In 1976 the Clearwater Recording Company, of Borehamwood, Herts, introduced the concept of 7" records with very extended playing times - their publicity claimed that the records offered an album's worth of material. The first five EPs were issued on the Clearwater Microgroove label (q.v.), with catalogue numbers in a CLW-1000 series. Over the course of the year the company's name seems to have changed to Clearwater International (on the sleeve of CLW-1003) and then to Microgroove Ltd (on the sleeve of CLW-1005); for the sixth release, a ten-track EP by The Cockatoos, 'Nice & Easy' (CLW-1006; 1976) the label name became plain 'Microgroove' and the company's logo appeared on the label. It seems likely that CLW-1007, a various artists 'Bob Dylan Tribute' according to the sleeve of CLW-1005, would also have been given the new label, but as I have yet to see a copy I can't be sure.
There were no releases in 1977, but one further Microgroove EP eventually saw the light of day: it was an eight-tracker by a band called Appianova, 'Appianova At La Roca' (MIG-1 78). There's no date on the label but it seems likely that the '78' in the catalogue number is the year in which the record was issued; the Linkedin page of the band's leader Renato Paoli says that he left in July of that year (see 'Rospel'), so Appianova may have broken up at that time, which would support the '1978' theory. The label had a new logo, but the P.O. Box number on the sleeve was the same as that of the the 1976 Microgroove company, and producer John Fairer-Smith appears to have been involved with both. Perhaps the Appianova EP was Clearwater / Microgroove's second - and final - attempt at convincing the public that their album-length EPs were a practical proposition. Thanks to Graham7 of the 45cat site for permission to use his scan of that EP here.
Copyright 2019 Robert Lyons.