An obscure label from 1979-c.80, based in Beaumont Road, London W4. White Dove appears to have started out as a production company, White Dove Music Productions, and to have moved on to music publishing and to issuing and marketing records. In 1978 the company licensed a couple of MOR Pop tracks by Tan, 'Stay' and 'Jo-Anne', to Sonet Records; they came out in September as SON-2152 with a small credit to White Dove Music Productions at the bottom of the label (3). White Dove made its debut in its own right the following year, kicking off with a couple of singles by the same band - playing in their more usual Country style - and using a WD-100 numerical series. Singles by Tin Kan and Silicone Fish followed, as did an album by Tan, 'I've Got To Get To Indiana' (WDL-501; 11/79). Distribution was by Spartan for WD-102, which came out in August 1979; by January of the following year Pinnacle had taken over.
In the early '80s White Dove seems to have had a relationship with the Danish label 'Ra' - the Tan album was released in Denmark on that label (RALP-6044; 1980), and a single by Roger Kiesa, Baby, Hold On' b/w 'Passing By' (RAS-824; 1982) had 'Marketed in the U.K. by White Dove Records' on its labels. In addition 'Music Master' listed two other Ra singles as being available in Britain through White Dove: 'Captain Kirk's Disco Trek' b/w 'Starlover' by Keys (RAWD-820; 9/81) and the Nelson Family's 'Don Quixote' b/w 'Te Quiero' (RAWD-821; 11/81). These were said to be on the White Dove label but there's no sign of White Dove copies online, so it may just have been a case of White Dove marketing imported Ra singles.
Despite the small number of releases there were some label variations: the first White Dove single lacked the 'dove' logo (1), which appeared by the time of the third (2). With the fourth the colour scheme changed to silver-on-black, the 'Dove' logo moved to the top of the label, and 'White Dove Records' became just 'White Dove' and rose by a couple of centimetres or so. That same label was used for the Tan LP. Just as an aside, it seems slightly odd that the dove on the White Dove label pictured above is in fact coloured blue, but there you go. Bill Gilson had a hand in all of White Dove's releases, either as composer or producer, so it seems like a good bet that he was the driving force behind the company.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.