As the name suggests, MCA-U.K. was an outlet for British recordings made by American company MCA. MCA started out in this country in the spring of 1968 as an independent. It had a UK office in addition to its American one, and product from both came out on the same label, sharing a common MU-1000 numbering. In the autumn of 1969, however, the company surrendered part of its independence and entered a licensing agreement with Decca. The agreement only covered MCA's American product, both current and back catalogue; product recorded by or sourced through the company's UK branch was not included, nor indeed was material on MCA's subsidiary label Uni (q.v.). Records by Leapy Lee and John Rowles were also excluded. According to 'Record Retailer' of the 25th of June 1969 the 'split' arrangement was intended to enable MCA to retain a certain amount of independence by acquiring and promoting talent from the UK and from Uni in its homeland. A new label, MCA-U.K., was formed as an outlet for material originating in the UK office, and the British version of the Uni label was put under that office's care.
The new semi-autonomous MCA-U.K. made a pressing and distribution deal with Decca / Selecta, which kept them under the same roof as their parent label, and their first singles appeared in September. The singles were given their own MK-5000 catalogue series, the prefix becoming 'MKS' for stereo records. The labels kept the original MCA 'red-and-yellow swirls' design with the name in the logo altered (1), and the company sleeves were adapted in that same way (3). Demo copies were overprinted with a medium-sized 'A' and the appropriate text (2). The main MCA label lost the 'swirls' and was given a new, two-tone-blue, 'battle axe' design at the time of the separation. The final record in MCA's 'Soul Bag' series was given the usual 'two-tone-blue swirls' label that the others had had, but with the logo on both the labels and the sleeve changed to that of MCA-U.K. - presumably the series had been under the control of MCA's British office, even though the tracks on the records were American. A number of singles by Leapy Lee and by John Rowles which had previously been out on MCA with MU-1000 numbers were reissued on MCA-U.K. with MK-5000 ones. 'RR' of the 6th of December 1969 mentioned three by Rowles: MKs 5011 (previously MU-1000), 5015 (MU-1064) and 5017 (MU-1086). Leapy Lee's hit 'Little Arrows' b/w 'Time Will Tell' (MK-5013; previously MU-1028) was another.
In the event the split between MCA and its UK arm lasted for only a year. 'RR' of the 10th of September 1970 revealed that MCA was to revert entirely to a full licensing deal with Decca as soon as possible, and that this time around material originating with both the UK office and Uni was to be included. There was therefore no reason to retain MCA-U.K. as a separate label, and it put its final single out that same month. The MK-5000 numbering system was retained for British office product until November 1972. With the demise of MCA-U.K. records of British origin were given red-and-yellow 'battle axe' style labels to go with the two-tone-blue ones given to their American siblings; examples can be found on the MCA page. The records in the discography below were all on MCA-U.K.. John Rowles's reissue of 'If I Only Had Time' b/w 'Now Is The Hour' (MK-5011) was later re-pressed on the red-and-yellow 'battle axe' MCA label.
Copyright 2013 Robert Lyons.