Rim - Rediffusion International Music - was a subsidiary of Rediffusion, a prominent dealer in budget-priced records. Most of Rediffusion's products were LPs, but it made the occasional venture into the singles market. It had six different labels, at different times, for its singles output: in addition to Rim there were Rediffusion, Gold Star, Fusion, Classical Pops and Supraphon (q.v. all). Rim was the most prolific. It had two separate incarnations, one in the '60s and one in the late '70s. The '60s version initially had a gold-and-white-halved label design (1), which was replaced by a green-on-orange-yellow one (2) with RIM-8 in November 1968; at least sixteen singles were issued, with numbers in a RIM-0 series, from 1967-69. Manufacture of the first example shown above was by British Homophone, the second by Phonodisc. 'Record Retailer' of the 17th of June 1968 said that Rim was the label of Rediffusion Reditunes, Rediffusion's supplier of background music to industry; 'RR' of the 9th of September reported that distribution of RIM records was to switch from the British Independent Record Distributors group to Philips, later that month. That article also said that RIMs 9, 10 and 11 would be the first singles affected by the deal. An advert in 'RR' of the 15th of January 1969 confirmed that Philips was handling RIM at that time. Demo copies, which had initially been blue with a large white 'A' (4), adopted the Philips-style white with a large hollow red 'A' at some point after the move (5).
RIM was shelved in 1969 and was replaced by the Rediffusion label, which in turn was succeeded by Gold Star (q.v. both). Then in the spring of 1979 the wheel turned full circle and RIM reappeared, this time with a new label design (3) and with its singles numbered in the RIM-000s. Sadly there were to be only three of them. The first numerically was 'Mountain King' b/w 'Opus 13' by the Little Trolls (RIM-001), which was a Disco version of the well-known melody by Grieg; the first to hit the shops was Virginia McKenna's 'The Love That I Have' b/w 'Send In The Clowns' (RIM-002) - the 'A' side was a reissue or re-make of a song that she recorded for Sovereign in 1974 (SOV-125). Rediffusion was responsible for its own distribution and marketing for much of the '70s, but 'Music Week' of the 2nd of June 1979 reported that it had signed a two-year distribution deal with Pinnacle, effective from the 1st of that month. The labels claim that Rediffusion was responsible for manufacture as well as marketing and distribution, but while the company had its own pressing plant, in Caerphilly, the only example of its late-'70s singles that I have seen in the vinyl was a Lyntone pressing. In September 1979 Rediffusion introduced the Fusion (q.v.) label as a 'Pop' counterpart to them MOR-orientated RIM, but neither had a lot of time left. 'MW' of the 19th of January 1980 broke the news that Rediffusion was phasing all of its labels out and would not be producing any more repertoire.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.