Neon was RCA's Progressive label; that company's answer to Phonogram's 'Vertigo', EMI's 'Harvest' and Pye's 'Dawn'. Olav Wyper, the man who had 'maintained' Vertigo since its launch ('Record Retailer', 10th October 1970) moved to RCA in November 1970 ('RR', 7th November); 'Billboard' of the 1st of May 1971 named him and RCA Record Division MD Ken Glancy as the people responsible for starting Neon, while 'Music Week' of the 6th of January 1973 credited him along with other ex-Philips men Richard Swainson and Mike Everett. Neon received its first mention in 'RR' of the 6th of February 1971, which referred to it as an outlet for 'Contemporary Pop' and revealed that its first albums were due on the 1st of March. Singles were slightly slower to appear: 'RR' of the 15th of May reported that the first of them were slated for release that month: NE-1000 on the 14th, and NE-1001 on the 21st.
Sadly, Neon was destined for a fairly short existence, if a fairly busy one. Olav Wyper left RCA after little more than a year with the company, and in his absence Neon faded away, its artists being moved to the main RCA label where necessary. 'MW' (6th January 1973), looking back on the label's history, observed that it had lasted for a mere nine months, during which it released eleven LPs. Its albums, by such artists as Spring, Dando Shaft and Indian Summer, were largely ignored at the time, but they have become highly collectable lately. Neon didn't issue many singles; the few which it did put out appeared on a less colourful version of the LP label. It was one of that small band of labels (including Vertigo, Dandelion, Charly, Tangsong, Small Wonder, Ork; all q.v.) which had the credits on one side and a design on the other (1, 2). Promo copies had the credits in black on a white label (3), whereas issues had them in white on black.
