FRESH
AIR
A member of the
Phonogram family, Fresh Air was owned by promoter / producer Tony
Hall. It issued an interesting mixture of Soul, Reggae and Pop, but
failed to crack the charts in Britain; it did however enjoy success on
mainland Europe with Velvet Glove's 'Sweet Was My Rose'. Fresh Air's
lifespan was from 1973-1975. It issued at least twenty-five singles
in a 6121-100 series - most Phonogram-group singles of this period had six-digit
catalogue numbers beginning with a '6', and Fresh Air was no
exception. A few numbers seem not to have been used. The
singles' labels were all injection-moulded; needless to say, the paper LP labels
were more attractive. According to 'Music Week' of the 15th of September
1973 the company was undecided about which side of its first single, by Shark
Wilson, to promote as the 'A'; it sent out 500 copies to DJs, asked for
their reaction, and went for 'Where Are We Going' instead of 'Too Much
Pain'. Copies with silver labels and 'Too Much Pain' marked as the 'A' can
be found, and are presumably from the original DJ-only pressing of
500. Hall had apparently made an earlier attempt at setting up a
label: 'Billboard' of the 8th of July 1967 reported that
he had left his job as head of promotions
at Decca to set up his own company, T.H.E. (Tony Hall Enterprises), and
was seeking his own label from one of the major record
companies. Nothing seems to have come of that
search at the time.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.