One of those cases where a label hasn't got a name and I've had to use the artist's name as an identifier. Having appeared on television in 'Z Cars' and 'Coronation Street' Ron Davies is probably better known as an actor than as a singer, but, according to the sleeve of his 'With Pleasure' EP, in addition to his acting career he sang in cabarets and on cruise liners. There's no date on the EP, but a 'CRS' in the run-off indicates that it was cut at the County Recording Service (q.v.) studio. Records on the Discogs site with that mark date from between 1977 and 1981, which narrows the possibilities down a little. Half of the ones from 1978, most of the ones from 1979 and all of the ones from the '80s also have 'EG' in the run-off, which the rest lack; the EP doesn't have it, which suggests that it may come from 1977 or 1978. In addition, the sleeve notes refer to Ron Davies's television roles, but they don't mention his appeareance in an episode of ITV's 'Backs To The Land' in December 1977. On the grounds that it would be odd to list old appearances and ignore a recent one, I would therefore hazard that the EP pre-dated that episode, if not by much - 1977 would tie-in with the absence of an 'EG' from the run-off. If anybody can confirm or correct that date I'd be interested to hear from them. The matrix number of the EP was RD-6418, which sadly doesn't ring any bells with me. Ron sang in a confident Jazzy style; in addition to 'Summer Knows' and 'Funny Valentine', shown in the scan, he provided versions of '[For The] Good Times' and 'The Best Is Yet To Come'.
Copyright 2018 Robert Lyons.