A label with its finger firmly on the British nation's Pop pulse. GTO's first mention in 'Music Week' came in the issue of the 1st of June 1974, when it was reported that Dick Leahy, the departing manager of Bell Records (q.v.), was setting up a new record company, GTO, in partneship with management / production company the Gem-Toby Organization. Three weeks later 'MW' was able to announce the launch of the new label: a three-year manufacture and distribution deal had been signed with Polydor, and the first single was due out that week. GTO went on to enjoy considerable success, its records appearing in the charts repeatedly during the period 1974-81. The Dooleys (with ten hits), Heatwave (with eight), Billy Ocean (six), Dana (five), Donna Summer (four, including the ground-breaking 'I Feel Love') and Fox (three) were all regular visitors to the Top 50 during their time with the label. The company's independent status only lasted until 1977: 'MW' of the 14th of May broke the surprising news that it had been taken over by CBS, with immediate effect - CBS would start handling the GTO label when the agreement with Polydor ran out, in June. Leahy stayed on as managing director after the CBS takeover, but left the company in 1981. GTO issued its final single, The Dooleys' 'Taken At The Flood' b/w 'Secrets' (GT-289), in May 1981 and was eventually absorbed by the Sony group.
Initially manufacture and distribution were by Phonodisc, which accounts for the first four injection-moulded labels. The early dull-blue colour (1), which on one single can also be found in pale blue (2), was replaced by a metallic blue (3) from October 1974; the occasional silver coloured single can be found (4). Some copies of some popular records were pressed elsewhere, leading to paper-labelled variants: the Fox single shown in the fifth scan was pressed by CBS. When CBS bought the company it naturally took over pressing and distribution, leading to proper paper labels; the first few had 'GTO Records Limited' below the logo (6), but this disappeared from GT-106 onwards (7). The distribution credits on the company sleeve also changed, from Polydor (13) to CBS (14). In a reversal of what had happened previously, at times of heavy demand some records were pressed on contract by Phonodisc, which meant the reappearance of an injection moulded label, albeit of a different design (8). The design of the label changed comprehensively in the autumn of 1979 (9). GT-100, Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love', was popular shortly after the time of the changeover and can be found with the old-style injection moulded labels or with paper labels of either kind. On occasions outsourcing again led to injection-moulded labels, the example shown being pressed in France (10).
Specially marked promo labels don't seem to have been introduced until the early '80s, though during the Polydor days some issue copies had a date sticker applied and were used for promotional purposes (11, 12). Numbering was in an GT-0 series: the numbers jumped from 95 to 100 at the time of the CBS takeover, and then for some reason jumped again, from 117 to 218, in the Spring of 1978. Quite a few numbers appear not to have been used, which accounts for most of the gaps in the discography below. Thanks to John Timmis for the scan of the second 'stickered' single (12).
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.