Regal Zonophone Records was a British

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the pr ...

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 Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1917 as an offshoot of the American Columbia Phonograph Company, it became an independent British-owned company in 1922 in a managemen ...

and the

Gramophone Company The Gramophone Company Limited (The Gramophone Co. Ltd.), based in the United Kingdom and founded by Emil Berliner, was one of the early recording companies, the parent organisation for the '' His Master's Voice (HMV)'' label, and the Europe ...

– 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.Arthur Badrock and Frank Andrews: ''Regal Records 1914 to 1932'' 2nd Edition published June 2009 by The City of London Phonographic and Gramophone Society. Originally Regal Zonophone handled American releases from

Okeh Records Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...

and

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

, as well as offering home-grown recordings by artists such as

Gracie Fields Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was an English actress, singer, comedian and star of cinema and music hall who was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the h ...

and

George Formby George Formby, (born George Hoy Booth; 26 May 1904 – 6 March 1961) was an English actor, singer-songwriter and comedian who became known to a worldwide audience through his films of the 1930s and 1940s. On stage, screen and record he s ...

. The label is also known for its releases of

Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...

(particularly brass band) music. In the 1950s the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

n division of Regal Zonophone played an important role in the emerging Australian

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

genre, signing several emerging country stars including

Slim Dusty Slim Dusty, AO MBE (born David Gordon Kirkpatrick; 13 June 1927 – 19 September 2003) was an Australian country music singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. He was an Australian cultural icon and one of the country's most awarded stars, ...

Smoky Dawson Smoky Dawson AM, MBE (19 March 191313 February 2008), born as Herbert Henry Brown, was an Australian Country, Western and folk performer, radio star, entertainer, and icon. He was widely touted as Australia's first singing cowboy complete w ...

Reg Lindsay Reginald John Lindsay OAM (7 July 1929 – 5 August 2008) was an Australian country music singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and radio and television personality. He won three Golden Guitar Awards and wrote more than 500 so ...

and

Chad Morgan Chadwick William "Chad" Morgan OAM (born 11 February 1933) is an Australian country music singer and guitarist known for his vaudeville style of comic country and western songs, his prominent teeth and goofy stage persona. In reference to his ...

. 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 Procol Harum () were an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single " A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies. Although noted for ...

single and two singles by

The Move The Move were a British rock band of the late 1960s and the early 1970s. They scored nine top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any real success in the United States. For most of their car ...

) and continued well into the early 1970s, with successful producers

Denny Cordell Dennis Cordell-Lavarack (1 August 1943 – 18 February 1995), known as Denny Cordell, was an English record producer. He is notable for his mid-1960s and early 1970s productions of hit singles for The Moody Blues, Leon Russell, The Move, Procol ...

and

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

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 John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were recordings of son ...

, and

Tyrannosaurus Rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

. During the mid-1970s, many of these production deals ended and, despite a few sporadic releases by

Blue Mink Blue Mink were a British six-piece pop group that existed from 1969 to 1977. Over that period they had six Top 20 hit singles in the UK Singles Chart, and released five studio based albums. According to AllMusic: "they have been immortalised on ...

Geordie Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of North East England, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitute ...

Dave Edmunds David William Edmunds (born 15 April 1944) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. Although he is mainly associated with pub rock and new wave, having many hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has always ...

, and Grunt Futtock (a one-off project featuring

Roy Wood Roy Wood (born 8 November 1946) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a ...

Steve Marriott Stephen Peter Marriott (30 January 1947 – 20 April 1991) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He co-founded and played in the rock bands Small Faces and Humble Pie, in a career spanning over two decades. Marriott was inducted pos ...

Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who was a member of the rock bands Humble Pie and the Herd. As a solo artist, he has released several albums, including his major breakthrough album, the live ...

and

Andy Bown Andrew Steven Bown (born 27 March 1946) is an English musician, who has specialised in keyboards and bass guitar. He is a member of the rock band Status Quo. Career Bown's first major band was The Herd, along with Peter Frampton. After The H ...

), EMI stopped using the imprint as a major pop label. Many of the label's artists moved to

Fly Records Fly Records is a British independent record label, established in 1970 by the independent music publisher David Platz, and initially managed by Malcolm Jones from the offices of Essex Music in London. History Platz had been producing records i ...

or to the EMI imprint. Regal Zonophone was revived by EMI in 1985-86 for Frank Sidebottom, and again at the end of the 1990s as a reissue label curated by the UK band Saint Etienne. This incarnation of the label is no longer active, as EMI relaunched Regal and Zonophone as separate imprints of

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

. In 2013, both Regal and Zonophone were taken over by

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and th ...

after

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

spun off Parlophone from EMI, at the request of international regulators. However, the Australian and New Zealand Regal Zonophone catalogues, including recordings by Slim Dusty, were ceded to

Universal Music Australia Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd. (UMA) is the largest Australian music corporation. It is a division of the Universal Music Group. Universal Music Australia's corporate headquarters are located in Sydney, Australia. Labels Universal Musi ...

's imprint EMI Recorded Music and Universal Music New Zealand respectively.

Other information

* Regal Zonophone is one of the few record labels commemorated in song, namely "Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)" from the album ''

Shine On Brightly ''Shine On Brightly'' is the second studio album by English rock band Procol Harum, released in 1968 by record labels Regal Zonophone and A&M. It is considered an early example of progressive rock. The album's single, "Quite Rightly So", fail ...

'' by Regal Zonophone artists

, and mentioned in "Repetition" by the Fall. * Regal Zonophone originally released ''

Thrillington ''Thrillington'' is an album produced by English musician Paul McCartney, under the pseudonym Percy "Thrills" Thrillington. It was released in April 1977 in the UK and in May 1977 in the US. It is an instrumental covers album of Paul and Linda ...

'', a 1977 album produced by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

, under the pseudonym of Percy "Thrills" Thrillington.

References

{{Authority control Defunct record labels of the United Kingdom Progressive rock record labels Record labels established in 1932 Record labels established in 1967 Re-established companies EMI 1932 establishments in the United Kingdom 1967 establishments in the United Kingdom 1990s disestablishments in the United Kingdom

Other information

See also

References