Founded by Americans Paul Robinson and Steve Rowland, with financial assistance from EMI; Robinson's firm 'Paul Robinson Enterprises' had previously been active in the fields of management, publicity and production. Power Exchange came on to the scene in November 1974, and was initially aimed at the Black Music market. According to Billboard of the 9th of November its aim was 'to establish a UK soul repertoire company which is not completely dependent on imported product and is to have merchandising muscle from a major such as EMI’. British talent was to be signed, and material was to be licensed from the States. H.B. Barnum was recruited as an arranger / producer / talent scout as well as an artist, and according to 'Music Week' (26th October 1974) he was intended to be the creative force behind the company's repertoire. Pressing and distribution were by EMI.
After ten months or so there was a change of musical direction; 'MW' of the 27th of September reported that Power Exchange was expanding and was adding Pop artists to its roster. At the start of 1976 the label broke its link with EMI and signed to President for distribution, mainly via that firm's Enterprise arm ('MW' 24th January) but also via Lugton, H.R. Taylor and Clyde Factors ('MW', 31st January). According to the article of the 24th, further diversification, into the fields of MOR and Light Classical music, was planned. At that time the company's managing directors were Paul Robinson and Barrie Authors, who had come on board late in 1975. From that point Disco, Pop and even Punk began to appear on Power Exchange. Within a matter of months the company registered an unlikely British No.1 with the emotional, Country-flavoured 'No Charge' b/w 'Till You're Loving Me Again' by J. J. Barrie (PX-209) - 'J.J. Barrie' was actually Authors under a pseudonym. The deal with President lasted less than a year, and in mid September Power Exchange turned to Polydor / Phonodisc for manufacture and distribution ('MW', 2nd October 1976); the article said that the company would 'continue' to handle its own promotion and marketing, but according to the labels and to an advert in 'MW' of the 31st of January 1976 marketing had previously been done by President. In what was presumably an attempt to reach the Punk market a single by The Saints, 'I'm Stranded' b/w 'No Time' (PX-242; 12/72) was initially distributed by the Bizarre chain of record shops; Phonodisc was to join in at the end of January if the record took off ('MW', 18th December 1976).
After some six months Power Exchange moved again, signing a pressing and distribution deal with Decca ('MW', 26th March 1977), effective from April 1st. In December of that year the company enjoyed its second hit, when The Imperials' 'Who's Gonna Love Me' (PX-266) made it into the Top 20. Changes were afoot, however. 'Music Week' of the 25th of March 1978 reported that Paul Robinson and Jimmy Bishop had formed an Anglo-American company, Total Entertainment: it was to be dedicated to record production and music publishing, with Bishop handling the American end and Robinson the British. It also had a branch in Kingston, Jamaica, and Rupert Cunningham was sourcing material there. In addition Total Entertainment had launched a new label, 'Omni', in the States. T.E.'s records were to be licensed to Power Exchange in the UK, while Omni had signed a long-term distribution deal with Island in the USA. A later edition of 'MW' (17th June 1978) revealed that the intention was for the Power Exchange label to revert to its original purpose as a 'Black Music' label, with all future Pop product appearing on a new label, 'Arrow'. According to Robinson the company aimed to "Become accepted as THE Black Music label in the country. With Contempo gone there is no label dedicated exclusively to such product except UK subsidiaries of American companies such as Motown." Sadly, the plans were to come to nothing. A couple of months later 'MW' (19th August 1978) broke the news that Power Exchange Ltd. and Power Exchange International Ltd. had gone into liquidation. A final mention in 'MW' (23rd September) valued the companies' assets as £5,500 and gave its debts as amounting to £435,000.
As has been stated, Power Exchange changed distributors with some frequency. Its initial stint,with EMI, resulted in fifteen singles in a PX-100 numerical series. Initially the logo had a pink background and showed the Statue of Liberty (1) but 'Music Week' of the 15th of March 1975 reported that United Artists had claimed logo copyright of that image - the statue had appeared on Liberty labels. Power Exchange responded by erasing the crown and turning the torch into a microphone, which satisfied UA but left Power Exchange with a lot of unusable old labels and other materials. The first single to bear the new logo was PX-104. At the same time as the logo was tweaked its background turned yellow and the colours of its lettering changed (2). There was also a company sleeve during the EMI era (19). The switch to President for marketing and Enterprise / Lugton / H. R. Taylor for distribution at the end of 1975 saw a change of numbering to the PX-200s. The labels got darker, and gained a credit to Paul Robinson Music Ltd at the top (3). A few singles can be found with old EMI labels with the reference to EMI blacked out: presumably this was an economy measure, using up old stock (4). Manufacture seems to have been by various independents; injection moulded labels in various colours (5 - 11) became the norm from May 1976, suggesting that Phonodisc took over manufacturing from that point, though the move to Polydor / Phonodisc for distribution didn't take place till September. Thanks to the various changes certain singles can be found with more than one type of label; in addition, injection moulded copies of 'No Charge' can be found in at least five different colours. During the Decca era the labels were paper and were coloured silver at first (12). A return to the earlier colouring took place from PX-265 onwards; the logo changed to red lightning and moved to the other side of the label (13), with occasional variations in the typeface of the credits (14). Catalogue numbers reached PX-279 in the middle of 1978; PX-281, a reissue, was released out of sequence and appears to owe its numbering to the fact that it was previously available on A1 Records (q.v.) as A1-281. EMI-era demos were usually overprinted in the standard EMI fashion (15), but sometimes stickers were applied to issue labels (16). There weren't any during the Polydor period, but when Power Exchange was with President demo copies reappeared, with a small black 'A' on the appropriate side (17). A couple in different styles surfaced during the Selecta era (18). The scan of the overprinted EMI demo appears by courtesy of Juke Jules of the 45cat site.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.