A label with a Scottish slant, though it operated out of London. 'Music Week' of the 19th of June 1975 said that Nevis was the brainchild of expatriate Scottish folk singer and songwriter Jim McLean; he had launched his own company after failing to interest any of the majors in Scottish material. By that time it was operating out of premises at 10, Onslow Gardens, London N10 (it started out at 34 Tudor Close, SW2), and it had twenty LPs on catalogue; it continued to be mainly interested in the LP format. An article in 'MW' of the 22nd of November 1975 gave Nevis's distributors as Rediffusion in England and Wales, with Clyde Factors and Record Enterprises doing the job in Scotland. The lack of dates on many of the company's records doesn't help when you're trying to put together a history and a discography, but as far as I can make out the earliest Nevis records appeared in or around 1972 - the first LP, 'Fitba' Crazy' by John McCluskey (NEV R-001), refers to McCluskey's son Pat as a 'young Celtic player' and while Pat joined that team in 1970 he spent the first year out on loan and he doesn't seem to have settled into the first team until the 1971-72 season. The first single, which was also by McCluskey, was numbered NR-001, the 'B' side being NR-002; for the second the prefix changed to NEVIS, which soon evolved into 'NEV S' and then 'NEV SP'. Albums initially were in the NEV R-000s. There was a change in or around 1973, when the album series became NEV LP-100; the highest dateable number I have come across was NEV LP-165, which was from 1981, but they reached at least 167. Singles don't appear to have been affected by the changeover until 1977, because none seem to have been issued. When the next single finally came out it was numbered NEV S-101; that series continued for singles, and was joined by a separate NEV EP-100 one for EPs. Things get complicated after 1978, on the 7" front: there were at least three singles numbered in the NEV S-170s, and another had the number NEVS-201; there was also an EP, numbered NEV EP-201. None of these were dated. NEV EP-201 was certainly from later than May 1978 as it had a version of 'You're The One That I Want' on it, and that song was a hit at that time. I suspect that the singles were from the early '80s.
Nevis's products appear to have been fairly standard Scottish / Pop / Folk fare, though it issued three Rock 'n' Roll LPs: 'Planet Of The Drapes' by the Flying Saucers (NEVLP-114; 1976), Cadillac's 'March Of The Rockers' (NEV LP-125), and 'Rockin' On Down The Line' by Elvis Eddie (NEVLP-165; 1981). It can claim the distinction of first recording the Nolan Sisters, who with their parents and brothers made up The Singing Nolans: an album, 'The Singing Nolans' (NEV R-009), a Christmas EP including 'Silent Night' and three other tracks (NEV S-005), and a single, 'Blackpool' (NEV S-007), all came out in 1972. According to 'Music Master' the Little & Large single 'Telephone Man' (NEV S-103), pictured above, was issued in November 1977 and was distributed by Lugton. MM doesn't mention any other Nevis singles, so the Lugton deal well have been a one-off as far as 7" records were concerned. The very first Nevises had fairly plain labels, with the name in a curve at the top (1, 2); the second scan comes by courtesy of Robert Bowes. By the time of the Nolans' Christmas EP the design had become more ambitious (3); it lasted until 1978, when it was replaced by a blue label with a tartan stripe (4). For some reason there were two NEV S-104s, one with a 'mountain' label, the other with a 'tartan'. The discography below lists such of the company's singles that I have managed to trace; as can be seen, there are huge gaps in it. Any contribution towards filling those gaps would be welcome - if the missing numbers were ever used, that is.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.