One of two labels owned by Dover Records. 'Music Week' of the 28th of August 1976 carried a report about Dover: it said that the company had been set up by Adrian Boyd and Barry Austin in partnership with Rob Day, who had formerly been promotions manager with Trojan, and that it would feature 'Black music'. According to the report Boyd ran a company called Adrian Boyd Associates, while Austin was the managing director of the Atlas publishing company. It added that Dover was operating out of premises at 11-12 Dover Street, London, and that it intended to run two labels, Trench Town and Pacific (q.v.). In addition it had a publishing arm, White Cliffs Music. Pressing was to be by Phonodisc, with Dover handling sales and distribution itself.
Both labels made their debut that same month, and both featured Reggae. Trench Town was the more prolific of the two, and it seems to have featured rootsier material in the main. The majority of Trench Town records were manufactured by Phonodisc, which explains their injection moulded form (1), but the last three had paper labels, and are presumably from a post-Phonodisc period (2). The company issued some fourteen singles in 1976-77, numbering them in mainly a TRE-0 (or TRE-000) series, and there were also a couple of albums. Dover seems not to have lasted into 1978. Thanks to Robert Bowes for the scan of the paper label.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.