Based in Dewsbury, Hot Lead was essentially a Reggae label, though it issued some non-Reggae singles. It was launched by Ian R. Smith in 1972, and most of its records seem to have been produced by him. Singles were numbered in the HL-0s; there were at least twenty-one of them, the majority of which appeared during the period 1972-c.1974, though a couple more trickled out later - HL-20 dates from 1976, and then there appears to have been an eleven-year gap before HL-21 came out. After the Hot Lead label was shelved the company continued to operate as independent music producers, and they're still going in that capacity today. They have a website here, which offers downloads of many of the old singles. Seventies labels were generally red with black printing, as shown in the first scan above, but HL-20 had injection moulded metallic-light-blue labels (2); that scan appears by kind permission of Charlie Chalk of the 45cat site. The Eighties label was white.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.