One of those cases where the phrase that I've used as a label identifier may well not have been used as the label's name. However, as can be seen from the scan, Holyground and Multicord were credited with joint production on the label, and their names offer as good a means of identification as anything else on there, so I've decided to go with it. There was just the one single on the label: 'The Miners' Song' by John & City Lights was the 'A' side, while City Lights had the 'B' side, 'Colourful Man', to themselves. The single did however come in two versions. One of them was mono, which suggests that it may be the earlier; it had a catalogue number of SOS-1 and was pressed by Orlake. The other was stereo, and it was marketed by Polydor - it has the same label design but a Polydor number, 2058-211. That version dated from March 1972, which suggests that the Orlake may have been from a short while earlier. 'John' was John Paul Joans, who had a hit in 1970 with 'The Man From Nazareth' (RAK-107). Interestingly a report in 'Record & Tape Retailer' of the 4th of March says that John's manager Maureen Priest, who owned the rights to the record, had banned the BBC from playing it. She claimed firstly that producers had been rejecting it because of political implications, and secondly that on the two occasions when it had been played it had been done so in 'a detrimental manner' - Brian Matthew apparently cut the record short and blamed a power cut, while on the 'New Spins' programme Anne Nightingale said that she "would like to tell listeners what label it is on [as was usual on New Spins] but it doesn't appear to have one." The Brian Matthew joke may well have been annoying, but I can only sympathize with Anne Nightingale's problem. See also the 'Multicord' page.
Copyright 2015 Robert Lyons.