SOUTHERN SOUND
A slightly odd one. Southern Sound appears to
have been an enthusiast's label, run by somebody who liked the tracks enough to
license them and make them available to like-minded people. That
'somebody' was Terry Waghorne, and his company operated out of premises in
Grafton Road, London. It issued at least five singles during the years
1972-74, most of which seem to have been Rockabilly; though the Danny James
record shown above, 'Your Gravy Train' (BT-100; 1972) might very loosely be
described as 'Swamp R & B'. Several different label
designs and two sets of catalogue numbers - BT-100 and
SSR-500 - were used. Pressing of the Danny James record was by C. H. Rumble,
of 15, Bedford Row, London W1; they were a firm which
patented a new process for pressing the labels on to records, one which
never really caught on. The matrix number of the Narvel Felts singles shown
above suggests that they were at least initially made through custom recording
firm John Hassell Recordings (q.v.). There were also a couple of albums, by
Hank C. Burnette and the Dave Lee Sound. A May 1974 issue of
'Billboard' magazine revealed that Southern Sound had signed a contract with Sea Cruise Productions of
St. Louis, USA, to release its product here on the Sea
Cruise label (q.v.), but little seems to have come of it and the company appears
not to have issued any records after 1974.
Thanks to Neil Thompson for bringing the label to my
attention, and to Tapio Väisänen for supplying discographical information and
the scans of the Narvel Felts singles.
Copyright 2008 Robert Lyons.