An obscure but fairly long-lived label dedicated mainly to West Indian music. Merry Makers received its first mention in 'Record Retailer' of the 10th of April 1969, which reported that the record production company of that name had launched its own label and was looking for distribution. According to the article Merry Makers was run by Maurice George and John Smith, and it was based in premises at Bedford Road, Clapham North, SW4. Five years later RR's successor 'Music Week' (9th March 1974) revealed that Revival (q.v.) had taken responsibility for the worldwide distribution of Merry Makers records; it gave the owner of the label as John Smyth, rather than the 'Smith' of the first article. Merry Makers was still going in 1980, though its releases seem to have been sporadic after 1976. Catalogue numbers suggest that it issued at least eighteen singles and thirteen LPs; the musical categories covered included Gospel, Calypso and Reggae. None of the singles are commonly seen nowadays. Catalogue numbers were in an ME M-0 series until ME M-9, from which point the numerical part gained an initial zero. The gap between the letters in the prefix disappeared with MEM-013. The label came in several colours; on the first few issues the two words of the label name were on a single line. The discography below lists the Merry Makers singles that I have been able to trace; the months given are taken from 'RR' and 'MW' release listings, and in those cases the years given don't always correspond with those that are on the labels - ME M-2 has 1969 on it. Thanks to Robert Bowes for the first two scans and to Sam Mauger for the third.
Copyright 2007 Robert Lyons.