An independent label from the North East of England. According to 'Record Retailer' of the 2nd of October 1971 Rubber was a joint venture between Impulse Studios, One Way management and Mawson & Wareham Music, of Wallsend-on-Tyne. Although it primarily concentrated on albums Rubber issued at least twenty singles, starting in 1970; one of them, Mike Harding's, 'Rochdale Cowboy' b/w 'Strangeways Hotel' (ADUB-3), was a novelty hit in 1975. Numbering was actually lettering to begin with, as in RUBBER ONE and RUBBER TWO, but by the time of the third release a more conventional ADUB-0 series had been adopted. Though the label's design remained pretty much the same the colouring and typeface changed now and again, as shown by the examples above. The first single was black with silver printing (1); ADUB-2 to ADUB-11 were white with black printing,as was TUB-12. From ADUB-13 (3/78) until ADUB-18 (12/79) the label could be found in mid blue with white printing (6), and light blue with white (7) or black printing (8). Early pressings of ADUB-3 have the Impulse studios logo on them (2), later ones do not. The occasional Rubber escaped in the 1980s, ADUB-20 appearing in 1988; Rubber's sister-label MWM (q.v.) kept on going and is still in operation today.
Initially distribution was by H.R. Taylor and Selecta; 'RR' of the 8th of April 1972 reported that Transatlantic and MWM were taking over that task with immediate effect. Transatlantic was sold to Logo in 1977, and 'Music Week' of the 27th of August broke the news that its distribution facilities were being closed; when that happened Selecta took over that job for Rubber as well as for Logo's own labels. In March 1980 Mawson & Wareham Music signed a long-term distribution deal with Spartan for both Rubber and MWM. Manufacture appears to have been handled by several different companies, including RCA and Linguaphone. Thanks to Robert Bowes for the eigth scan and to Nicholas Hough for the first.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.