A label specialising in Jazz, usually of a Mainstream sort. 'Record Retailer' of the 6th of February 1971 reported that the Black Lion label was to be set up by Polydor as an outlet for Jazz productions by Alan Bates, who was formerly Polydor's marketing director. 'Billboard' of the 20th of February gave a launch month of April, but 'RR' of the 1st of May said that the first releases were due on that day. Black Lion ploughed its furrow effectively without bothering the mainstream music trade press until 'Music Week' of the 18th of January 1975 broke the news that it was switching from Polydor to Transatlantic. The time at Transatlantic must have been satisfactory, for 'MW' of the 7th of May 1977 said that the marketing and distribution deal had been extended for another three years.
Black Lion was basically an album concern, and it issued only a few singles - I've managed to track down three, and an EP, from the '70s, all of which are listed below. All date from the Transatlantic era. Early copies of the EP were pressed by Pye and had paper labels (1); later copies, and the singles, have injection moulded labels (2) and were made by Phonodisc - as an independent, Transatlantic had its records manufactured by different companies at different times. Numbering of the singles was in a BSP-45100 series, which for some reason appears to have started at 45104. I don't usually put scans of LP labels up, but the contrast between the sober 7" designs and the flamboyant 12" one (3) is striking enough to be worth noting. If only the 7" labels had borrowed the 12" design.... Black Lion continued to issue new records into the mid '80s at least, and it continued into the CD era mainly as a reissue label. It had an LP-only Avant-Garde subsidiary, 'Freedom'. Thanks to Ade Macrow of the 45cat site for the use of his EP label here.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.