Hammer was a small independent company, started up by producer Des Dolan; he and Simon Cohen were its directors - presumably Cohen was the same man who had set up Psycho Records (q.v.) twelve months previously. 'Music Week' of the 30th of June reported that Hammer was to be launched the following month; a two-year distribution deal had been agreed with Pye, and the label's first products were scheduled to be LPs by Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Mike Douglas, along with a single by New York band Mumps, 'Rock And Roll This And That' (HS-301). In the event the single appears to have been delayed - 'MW' of the 22nd of September referred to forthcoming product by Mumps - and then cancelled. As a result, Hammer's first venture into the 7" market consisted of a series of ten reissues of old Rock 'n' Roll records, in six-track EP format, which was went under the collective title of 'Big Six' - the tag line was 'The single that thinks it's an album'. The EPs were numbered in the HB-600s, and they came out in Spetember 1979; they were pressed by Pye, not just distributed. The issue of 'MW' which carried news of the EPs' release said that Hammer was recording UK product for issue, and that it planned to put out records by Jimmy Lydon (John's brother) and Mumps (presumably the delayed single) - those plans seem to have fallen through. The 'Letters' column of 'MW' of the 13th of October featured a complaint from a dealer who said that the tracks on the EPs were re-recordings and that the labels failed to state that fact. A couple of weeks later a DJ responded, via the 'Letters' column, saying that whether the tracks on them were originals or not the records had been well received and were selling well. In the wake of the EPs Hammer issued a number of singles, which it numbered in the HS-300s. For some reason four out of the first five HS-300s (not counting unused catalogue numbers) came out on other labels, Octane (q.v.) and Poplar - the latter didn't release any singles in the '70s and is therefore beyond the scope of this site, but a list and illustrations can be found on the 45cat site . Another label linked to Hammer was Scratch, which issued several singles using a HS-400 series, but that likewise didn't start until 1980 and thus it is beyond the scope of this site. Hammer doesn't seem to have survived long into 1981.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.