One of the few record labels to have been based in Nottingham. This Eagle was the record label of Country singer Stu Stevens, who had a studio of that name in Annesley Woodhouse. It managed at least fourteen releases between 1977 and c.1981; singles and albums alike shared the same EGL-000 numerical series. Several were by Stevens himself, though records by other, presumably local, artists appeared: Free Spirit had an LP, 'The Morning After The Night Before' on EGL-009, while EGL-011 was Terry Dynam's, 'A Little Bit More Of Terry Dynam'. The first single pictured above is a song in praise of Nottingham Forest F.C.; that alone is sufficient to date it. Unsurprisingly, Eagle never soared into the Charts; though Stu Stevens's, 'Man From Outer Space' (EGL-004; 2/79) proved popular enough to be reissued on a major label, MCA. For the first dozen or so records the company seeems to have handled its own distribution; later Eagles were available through Pinnacle. The simple label design of the first single (1) was replaced by a more ambitious design for the second (2), and that design was used from then onwards - thanks to John Timmis for the scan.
In the summer of 1981 the studio appears to have had its name changed, from Eagle to Ash; a new label, also called Ash, was started up, and the Eagle label was shelved. Old Eagle stock seems to have been transmuted into new Ash stock by the simple expedient of scribbling the old name and prefix number out and writing new ones in. Ash numbering followed on where Eagle left off, ASH-015 being the next issue after EGL-014. There was another, Pop-orientated, Eagle label in the early 1980s: that one numbered its singles in the ERS-000s and had Gary Glitter on its books for a time. Perhaps the change of name was to avoid confusion between the two? See also 'Sherwood'.
Copyright 2007 Robert Lyons.