A one-off label from the early '70s. The Vintage Austin Register was formed by enthusiasts with the intention of gathering information about, and preserving, vintage Austin cars. It put out just the one record, a reissue of two old recordings from the 1920s / 30s: 'My Austin Seven' by Clarkson Rose, b/w 'The Austin Unity Song' by Arthur Crudge's British Imperial Orchestra. Each side had its own catalogue number, VAR-1 and VAR-2. The man responsible for the reissue was Jim Stringer, who has been kind enough to supply this account of the single:
The record was produced for us by Orlake Records who were based in the Dagenham area. And we had to contact the performing rights society to gain permission to reproduce it and of course, The Austin Unity Song which occupied the 'B' side. We were only allowed to produce a limited number and had to purchase stamps from the Society which were then stuck to each record prior to sale, a sort of 'Royalty'. The single was made in early 1972. Since that time and the inevitable decline of vinyl records, I have had both recordings digitally remastered and released onto a CD. The quality is of course much better as the hissing and scratching of the original 78rpm recordings have been considerably reduced or eliminated.
The CD version is still available (June 2014) online from the Vintage Austin Register's home page. Thanks to Jim, and also to Sporidium of the 45cat site for permission to use his scan here.
Copyright 2014 Robert Lyons.