The label of IBC Studios, of Portland Place, London. The International Broadcasting Company was started by Leonard Plugge in 1931, with the intention of offering an alternative to the BBC's radio programmes. It broadcast in English from France and, via 'Radio Normandy', made inroads into the BBC audiences in the South of England until the war and the subsequent German occupation of France brought an end to the service. The company's premises, in Portland Place, which had been used to record the broadcasts, began to be used as a recording studio, and in 1952 the studio's name was shortened to IBC. Over the course of the next few decades many major artists recorded at IBC for other companies, and the vast majority of tracks made in the studio came out on other labels, but from the '50s into the mid '70s IBC also offered the opportunity to have acetates cut or records pressed. Numbering of the records was initially in a UPC/xx-3000 series; for singles the 'xx' was '45' when it was used, while for EPs it was 'EP', and for albums 'LP'. In late 1968 or early 1969 the 'UPC' prefix was replaced by an 'IPC' one. The initials UPC were derived from 'Universal Programmes Corporation' a division of International Broadcasting Company which had been responsible for putting programmes together for customers from outside the company.
As is the way with private pressings, IBC's records have proven very difficult to trace, but there were a few seven-inchers amongst them in the 1970s, and therefore it qualifies for a place on this site. The EP by the St. Ives Citadel Band of the Salvation Army, 'Selections From 'Take Over Bid'' (IBC/EP-3630), shown above, came out in 1969; scans of a 1971 EP by a band called Undercarriage (IBC/EP/3655) can be seen on the 45Cat site, as indeed can scans of several other IBC records. In early 1970 IBC linked up with producer Eddie Tre-Vett and launched a commercial label, UPC (q.v.), which sadly didn't last long into 1971. See also 'Sun (IBC)'. The studio was bought by Chas Chandler in 1978 and renamed Portland Recording Studios. The 'discography' below only covers records from 1969 onwards; much of it is the work of 45Catter Whyperion.
Copyright 2012 Robert Lyons.