A small independent Rhythm 'n' Blues label. M & L seems to have run to just two releases, the first of which was by 9 Below Zero; it was an EP containing versions of 'Pack Fair And Square', 'Rocket 88', Last Night' and 'Tore Down'. The EP's catalogue number was ML-1, logically enough, and it was manufactured by CBS. There's some doubt about when it was released: 'Record Collector' has it as February 1980, but apparently the fifth issue of 'Wool City Rockers' has it as December 1979. The band was signed by A&M either late that year or early the next, and the EP was reissued by A&M in March as AMS-7518; the label design remained the same except that 'A&M' replaced 'M & L' at the top and the new catalogue number substituted for the old one. It's possible that A&M's staff could have heard the EP, carried out the signing and organized the reissuing within the space of a month or so, but according to 'WCR' the band sold copies at gigs before A&M came on the scene. That makes a December 1979 release sound more likely, with the extended time frame. In addition it agrees with the '1979' on the labels, though of course the year given on labels doesn't neccesarily correspond with the year of release.
The second M & L record was also an EP, this time by a band called Wipeout. It came out in 1982 and offered 'Baby Please Don't Go', 'Two-O-Five', 'Crawdaddy' and 'Should A Known Better'. Its catalogue number was MNL-2, and the producer was Pete Moss - it seems a reasonable guess that he was the 'M' of 'M & L'. Wipeout had had a single on Ace Records the year before and they went on to release another single and an album in 1983, on the Out label, which was presumably their own. Thanks to Klepsie of the 45Cat site for letting me know about the 'WCR' information and thus enabling me to award M & L a page on this site.
Copyright 2023 Robert Lyons.