A custom recording label, one which offered some Rockabilly items as well as the usual home-grown Country music and Club / Cabaret material. Box was based in Heckmondwyke, Yorkshire. Many of its records were produced or engineered by Bill Clarke, which suggests that he may well have been the driving force behind the company. Singles, EPs and LPs appear to have generally shared the same BOX-00 numbering system; from some point in 1977 EPs gained an 'EP' suffix and LPs an 'LP' one. I haven't seen any number higher than BOX-23, from 1976, which suggests that they may have started at BOX-20 in that year or in 1975. The latest Box that I have seen listed was Country Sunshine's 'Are You Teasing Me' EP (BOX-59; 1983), so it seems reasonable to guess that Box was in business from c.1976 to c.1984. Being an independent, Box went to various companies to get its pressings done. Some early Boxes were manfactured by the Anglia Pressing Company (1) (see 'Yarmouth Recording Studios'), and 1976-77 saw the appearance of injection moulded labels (2) which indicate Phonodisc pressings. 1978 started with paper labels in orange or blue, with the 'BOX' name in large letters (3, 4); it finished with the name being given a hollow font - again the labels came in various colours, including pale orange or shades of green (5). From 1979 onwards manufacture was done through custom recording firm SRT (q.v.) and the records gained SRT catalogue or matrix numbers: the Kelly Duo and Brian & Friends EPs shown above (6, 7) were cases in point, as can be seen from the SRTS/79/CUS and BOX numbers at three o'clock. The label layout of those EPs was the standard one which SRT used for its private pressings; only the colour and the name changed from company to company - see Esoteric for another example. An EP by the Rockabilly Rebs (SRTS/79/CUS-524 / BOX-48 EP) had the orange SRT-type label but no Box logo. The discography below lists all the Box records from the 1970s that I have managed to track down. Thanks to Nicholas Hough for the first scan, to Robert Bowes for the second, and to John Timmis for the third.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.