CAM (1)
Somewhat obscure, this one. CAM was a small
recording studio, based in Liverpool, and was run by electrical engineer Charles
Weston. From 1964-66 it was responsible for recordings on a label
called Unicord, which had catalogue numbers in the UP-650s; the CAM label
appears to have been a successor to it, and ran from 1966-71. CAM products
were custom recordings, paid for by the artists who made them. The
records are rare, as pressings tended to be tiny - quantities
in excess of 99 copies were eligible for Purchase Tax,
so in order to cut costs people who used custom
recording facilities often opted to have just 99 copies of their
record pressed. I only managed to trace two CAM singles and three CAM EPs, but Adrian Lynch was kind enough to give me details of a fourth. The EPS were The Blue Magnolia Jazz Band's 'Gatemouth Blues' (WO-1209; 1969), The
Panama Jazzband's 'Workingman's Blues' (CAM-0013; 1970) and a couple by Folk group The Crofters, 'Four
By Four' (CAM-21) and 'Another One From The Crofters' (CAM-0022); the singles
were an immensely collectable Psychedelic effort by The
Klubs, 'I Found The Sun' (CAM-681; 1968), and
an obscure offering by a band called The Informers, 'Jennifer' (CAM-300; 1971). The catalogue
number of the Klubs' single indicates that when Unicord was replaced by
CAM the prefix changed but the numerical part was retained for a
while. In his book 'Hidden Histories Of Liverpool's Popular Music Scene' Michael
Brocken says that, when CAM closed down, Harold
Collins, who co-owned the studio with Joe Wilmington, bought his partner's share
of the studio and moved to new premises in Kirkby; the new
studio, called 'Liverpool Sound Enterprises' had its own label (q.v.). Another Cam label (q.v.)
made a brief appearance at the end of the decade. Thanks
to Sam Mauger for the first scan and for bringing the label to
my attention, to Adrian Lynch for the Magnolia Jazz Band scan, and to Mike Jones for pointing me in
the direction of Unicord.
Copyright 2009 Robert Lyons.