American. Soul Train was formed by Don Cornelius, host and creator of the TV programme of that name, and Dick Griffey. When Cornelius decided to concentrate on the TV show, at the end of 1977, Griffey changed the name of the label to 'Solar' (q.v.) and relaunched it. In its new incarnation it became one of the prominent Disco / R&B brands of the late '70s and the '80s. Soul Train had a comparatively brief life in Britain. The company's early recordings were licensed to RCA over here, and came out on that label; the actual Soul Train label seems to have come and gone in 1977, during which time it registered one Chart success, with Shalamar's, 'Uptown Festival' (FB-0885). Its singles had basically the same catalogue numbers as their American counterparts, except that the prefix was altered and the first '1' in the number was dropped - for example the U.S. SB-10773 became the British FB-0773. The FB prefix was used for American-sourced singles on other RCA subsidiaries, such as Grunt, Windsong, Midsong , Solar and Tattoo.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLAR_Records)
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.