BGS was formed in 1972 as a label and a studio by Bill Garden, Sydney Devine's pianist. It was based in Strathaven, in Scotland, in the 1970s; the company was later to move to Kilsyth, Glasgow. It was responsible for two labels, BGS Chord and Country House (q.v.); singles and albums on both labels shared the same BGC or BGS-100 numerical series, though later singles had a '7S' between the prefix and the number. Not many BGS records appear in catalogues or online, which makes giving dates of operation difficult. The green-labelled Ovation single shown above, 'Lovey Dovey' (BGC-139), has a matrix number of DER-1222, which, if it is one of the series used by Deroy - which I suspect it is - would give a year of release of 1975, which seems about right. The only other green BGS Chord single that I have seen was Alan Grant's 'Story Of A Starry Night' (BGC-126), which again, sadly, was undated; its matrix number, DER-1170, would indicate 1974 or 75 for a Deroy pressing. By 1979 the label had acquired a new design (2); the single shown, Duggie Small's version of the Beatles' 'Get Back' (BGC-244; 1979) was pressed by Lyntone (LYN-7715) and was distributed by Scotia. As I say, 1970s BGS and Country House records have proved horrendously difficult to track down: the meagre results of my internet trawl are shown in the 'discography' below, which is hardly worth of the name - seventeen entries from what the numbers suggest should be a possible 144 in the '70s (assuming that they started at BGS-101)? Dear me. LPs are in square brackets, anyway; and thanks to Stephen Small for his contributions. BGS is still in operation today, issuing records on its 'Scotdisc' label, and the Country House subsidiary was still operating in the mid '80s; but that's as much as one can say
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.