EMCEE

   

There were several record companies dedicated to issuing music for ballroom dancing.  The biggest among them - 'Dancetime' and 'NDS' (q.v. both) spring to mind - operated for decades and issued tens, or hundreds, of records.  Emcee seems to have been one of the smaller ones.  It managed at least three EPs, all of which were of strict-tempo dances by the Eddie Graham Sound.  Numbering was in the MC-0s.  MC-2 came in a company sleeve (2) though the example shown isn't with its original record.  The label gives no clue as to who the distributors were, but Northern Dance Services, of Shipley, were the main distributors for Strict Tempo labels and they may well have handled Emcee among the others.  The matrix number of MC-1, which is handwritten, positioned at 6 O'Clock, and has its component parts separated by plus signs, suggests an Orlake pressing, as does the rough label surface.  MC-3 was a product of SRT, as its matrix number - S/78/CUS-195 - indicates.  Thanks to Robert Bowes for the scan of that label, and to Sam Mauger for the scan of the first sleeve.

Copyright 2008 Robert Lyons.