HAWK (Ireland)



An oddity.  This particular Hawk label was Irish, and was part of the Tom Costello Organization.  Its records were pressed in the Republic and were generally only available in Britain as imports; it would not qualify for this site were it not for the fact that the singles shown above were given a proper release over here.   According to Billboard magazine of the 4th of May 1974 Brendan Quinn's 'Behind Closed Doors' b/w 'Ride Me Down Easy' (HASP-337; 4/74) had been playlisted by the BBC; it was currently being imported by Shannon but Pye were being given the option of distributing it.  Whether Pye took up that option or not we shall probably never know, but if they did it would have made a mildly interesting factlet.  Uniquely for Hawk records, 'Music Week' listed the single on its 'Releases' page - which for my money qualifies it as a UK release - and gave a release date of the 20th of April.  A couple of years later the Cotton Mill Boys' cover of the classic 'Rainin' In My Heart' b/w 'Orange Blossom Special' (HASP-396; 10/76) was mentioned in 'Music Week' of the 30th of October 1976, which said that 'By public demand' the single had been made available through distributors Wynd-up, Clyde Factors, Record Enterprises, and importers Shannon, of London.  The demand seem to have been a result of the band winning the ITV talent show 'Opportunity Knocks'.  Adding to its credentials as a UK release it was listed in the 'Music Master' book of British singles, with a release date of October 1976.  The record itself was pressed by Pye in Ireland, but the picture sleeve in which it came was English - it lists Shannon as one of the distributors.  That particular single - or rather the cover - seems to have been a one-off, but it's a mildly interesting one. 
Hawk issued around 150 singles and an equally large number of albums in its native land between 1972 and 1982, via Release Records (q.v.), though the early '80s only saw sporadic releases.  The material on them appears to have been a mixture of Showband, Traditional, and Country & Irish material - standard middle-of-the-road Irish fare - and the Cotton Mill Boys single slots in there nicely.  'Music Week' of the 25th of February 1978 reported that the company had set up a London office in an attempt to make 'an eventual breakthrough into the international market', and was operating out of it as 'Hawk International' with Brian Molloy as managing director and Peter Knight, previously managing director of NEMS (q.v.), co-ordinating and supervising.  Sadly the attempt doesn't seem to met with great success.  According to the 'Music Master' book of 'British Pop Singles 1975-84', Shannon imported other Hawk singles in the second half of the 1970s; they don't meet my criteria for UK releases but they can be found listed on the 'Shannon' page.  Doubtless earlier ones were imported but didn't make it to the pages of 'MM'.

Copyright 2011 Robert Lyons.