Counting Brinsley Schwarz as a label in its own right is debatable to say the least. However, when I started putting the site together one of the rules that I decided upon was that 'vanity' labels - ones designed, usually by major companies, to give records by favoured bands a distinct identity - didn't qualify to be treated separately unless they featured the band's name twice: as a logo and separately as the artist. Ninety-nine percent of them - those used for records by Queen, Buzzcocks and 999 to name but three - failed that test, but Brinsley Schwarz was one of the few that passed it. As a band, Brinsley Schwarz recorded for Liberty / United Artists from 1970 until 1975, when they broke up. Most of their records came out on the usual United Artists labels of the time, but in 1974 two singles and a pair of LPs were given a discrete label, the one shown above. The singles in question were 'I've Cried My Last Tear' b/w 'Bring Down' (UP-35642; 3/74) and 'Peace, Love And Understanding' b/w 'Ever Since You're Gone' (UP-35700; 6/74); the albums were 'The New Favourites Of Brinsley Schwarz' (UAS-29641) and 'Original Golden Greats' (USP-101). The catalogue numbers of the singles were taken from the main United Artists series. Subsequent singles reverted to the United Artists label. No single by the band as such ever threatened the Top 50 - even reissues of the popular songs 'Country Girl' and 'Peace, Love And Understanding' in 1978 failed to do the trick - but members Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds went on to enjoy a lot of Chart success under their own names in the late '70s and beyond. Indeed, it may have been their success which prompted the reissue of the Brinsley Schwarz material. Thanks to Eddie Hutchinson for reminding me that in 1979 Ian Gomm, another member of the band, scored a Top 20 hit with 'Hold On' b/w 'Chicken Run' - but only in America, not here.
Copyright 2022 Robert Lyons.