A Tottenham-based Reggae label, run by Keith Hudson and Brent Clarke. Catalogue numbers suggest that Atra released some thirty singles during its first era, 1972-76, but at least eleven of them seem to have been cancelled after being notified to the Trade press - they were listed in 'Music Master', 'Music Week' and / or 'The New Singles' but there's no vinyl evidence of them. 'Music Master' has many of Atra's early singles as being marketed by President and distributed by Enterprise, and quite a few of them are 'lost' ones. It may perhaps be that a disagreement between Atra and President led to those not being released, but that is only speculation. Atra took over both its own marketing and distribution in early 1974. The company's sole mention in 'Music Week' came in the issue of the 18th of October 1975, which described it as a British-based label specializing in Black music; the article said that Virgin was to take over its distribution from the 24th of that month, with singles by Keith Hudson and Locks Lee being the first releases under the deal. The agreement seems to have been short-lived, possibly because Virgin and Atra soon became involved in a dispute over Hudson's contract ('MW', 31st January 1976) - Virgin wanted to sign him and eventually did so.
Singles were usually given an ATRA prefix, though for a couple it was shortened to AR; the numerical part started from 1 and went on to 30, often with one or two zeros being put before the number itself. ATRA-30 came out at some point in 1976, after which there was a lull. A 12" single, numbered ATRA-32-DA came out in 1980, and in the third quarter of that decade Atra resurfaced, mainly as an issuer of albums. A number of different label designs were used in the '70s. A lion and a 'diamond' logo (1) were abandoned after the first single, and were replaced by an Egyptian 'ankh' and a logo in a bolder font (2). This served till ARs-20 and 21, which had a 'quartered' design and a new font (3); for ATRAs-22 to 26 this was replaced by a 'thin triangle' and another new font, this time a wavery one (4). Finally, with ATRA-27, there came a relaxed young man under a tree (5), who lasted until at least 1980. Thanks to Robert Bowes for the first and third scans, and to Sam Mauger for the fourth.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.