One for the Ballroom Dancing enthusiast. The Sydney Thompson label was almost exclusively a vehicle for Strict Tempo music by Sydney Thompson & His Orchestra, a band of great renown in Ballroom Dancing circles. In the 1950s Thompson had recorded for Parlophone; he seems to have started issuing records on his own label in 1966. In addition to releasing dozens of albums the company issued numerous EPs; the first series of these was numbered in the TDR-100s, and it reached at least TDR-171, in 1972. It also released at least one single, 'The Merge', which came out in 1967 and had a catalogue number of TDR S-50 (2). There also seems to have been a 'Popular Dance Series' of EPs, numbered in the PDM-00s, though I have only been able to track down two examples; and there was also a series of at least three EPs for ballet, by Joan M. Hall & Judith Chalmers, which were numbered in the TBR-0s and date from 1967 (6). Production of EPs appears to have stopped in 1972 and to have been resumed in 1978, with numbering now in the EP-600s and a new design being used (7, 8, 9), though the old design still made an occasional appearance (10). This new series of EPs only featured one type of dance on each record, whereas the old series had generally featured two. EP-619 came out in 1983; the highest number I have found is 622. The Sydney Thompson label appeared in various colours, and picture sleeves were the norm. Distribution was by Lugton and H. R. Taylor in the late 1970s; pressing of the few pre-1978 records that I have been able to inspect was by Orlake, and the company was based in Pinner, Middlesex. The discography below only gives the names of the dances on each record and the title of one of the tracks; in several cases one or the other is missing. As usual the discography is rather gappy, but at least this time around it covers what seems to be the entire period of the company's 7" production.
Copyright 2008 Robert Lyons.