LOOK
Look Records was based in
Huddersfield, and was established by George Parks and David
Whiteley. It was in part a custom recording business,
specializing in making records by Club / Cabaret artists and thus enabling them
to have something to sell to their fans at gigs, but it also signed artists and
produced records by them at its own expense. Look started out in or
around 1971 as a label owned by Rockingham Enterprises. The records were
made at what was then the Northern Broadcast Recordings studio, and the singles
(and albums?) had numbers in the REM-100s. In 1974 Rockingham Enterprises
amalgamated with Northern Broadcast Recordings to form Look Records
Ltd. Briefly records were numbered in the LK-100s, but the
numbers appear to have jumped into the 500s in fairly short order; at that
point prefixes were introduced, 'LK/SP' for singles, LK/EP' or 'LK/MLP' for EPs,
and LK/LP for albums - sometimes the hyphen is missing or is replaced by a full
stop. The numbers seem to have jumped again, into the 5000s, by the
end of 1975. They reached 6050 in 1976, probably after another jump -
it seems unlikely that the company could have put out a thousand records in one
year - and by December 1981 they had got to 6675. Even allowing for
the jumps in numbering that indicates a large number of releases, but
pressing-runs for albums, EPs and singles alike must have been fairly
small.
There were several different label designs. The
only REM-prefixed single that I have seen had a similar design to the first one
shown above but was coloured white. The orange label (1) is the earliest
type for LK-prefixed records that I have tracked down so far; it also came in white (in
1972) and in light blue (2). The second design (3) appears to date from 1975 and came in several different
colours, such red-on-white (4) and green-on-white (5). By 1976 that design had been replaced by a
blue one with silver writing and a different logo (6). That same
year the old round logo returned and injection moulded labels were introduced
(7, 8, 9). Amidst the injection moulded singles at least one record was pressed in Ireland, for some reason, and had
a plain-looking white label (11) - the scan
appears by courtesy of Robert Bowes. A few issues from 1977 were given 'pupils' in the
'OO' of 'Look', turning them into eyes (10). 1978 saw the
return of paper labels as the norm, and the logo turning three-dimensional (12). By 1979 the
label had changed again, turning pink; it now had the word 'look' in
large letters on its lower half (13). For a while in 1979, starting with LK/EP-6366, the artist's name moved to the bottom (14) but by the time LK/EP-6455 came out
it had returned to its original position. The pink
label lasted into the early mid '80s, though the injection-moulded form made
the occasional comeback - the blue one (15) dates from 1979. Pressings were done
by Lyntone and Phonodisc, among others. The few 1970s Look 7"
records that I have managed to trace so far are listed
below, though the list hardly scratches the surface; see also 'September Sound'. Karen Hatchard, the daughter
of George Parks, as sent along an account of the
company from its earliest beginnings to 1977. It makes for fascinating reading, in my opinion,
and as it is a bit on the large side I
have given it its own separate page. It can be found by clicking the link below. Thanks to
Finn Bernard for the scan of the red injection moulded label, and to
John Timmis for the picture of the second pink
label.
Copyright 2012 Robert Lyons.