Owned by Neil Rushton. Inferno was a label specializing in imports of American Soul records, primarily to meet the demand generated by the popularity of the Northern Soul scene. It started life in mid 1979, with distribution was by One Stop, but moved to Pinnacle in the Autumn of that year. According to Music Master, many of the singles seem to have been reissued c.1983, again through Pinnacle. Singles were numbered in a HEAT-0 series; the highest number I have happened upon so far was HEAT-24. 1980 saw a short-lived 'BEAT-0' series. 'Music Master' gives several 'NR' prefixed singles from the '70s, of which I can find no trace elsewhere; they may well not exist, but I have listed them below for the sake of completeness - the discography contains all the 1979-80 singles that I have seen listed. In 1982 Inferno got a second wind; the HEAT-0 numbering was replaced by a BURN-0 one and the label became Inferno Soul Club. There was an Inferno label which numbered its singles in a HELL-0 series, dated from the early '80s and was handled by Rough Trade; that was a different company. Thanks to Roger Foster for discographical information and for the second scan.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.