History
Celtic Music began as a publishing outlet for four books of Irish session tunes compiled by Dave Bulmer and Neil Sharpley in the 1970s, with the term first appearing on "Music from Ireland Volume 2" from 1976. [2] It evolved into a record distribution company (CM Distribution) for other labels and then into a recording and record production operation from 1978 to around 2007 that was owned by Dave Bulmer in Leeds and Harrogate in Yorkshire, England. [3] As well as issuing its own recordings, Celtic Music also acquired the back catalogue of other folk music record labels when the latter were on-sold, including Leader, Trailer, Rubber Records, Black Crow, Dambuster, Highway, Sweet Folk and Country, Greenwich Village, Mulligan, Broadside, Folk Heritage, and Making Waves, the majority of which, however, have not been re-issued. [4]
The first release on Celtic Music was the eponymous album by the band Iona in 1978, while the last was Tich Frier's Shanghaied in 2007. For many years, the registered company address was in Louth, Lincolnshire.
Since at least the 2000s, many artists with recordings held by the label have argued that the catalogue is being mismanaged. Complaints include that music has been largely unavailable to the public, there has been a lack of royalty payments and accounting, and contested claims to ownership of specific recordings. [5] In 2025 Scottish folk singer Dick Gaughan launched a legal case to gain control of seven albums claimed by Celtic Music, with arguments that include a challenge as to the actual existence of the company. [6]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
