| Pye Records | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parent company | BMG Rights Management (majority of back-catalogue) |
| Founded | 1955; 70 years ago (1955) |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | UK |
PYE or Pye Records is an independent British record label. It was first established in 1955 and played a major role in shaping rock 'n' roll and pop music history. The Pye name was dropped in 1980 due to trademark issues, after which it produced almost no music until the company name and trademark was acquired by the Scottish broadcaster and music producerTony Currie in September 2024.[1]
The new Pye Records has begun to release new albums on vinyl:Race the Sun from the Tony Currie Orchestra, conducted byGavin Sutherland (principal guest conductor for theEnglish National Ballet), and Callum Au.Race the Sun was conceived to pay tribute to the pop orchestras of the original Pye Records.[2] The revived label has also releasedHarvest Gold by the London-based singer-songwriter Andrea Black.
Pye Records was best known for artistes such as LonnieDonegan (1956–1969),Petula Clark (1957–1971),the Searchers (1963–1967),the Kinks (1964–1971),Sandie Shaw (1964–1971),Status Quo (1968–1971) andBrotherhood of Man (1975–1979). The label changed its name toPRT Records (distributing asPrecision Records & Tapes) in 1980, before being briefly reactivated as Pye Records in 2006.
In September 2024, Pye was relaunched by Currie, using a wind-powered pressing plant inEdinburgh to press its vinyl.[3]
ThePye Company originally manufactured televisions and radios with its main plant situated off what used to be Haig Road, inCambridge. The company entered the record business when it boughtNixa Records in 1953. In 1955, the company acquiredPolygon Records, a label that had been established by Leslie Clark andAlan A. Freeman to control distribution of the recordings of the former's daughter,Petula Clark. Pye merged it with Nixa Records to formPye Nixa Records.
In 1958,Pye International Records was established. The company licensed recordings from American and other foreign labels for the United Kingdom market, includingChess,Disques Vogue (France),A&M,Kama Sutra,Colpix,Warner Bros.,Buddah,Cameo,20th Century,Casablanca Record and Filmworks andKing. It also released recordings from British artistLabi Siffre which were produced outside the company.
Pye Nixa became Pye Records in 1959, andATV acquired 50% of the label.[4] ATV bought the other half of the business in 1966.
Under the management ofLouis Benjamin,[5] the company entered thebudget-priced album market in 1957, reissuing older Pye material onPye Golden Guinea Records, priced at aguinea (one pound and one shilling). A series of classical recordings was released on Golden Guinea Collector; for example, a version ofHandel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks" in 1959. This featured the conductorCharles Mackerras who made other recordings on the label, including aJanacek compilation.[6] Golden Guinea Collector was closed in the 1970s and replaced byMarble Arch Records, selling at an even lower price.
A full-price subsidiary,Piccadilly Records, was for new pop acts, includingJoe Brown & the Bruvvers,Clinton Ford,the Rockin' Berries,Sounds Orchestral,the Sorrows,The Bystanders,Jackie Trent and, later on,the Ivy League. In 1969, Pye launched a less mainstream label forfolk,jazz,blues andprogressive acts,Dawn Records. The label artists includedMungo Jerry,Man,Donovan,Comus, Titus Groan and Trifle.
Beginning in 1971, Pye issued a series of "4D Stereo" LP recordings in the UK. These were designed for playback in 4-channelquadraphonic sound. The records were encoded in theQS Regular Matrix system which was licensed fromSansui in Japan. Pye also marketed its own line of consumer electronics used for decoding quadraphonic records. These products were not especially successful. The last LP release in this series was in 1977.
When the rights to the name Pye (then owned byPhilips)[7] expired in 1980, the label changed its name to PRT, which stood for Precision Records and Tapes, via a brief flirtation with Precision. At that time, it had sub-labels such asFanfare Records, a late 1980s and early 1990s UK-based Hi-NRG label issuing records bySinitta;R&B Records, a 1980s disco/electro label featuringImagination; and Splash Records, which featuredJigsaw and theRichard Hewson Orchestra/RAH Band. PRT provided manufacturing and distribution forGary Numan's label Numa Records, founded in 1984, which went on to release two dozen singles by a variety of acts alongside its eponymous founder, including actressCaroline Munro.Postman Pat songs and music, from the television series of the same name, were recorded at PRT Studios.
PRT's parent companyACC was purchased byThe Bell Group of Australia in 1982. In 1988, the Bell Group was purchased by theBond Corporation. However, the Bond Corporation was suffering financial problems itself and proceeded to quickly sell off most of its assets. PRT's record and cassette factory was sold to another record manufacturer, Meekland. Most of the masters of PRT's catalogue (except classical music catalogue) were sold toCastle Communications, which eventually becameSanctuary Records (now a division ofBMG Rights Management). Precision Records & Tapes Ltd, formerly Pye Records Ltd, was officially liquidated in December 2013.[8]
At the same time,EMI acquired masters of PRT's classical music catalogue and assigned them toEMI Classics.
In July 2006, Pye Records was reactivated by Sanctuary Records as an indie and alternative label, featuring artists such asScottish alternative rock groupIdlewild. However, plans for continued usage of the Pye name were abandoned whenUniversal Music Group bought Sanctuary in 2007. To fulfil conditions imposed by theEuropean Commission following UMG's acquisition of EMI in 2012, Universal sold Sanctuary to BMG Rights Management in 2013.[9]
Universal Music Group, which owned the label's catalogue from 2007 to 2013, controls the catalogue of reissues from Pye/PRT artists' releases on Sanctuary's behalf after BMG assigned UMG to distribute them in October 2023.[10] Previously, it was distributed byWarner Music Group through itsAlternative Distribution Alliance division from 2017 to 2023.[11][12] WMG owns Pye's American former distributorsWarner Records (formerly Warner Bros. Records) andReprise Records.
With its acquisition of EMI Classics' catalogue in 2013, WMG now owns the Pye/PRT classical music catalogue and controls it viaWarner Classics.
Pye Records was a sister company to the better-known ATV Music Publishing. This company, which ownedthe Beatles' publisherNorthern Songs, was bought byMichael Jackson in 1985 and later merged withSony to formSony/ATV Music Publishing.
Starting with the "British Invasion" of 1964, Pye placed their artists in the US mostly on labels that they distributed in the UK:the Kinks toCameo Records and then toReprise Records,David Bowie,the Sorrows andPetula Clark toWarner Bros. Records,Donovan toHickory Records,the Searchers toMercury Records,Liberty Records, and finallyKapp Records, andStatus Quo toChess Records (which issued their records on their newly createdCadet Concept Records label).
From 1969 to 1971, Pye was a co-owner with GRT (General Recorded Tape) ofJanus Records, which at the outset served as the US label for such Pye acts as Jefferson,Sounds Orchestral,Pickettywitch,Mungo Jerry and Status Quo, and also re-issued the early (pre-1966) recordings of Donovan. Pye sold its share of Janus back to GRT in 1971.
In 1972,Bell Records set up a short-lived Pye label, featuringMichel Pagliaro, aCanadian artist whose first English-language album (largely recorded in England) was issued on UK Pye, and Jackie McAuley, whose lone solo album was originally issued on UK Dawn.
In 1974, Pye established an American version of its record label. The label was not a success, however, and closed its US operations in 1976. The head of the US division,Marvin Schlachter, then startedPrelude Records, named after one of Pye's acts of the time,Prelude; its initial LP and 45 catalogue series were carried over from the ill-fated American Pye label (with the catalogue prefix changed from PYE- to PRL-), and Prelude had a string ofdisco anddance music hits into the early 1980s.
Whilst Pye did not have its own operations in Canada, it arranged with Canadian record companies to issue Pye recordings on the Pye label in Canada. Before then,Quality Records issued Pye recordings on the Quality label. Its earliest Pye Canada releases such asLonnie Donegan's "My Old Man's A Dustman" were distributed by Astral Music Sales. Around 1963, distribution shifted to Allied Record Corporation. In 1968 distribution shifted to Phonodisc.[13]
(including the US labels that issued records by the artists during the time they were on Pye)
Other artists who recorded for Pye during their careers includeJimmy Young,Dickie Valentine,Russ Conway,Emile Ford,Val Doonican,Jackie Trent,Tony Hatch andTony Hancock.
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