[78-L] London (pay attention, Steve!)

[Cary Ginell]

Jeez, Steve, don't you ever read anyone else's posts on a subject? It would save you a lot of time and superfluous question marks followed by exclamation points if you did. Biel just chided you for not paying attention to my post concerning David McKee's very detailed book on London. Here are the prefixes that explain the various countries that sold London discs:

 

The main London singles had the prefix HL, which stood for "Home London." In addition, a third variable letter was added, which was known as the Export Availability Code. After WWII, Decca built up a substantial export trade, which gave the independent labels contracted to London access to world markets. The codes were used to identify specific licensing deals and to avoid confusion as to which deal a release belonged to. Here are some of the examples quoted in McKee's book:

 

A = All countries, except USA, Canada, and South America

B = All countries, except USA

E = The Eastern hemisphere, British West Indies, and Mexico

K = British West Indies, Eastern hemisphere (except Italy, France, French North Africa, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia, and South Africa)

P = All countries, except USA, Canada, and Japan

U = All countries, except USA and Canada. 

 

Records without code letters were subject to export restrictions. The most common of the above letters found was "U" - which is what the smaller indy U.S. companies used. Other code letters were used for specific US labels, such as "A" for Cadence, "D" for Dot, "S" for Sun, etc. 

 

Although the HL series started with issue 8001 (by the Orioles in Feb. 1954), the third letter variable did not begin until issue 8161 (Bill Haley's Essex recording of "Farewell, So Long, Goodbye"/I'll be True"), which was issued in August 1955. 

 

Cary Ginell
 
> From: stevenc at interlinks.net
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:35:55 -0400
> Subject: Re: [78-L] London [was Near You by Francis Craig]
> 
> From: "agp" <agp2176 at verizon.net>
> > Here's a bit of my observations about London and the Deccas.
> > A note about something that confounds me. Its those pesky US London 
> > 78s from the 50s all say Made in England. So, what to put in the 
> > country column in my database - US or UK. I put US, but my question 
> > is, where these actually pressed in England and shipped to the USA, 
> > classifying London of that time as a UK export label?
> > BTW -- as an addition to the comments by Han, there is currently a 
> > London B.12000 series black label 78 on eBay, that may be a US market 
> > disk made in England
> > 
> Okeh...to explain...?!
> 
> London was originally introduced around 12/47 as a way to
> issue British records (including Mantovani?!) to North American
> buyers.; I don't know when they started the practice of issuing
> other recordings here? I do know that they started recording
> in both the US and Canada v c.1950. I have (I think/hope_
> Canadian London catalogs from 1954 and 1955, which list
> the various series they issued.
> 
> Steven C. Barr 
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