Blue Thumb Records

Blue Thumb Records was an American record label founded in 1968 by Bob Krasnow and former A&M Records executives Tommy LiPuma and Don Graham. Blue Thumb's last record was released in 1978. In 1995, the label was revived and remained active until 2005.

Bob Krasnow had been in the record business since the 1950s, working as a promotion man for King Records and also working for Buddah/Kama Sutra Records. Blue Thumb was originally intended by Captain Beefheart to be the name of his backing band. However, Krasnow did not think the name was right for the group. Later Krasnow chose the name for his label.

Other acts that appeared on the label include Gerry Rafferty, The Credibility Gap, The Crusaders, Hugh Masekela, Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation (licensed from UK Liberty Records), Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, Jimmy Smith, Dave Mason, The Pointer Sisters, The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils, T. Rex (in its earlier incarnation as Tyrannosaurus Rex, licensed from the UK's Regal Zonophone Records), Ike & Tina Turner, Love,and National Lampoon (on the Banana label imprint).

Blue Thumb originally used independent distribution, but went to Capitol/EMI for distribution in late 1970. Gulf and Western's Famous Music Group took over distribution in mid-1971, then bought the label outright in 1972. Late in 1974, the Famous Music record labels were sold to ABC Records. ABC kept Blue Thumb active for a time, mostly for albums by the Pointer Sisters and the Crusaders as well as some reissues. In 1979 ABC sold its labels to MCA Records, which discontinued the Blue Thumb imprint altogether.

In the UK and Europe, Blue Thumb releases were licensed to Harvest Records (also owned by EMI) from 1969 to 1971, and to Island Records thereafter. In 1995, an anthology CD was released, All Day Thumbsucker Revisited: The History of Blue Thumb Records, consisting of recordings from various artists from 1968 to 1974.

The label was revived in 1995 for blues and soft rock releases. This remained so, even after the 1998 merger with parent Universal Music Group and PolyGram and being put under the fold of the Verve Music Group, continuing to be Verve's imprint for non-jazz releases. In early 2005, the Blue Thumb imprint was deactivated and was replaced with Verve Forecast to handle such releases. UMG's reissue arm Hip-O Records has reissued several Blue Thumb recordings, including such acts as the Crusaders, Dan Hicks & his Hot Licks and the Pointer Sisters.

Regal Zonophone

Regal Zonophone Records was a British record label formed in 1932, through a merger of the Regal and Zonophone labels. This followed the merger of those labels' respective parent companies – the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone Company – to form EMI. At the merger, those records from the Regal Records catalogue were prefixed 'MR' and those from the Zonophone Records catalogue were prefixed 'T'. Record releases after the merger continued using only the 'MR' prefix.

Originally Regal Zonophone handled American releases from Okeh Records, Victor Records and Columbia Records, as well as offering home-grown recordings by artists such as Gracie Fields and George Formby. The label is also known for its releases of Salvation Army (particularly brass band) music.

In the 1950s the Australian division of Regal Zonophone played an important role in the emerging Australian country music genre, signing several emerging country stars including Slim Dusty, Smoky Dawson, Reg Lindsay and Chad Morgan. Slim Dusty's 1957 Regal Zonophone hit "A Pub with No Beer" became the biggest-selling Australian recording ever released up to that time.

EMI revived the Regal Zonophone imprint in 1967 to handle the Essex Music/Straight Ahead producing account that had moved from Deram (after one Procol Harum single and two singles by The Move) and continued well into the early 1970s, with successful producers Denny Cordell and Tony Visconti both having production companies releasing records through the label. During this period the label had both album and single success with artists such as The Move, Procol Harum, Joe Cocker and Tyrannosaurus Rex. During the mid-1970s, many of these production deals ended and, despite a few sporadic releases by Blue Mink, Geordie, Dave Edmunds, and Grunt Futtock (a one-off project featuring Roy Wood, Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton and Andy Bown), EMI stopped using the imprint as a major pop label. Many of the label's artists moved to Fly Records or to the EMI imprint.

Regal Zonophone was revived by EMI in 1985-86 and again at the end of the 1990s as a reissue label. This incarnation of the label is no longer active, as EMI relaunched Regal and Zonophone as separate imprints of Parlophone. In 2013, both Regal and Zonophone were taken over by Warner Music Group after Universal Music Group spun off Parlophone from EMI, at the request of international regulators.

NB Regal Zonophone is one of the few record labels commemorated in song, namely "Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)" from the album Shine On Brightly by Regal Zonophone artists Procol Harum and mentioned in "Repetition" by the Fall.

Regal Zonophone originally released Thrillington, a 1977 album produced by Paul McCartney, under the pseudonym of Percy "Thrills" Thrillington.

Elemental Child Live 1971

The Pan Statue

 

This is Danielz with the original Pan or Poon Statuette which Bolan gave to roadie Mick O'Halloran

Collector's Mug

 See here for a relevant collector's mug

Max Bordenghast

 This is a remake of the whole album.

More Pics

 

Photo Shoot Holland Park

Peter Sanders

BBC Recordings

There are about sixty songs that Bolan recorded and broadcast on the BBC between 1967 and 1971. On 17 November 1969 he did a session for Top Gear featuring songs from Beard of Stars. The tracks played were

• Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart
• Pavilions Of Sun
• A Day Laye
• By The Light Of The Magical Moon
• Wind Cheetah

(Top Gear was a radio show known for its specially recorded sessions in addition to playing records. It began life in 1964 and was revived with a progressive rock focus in 1967, running with that format until its end in 1975. Latterly John Peel was the presenter.)

Then on New Years Day 1970 he did a live session at the Paris Theatre, performing

• Pavilions Of Sun
• Dove
• By The Light Of The Magical Moon
• Elemental Child

He also did Elemental Child on Top Gear on 26 October 1970 and in the Paris Theatre on 10 December of the same year.

Mambo Sun

The track Mambo Sun is from Electric Warrior but it does contain this throwback line - 

I've got stars in my beard and I feel real weird for you