Evolution was the full-price label of budget-priced-record specialists ZEL Records, of 63, Old Compton Street, London, W1. According to 'Billboard' of the 11th of May 1968 ZEL was a division of Zackariya Enterprises, and its directors were Mohammed 'Zacky' Zackariya and agent Bunny Saunders. At that point the company, which specialized in six-track 'mini-LPs' featuring cover versions of hit songs, had just released its third such record, on the Zel label, and was about to dip a toe into the singles market in the shape of a single by Jenny Maynard, 'He Gives Me Love' b/w 'Something Here In My Heart' on the new Inter-Zel label (DR-001). The following year 'Record Retailer' of the 16th of April 1969 reported that the company was to launch Evolution, a full-priced outlet featuring Underground, Irish and Soul music. 'Billboard' of the 24th of May stated that the launch of the label was scheduled to take place on the 23rd with the release of albums by Arzachel, the McPeake family and Jesse Fuller, and that the company intended to release a minimum of twenty singles and fifteen LPs over the course of the following six months. It confirmed the 'Underground, Irish and Soul' material angle, and said that Zackariya was visiting Europe in order to source material there; visits to the USA and Canada were also in the pipeline.
Despite the plans, after that first batch of albums there came something of a lull, and it wasn't until the 30th of August that 'Record Retailer' was able to give a release date for singles by Otis Redding, Jenny Maynard and The Fashions: it was to be the 17th of September. 'Billboard' of the 6th of September carried a report to the effect that Zackariya had 'reactivated' his Evolution label: this time around, the aim was to put out thirty singles and ten LPs per year. The first three singles, which it confirmed were by Redding, The Fashions and Maynard, were due out on the 19th of that month. Those singles duly appeared, numbered in an E-2440 series. 'RR' of the 24th of January 1970 was able to add E-2446 to Evolution's catalogue, and it said that distribution was by RCA. The following week 'RR' of the 31st reported that the link with Zel had been broken and that Evolution was to become a separate operation, again with RCA handling distribution. The company's address remained the same, however, and Evolution material appeared on the Zel label abroad, which suggests that the 'break' wasn't a complete one. 'RR' of the 9th of May 1970 commented on the release of Evolution's first stereo single, 'Traveller Man (Parts 1 and 2)' by Raw Material (E-2449 S) - from that time onwards the catalogue numbers of stereo singles were given an 'S' suffix. 'RR' of the 13th of February 1971 broke the news that Evolution was to part company with RCA, but the parting appears not to have taken place immediately, if it happened at all: an advert in 'RR' for Ed Hamilton's 'Emily's Eyes' b/w 'All I Needed Was The Rain' (E-3003; 3/71) gave RCA as its distributor. Be that as it may, Evolution seems to have expired in the autumn of 1971.
Evolution used two label designs. The first four singles had a blue label with the logo in a futuristic font and the ZEL logo underneath it (1); thanks to Dr. Doom of the 45cat site for permission to use his scan here. The logo disappeared at the start of 1970 (2). That rather plain design was replaced by a more ambitious swirly one (3) in the spring of 1970, with E-2447, but it returned towards the end of the year, with E-2463, this time in white with blue printing (4, 5). E-2464 reverted to the silver-on-blue colouring, but after that blue-on-white was the norm until the swirly label made a return for the company's last single (6). Demo copies of early singles were marked with a smallish silver 'A' at three o'clock; swirl-labelled singles had a much larger hollow central silver 'A' (8). Where there were any, white plain-label demos appear to have been marked mainly with a central red 'A', either hollow or solid. The existence of two types of promo for Autumn Vine's 'He Ain't Superman' b/w 'Maxie Baby' (E-2447) is puzzling: in addition to the usual one there's one with a typical Pye-family appearance (7). Pye pressed at least some Evolution singles until the middle of 1970; was there a closer relationship at some time, or a planned one that wasn't carried through?
Evolution also used two basic designs for its company sleeves: a white one (9) which seems to have come with the early 'plain label' singles, and a blue one with a swirly logo, which was used for the remaining issues. Some of the blue sleeves have Evolution's address and a reference to RCA at the bottom (11), as the white ones do on their rears; others do not (10). The opening of the white sleeve is at the right-hand side in the scan; I scanned it sideways to make the design more obvious. Catalogue numbers started at E-2441; for some reason they missed out the E-2450s, and they then jumped to E-3000 early in 1971 - the latter jump may perhaps mark the intended break with RCA. Manufacture of the records that I have seen in the vinyl has been by different companies including Pye and Orlake; distribution was by RCA for the most part, with ZEL presumably doing its own distribution at the finish. No Evolution single ever made it into the Charts, but all the early and swirl ones are worth picking up. The singles by Prog band Raw Material are very collectable, as is the one by Jenny Maynard, and the Dick Turpin single is even more so. Albums by Arzachel and Raw Illusion on the label can go for four-figure sums.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.