'Britain and Europe's Finest Post-War Blues Label', is the claim made on the label of the second scan shown above, which dates from 1980; it is as clear a statement of policy as anyone could wish for. Red Lightnin' was established in 1968 by Peter Shertser, and is still going today, operating out of premises in North Lopham, Diss, Norfolk. In the years that concern this site its LPs, EPs and singles shared a common numerical series for the most part, with each type of record using a different prefix: 'RL EP' for EPs, 'RL 45' for singles, and just plain 'RL' for LPs. Albums were in the majority; there appear to have been only six 7" records issued in the company's first fifteen years, and just the one of those - a split EP called 'Superharps', which was shared between Billy Boy Arnold and Little Walter (RLEP-0027; 9/79) dates from the '70s. Oddly, some copies of that record came with a variant of the Lightning (q.v.) label (1) - perhaps these were re-pressings. According to the label of the Tommy Tucker single pictured above, unauthorised public broadcasting of Red Lightnin' records was allowed; which was nice of them. There is a website for Red Lightnin' here.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.