /PCS ,Columbia SX/SCX, HMV CLP/CSD were 32/0.

[Don Petter]

I think LK/SKLs were 32/2 to EMI's Parlophone PMC (Beatles LPs) /PCS ,Columbia SX/SCX, HMV CLP/CSD were 32/0.

Spot on! Though when SKLs first appeared (March 1959 or thereabouts) they were 35/10, as were the others you mention.

[Don Petter]

Anyone remember the Classics Club? Do-it-yourself sleeves! Some good stuff though - Leibowitz doing La boutique fantasque was a favourite.

I remember the Classics Club existing, though never dabbled there myself. I did know a friend's mother who joined the World Record Club early on, and they came with a plain dark blue universal cover, to which you stuck the small supplied gummed title label (about 3" by 1½"), over the blank rectangle.

[barber olly]

Spot on! Though when SKLs first appeared (March 1959 or thereabouts) they were 35/10, as were the others you mention.

....and the prices in the '60s fluctuated depending on the government of day's use of Purchase Tax.