Albert Coates

Good morning Rolf, from a damp Maui. You have pipped me to the post, for I spent all of yesterday's morning, Thursday 18th March, browsing through the CHARM site, and was delighted with the ability to listen to a few of the 78's that used to be in my 78 collection many years ago, when I lived in the UK.

I was planning to write about CHARM and may still do so. Unfortunately I was only able to stream using the MP3 format. I have to download FLAC onto my IMac, which I know will result in a better sound transfer.

I noticed you also included a link to the HMV D label used for one of the Albert Coates 78 you listened to. I was interested in that, for the label was the same colour as the HMV DB label. The D series was originally a mid priced series which had a black label. As I recall the label was discontinued about 1932 and the D 78's that remained in the HMV catalogues for many years thereafter, still retained the D catalogue number but when the black labels were exhausted the DB label colour was used. I thought of writing about this but there is probably very little interest in this information these days in 2010.

Thank you for your post which jogged my memory of a topic I cherish.  Irvine Shamrock

You make a very interesting point about HMV red and black labels and indeed you point out that the black label series (D for 12 inch and E for 10 inch) was a mid price label.  The red label series (DB for 12 and DA for 10 inch respectively) was originally an ultra full priced series (the so-called 'Celebrity' series).  There was also the cheap plum label (C and B for 12 and 10 inch respectively). 

When HMV and Columbia merged to form EMI in 1931, the price of the red label DB/DA series was reduced to the same as that of the black D/E series.  The black label series was then discontinued and artists who were formally on black label were put on to the DB/DA red label (you'll see this in the case of Toscanini and Stokowski records as well as the D'Oyly Carte G&S series).  Existing issues in the black label series then started appearing with red labels and this remained the case for the remainder of the 78 era.  Thus any black label D/E records will date from before 1931.

Columbia similarly had three labels: ultra full price was purple (PX and PB for 12 and 10 inch respectively) which seems to have been exclusively used for Clara Butt's records, mid price was light blue (LX and LB) and the cheap category was dark blue (DX and DB).  As in the case of HMV, the purple label price was dropped to that of the light blue category in 1931.