Predominantly a Reggae label. 'Music Week' of the 6th of September 1975 broke the news that in the wake of the recent collapse of B&C / Trojan ex-Trojan executives Webster Shrowder and Junior Lincoln were launching a new label, 'Viking', and that they had signed a licensing deal with Phonogram. According to the article the label was intended to have a Pop / Reggae profile, and the aim was for it to release twenty-five singles and fifteen albums per year. Phonogram managing director Ken Maliphant was quoted as saying that the deal was a valuable one for his company as it had no prior links with Reggae. Three weeks later 'MW' of the 27th of September reported that the discovery that a firm in New Zealand had registered the name 'Viking' worldwide had led to the launch being put on ice, but that after a quick change of name the company was ready to go. The first singles duly appeared in the following month; the logo on the labels, however, still showed a Viking - presumably the management didn't want to waste the artwork. Despite the pre-launch high hopes the arrangement between Vulcan and Phonogram lasted for only twelve months; the final single came out in August 1976. Vulcan's only other mention in 'MW' came in the issue of the 4th of March 1978 when an article about Don Lawson and his Calendar label the company was referred to as having 'foundered'. Distribution of its records was by Phonodisc; as indeed was their manufacture, which accounts for the injection-moulded form of its singles. The singles were granted the dignity of a special company sleeve. Numbering was in a VUL-1000 series, and reached VUL-1013; some of the numbers may not have been used. Lincoln and Shrowder were also responsible for the Grounation label (q.v.).
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.