Mountain started out as a management company, 'Mountain Management', under Bill Fehilly and Derek Nichol. It received its first mention in 'Record Retailer' in the issue of the 20th of November 1971, which said that it had been formed around Scottish Rock band Nazareth. It had paid for the band's first album to be recorded, and had then taken the master tapes to B&C, which had put the LP out on its progressive 'Pegasus' label (q.v.). Another Mountain Management act was the Sensational Alex Harvey Band; their early albums were likewise recorded by Mountain, but they were placed with Phonogram and came out on that company's progressive offshoot Vertigo. Having already added a publishing arm, Panache, Mountain formed its own record label in 1975. 'Music Week' of the 16th of August reported that a licensing deal had been signed with EMI , and that the first fruit - a single by Dan McCafferty, 'Out Of Time' b/w 'Cinnamon Girl', was due out on the 22nd of that month. The single was a minor hit, stalling just outside the Top 40.
Tragically the next mention of Mountain, in 'MW' of the 31st of July 1976, concerned the deaths of Fehilly, his son Liam and Bob Storm, co-directors of the company, who were killed when a chartered plane crashed. 'MW' of the 22nd of January 1977 stated that Mountain Management had been restructured in the wake of the sad losses, and that Derek Nichol was now serving as chairman and managing director. 'Billboard' of the 19th of January added that Nicol had taken control of the shares held by Fehilly's estate, and that a restructuring of the firm's Panache Music publishing arm was to take place. Another shuffle some five months or so later found Rod Duncombe appointed general manager and Gordon Simpson given the post of label manager ('BB', 8th May 1977).
In the summer of that year Mountain moved to Phonogram, again on a licensing deal, taking its back catalogue with it ('MW', 6th August 1977). The deal was renewed at the start of the following year ('BB', 7th January 1978) and the partnership saw out the decade. Early in 1980, however, Mountain moved to RCA ('MW', 19th January), but the arrangement was not to last for long. Financial pressures must have been growing, and 'BB' of the 26th of July revealed that Mountain Management Ltd. had gone into liquidation. It added that some scheduled releases were likely to still take place, through the deal with RCA; and at least one single came out after that date.
Perhaps inevitably the label's most successful act was Nazareth, who took it into the Singles Charts six times between 1975 and 1979. Their placings were generally low, however, with only the 'Hot Tracks' EP of previous hits (NAZ-001; 8/77) breaking into the Top 20 - it peaked at No. 15, and was later reissued through RCA with the catalogue number HOT-1. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band gave the company its highest Chart position when 'Boston Tea Party' b/w 'Sultan's Choice' (TOP-13; 5/76) got to No.13, but the band's subsequent singles failed to trouble the compilers. The Martyn Ford Orchestra and Voyager also registered in the Top 40, but only once out of several releases each. Despite covering a wide range of genres from Disco (Martyn Ford) to traditional Scottish music (The Golden Fiddle Orchestra) Mountain failed to find any other hit-makers.
One label design was used during the EMI period (1); demo copies were marked in the usual EMI fashion (6) and 'Sample Record' stickers were sometimes applied (7). After the move to Phonogram / Phonodisc injection moulded labels became the norm and a company sleeve was introduced (8). The first three singles were coloured lime green (3); subsequent ones were generally mid-green (4), but some yellowy-fawn (5), silver (6) or concrete-coloured ones can be found. Paper labels were used again during the RCA period; they had the old EMI design but with RCA's typefaces. The catalogue numbers, which were in a TOPS-0 series, remained unchanged through both moves, but certain bands were given their own numerical series and for some reason the single that should have been numbered TOP-31 came out as TOP-031. ("Fascinating!" - Editor. "Really?" - Author. "No." - Editor). Thanks to John Timmis for the fifth scan.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.