The label of the world-renowned Rockfield Studios, of Montgomery, Gwent, owned by Kingsley and Charles Ward. Best known for quality of the artists who have recorded there - Queen, Paul Weller, Oasis, etc - Rockfield had its own record label in the mid 1970s. The label got its first mention in 'Music Week' in the issue of the 13th of July 1973, which stated that a manufacturing and distribution deal with RCA had been signed 'over a year ago'; the first product, however, doesn't appear to have come out until the end of 1972. Rockfield's first two singles, both by Dave Edmunds, went Top 10 in 1973; after this encouraging start things got quieter, and the label managed just two singles per year from 1973 to 1975. On the 27th of December 1975 'MW' carried the news that United Artists had concluded a 'preliminary deal' with Rockfield for a new label, initially to be called 'Rockfield / United Artists'. According to the article it was uncertain how this would affect the deal with RCA, but in the event the UA agreement seems to have superceded the RCA one. 'MW' of the 4th of September 1976 remarked in passing that the new agreement was a licensing one. The new label was more prolific than the old one but Chart success proved elusive, and by 1978 Rockfield had gone back to concentrating on what they did best: recording groups for other labels.
RCA-era singles had their own ROC-0 numbering series and a rustic appearance (1); with the move to UA the design got plainer and singles began sharing a UP-36000 series with those of the host company. Early UA releases had a small 'ROCKFIELD' logo under the main UA one (2); from UP-36188 onwards the UA logo moved and the Rockfield one got bigger (3). As far as demonstration copies are concerned, ROC-1 to ROC-4 had a small black 'A' and the release date on them (4); ROC-5 and ROC-6 just had the black 'A'; while ROC-7 had the 'A' and also had 'Demonstration sample not for sale' under the label name (5). Rockfield / United Artists demos were marked with a large transparent red 'A', in the United Artists family style of the time (6, 7); thanks to John Timmis for the first of those scans. In the RCA days Rockfield had a short-lived offshoot, Maypole (q.v.), which, like Rockfield itself, took its name from a village near to the studios.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.