One of musician / producer Eddy Grant's labels (see also 'Torpedo'). Grant set up Coach House Studios in the mid '70s after recovering from a severe illness. He began issuing records on the Ice label in the UK in October 1977, though he had registered the name in Guyana in 1972 and had been producing records for the West Indian market there since that time. In November 1977 the company faced a legal challenge from Anchor and from Indigo (q.v. both) over who had the rights to the 'Ice' name - see the other two 'Ice' labels on this site. 'Music Week' of the 26th of November indicates that the judgement had been inconclusive, and states that Grant had changed his Ice's singles prefix to GUYANA to help avoid confusion - initially they had used an ICE-0 numerical series, as had those of both the other claimants. As a result of the change the 'ICE-0' singles can all be found with replacement 'GUYANA' prefixes. Early the following year Anchor dropped its Ice label, and Indigo appears to have done the same, which left the field clear for this Ice. Another change of prefix followed in short order; the new numbers were in the GUY-0s. Again it seems that some of the old singles received new prefixes: Eddie Grant's 'Hello Africa', which was initially ICE-1, can be found with a 'GUY-1' sticker over the old number. Just to add to the confusion, the single which logically ought have been GUY-8 came out as GUYANA-8, and can be found with '1977' and '1978' on the label - the '1977' was presumably a misprint. Pressing and distribution were by Pye at first, and a reference to Pye can be found on the labels of the 'GUY-0' singles up to GUY-15 (2). The agreement seems to have been for twelve months, as from October 1978 Ice appears to have operated as an independent - GUY-18 and several subsequent singles have 'Distributed by Ice Records' at the bottom of the label. According to the 'Music Week' listings these singles were distributed by Lugton for Ice. 'Music Week' of the 4th of August 1979 carried the news that Ice had signed a licensing deal with WEA, and that Eddy Grant's 'Walking On Sunshine' was scheduled as the first product under the deal. The following week, however, 'MW' revealed that there had been a falling-out over a major clause in the deal, to which Eddy Grant had not been able to agree. Ice had signed a licensing deal with Virgin instead, and WEA were consulting their lawyers. No legal action seems to have been brought, however; Ice linked up with Virgin, and the Virgin logo appeared at the bottom of the label. Along with the rest of Virgin's product, Ice was handled by CBS as it entered the '80s. Happily, there was no further change of numbering at the time of the switch. Chart success for the label came in June 1979 when Eddy Grant's 'Living On The Frontline' was issued in a one-off deal with Ensign Records (q.v.) as ENY-26; that success was repeated in the early '80s, again in a partnership with Ensign. Around that time Grant built another studio, in Barbados, and shifted Ice's centre of operations to that country. It is still in business there today, mainly working in the field of Calypso music. The discography below only covers the 1970s. The numbers and dates given in it are mainly those given by 'Music Master'.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.