Durium Records (UK)

Last updated

Label of a Durium record pressed for the Swedish market DuriumSC102.jpg
Label of a Durium record pressed for the Swedish market

Durium was a short-lived record label in the United Kingdom run by Durium Products (GB) Ltd in the 1930s.

Its presses were located in Slough, near London. Its products and marketing were derived from the American record company Durium Products, Inc., producer of the Hit of the Week record label. Durium Products sold its single-sided paper gramophone records from around 1930 to 1933 whereas the UK firm operated only from 1932 to 1933. Their records were also exported to other European countries, including Sweden and Denmark (see illustration).

Using the fast-setting new material Durium, the label's production costs were much lower than for the shellac discs of the time. Hit of the Week discs sold for just one shilling and enjoyed great popularity.

Bibliography

See also



Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia Records</span> American record label

Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business, and the second major company to produce records. From 1961 to 1991, its recordings were released outside North America under the name CBS Records to avoid confusion with EMI's Columbia Graphophone Company. Columbia is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels: Epic Records, and former longtime rivals, RCA Records and Arista Records as the latter two were originally owned by BMG before its 2008 relaunch after Sony's acquisition alongside other BMG labels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunswick Records</span> US record label

Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hit of the Week Records</span>

Hit of the Week was an American record label founded in 1930 that sold low-priced records made of Durium instead of the usual shellac.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pathé Records</span> French record label

Pathé Records was an international record company and label and producer of phonographs, based in France, and active from the 1890s through the 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty Records</span> US and UK record label

Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Alvin Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revivals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Weems</span> American musician and bandleader

Wilfred Theodore Wemyes, known professionally as Ted Weems, was an American bandleader and musician. Weems's work in music was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Now That's What I Call Music! is a series of various artists compilation albums released in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Sony Music and Universal Music which began in 1983. Spinoff series began for other countries the following year, starting with South Africa, and many other countries worldwide soon followed, expanding into Asia in 1995, then the United States in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bluebird Records</span> American record label

Bluebird Records is an American record label best known for its low-cost releases, primarily of children's music, blues, jazz and swing in the 1930s and 1940s. Bluebird was founded in 1932 as a lower-priced subsidiary label of RCA Victor. Bluebird was noted for what came to be known as the "Bluebird sound", which influenced rhythm and blues and early rock and roll. It is currently owned by RCA Records parent company Sony Music Entertainment.

Warner Records Inc. is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the American film studio Warner Bros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starday Records</span> Record label

Starday Records was an American record label producing traditional country music during the 1950s and 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CD single</span> Music single in the form of a compact disc

A CD single is a music single in the form of a compact disc (CD). Originally the CD single standard was an 8 cm (3-inch) "mini CD" (CD3); later on the term referred to any single recorded onto a CD of any size, particularly the 12 cm (5-inch) "full-size" disc (CD5). From a technical viewpoint, a CD single is identical to any other audio CD. The format started gaining popularity in the early 1990s, but quickly declined in the early and mid 2000s, in favor of digital downloaded singles and CD albums.

Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 in New York City by Arthur Shimkin, the owner of the children's record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benny Bell who used the Bell name to issue risque novelty records. A British branch was also active in the 1960s and 1970s. Bell Records was shut down in late 1974, and its assets were transferred to Columbia Pictures' new label, Arista Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Durium</span> Highly durable synthetic resin

Durium is a highly durable synthetic resin developed in 1929. It was used in phonograph records, as well as in the casting process for metallic type and in the aeronautics industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Jones albums discography</span> Wikimedia albums discography

The albums discography of American country artist, George Jones contains 80 studio albums, 132 compilation albums, three live albums, ten video albums and seven box sets. Of his studio albums, 69 are solo releases while 11 are collaborative releases. In 1956, Jones's debut studio LP was issued on Starday Records titled, Grand Ole Opry's New Star. The label only issued one studio effort, but would release a series of compilation. On Mercury Records, Jones released six studio LP's including Country Church Time (1959) and George Jones Salutes Hank Williams (1960). He switched to the United Artists label in 1962, where he released 13 studio LP's. Among these was a collaborative LP with Melba Montgomery called What's in Our Hearts (1963), which was his first to chart the Billboard Top Country Albums survey. He moved to Musicor in 1965. Among the label's studio LP's was I'm a People (1966), which reached the top of the Billboard country survey. Musicor also issued his first collaborative studio album with Gene Pitney, which made the Billboard country LP's chart and the Billboard 200.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crown Records (1930s label)</span> Budget American record label

Crown Records was a record company and dime-store label that existed from 1930 to 1933 in New York City. Its catalogue included music by Eubie Blake and Fletcher Henderson. Known as the label offering "Two Hits for Two Bits" proudly printed on their sleeves, Crown's discs sold for 25 cents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Tony (singer)</span> Musical artist

Little Tony was a Sammarinese singer and actor, who achieved success in Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the lead singer of Little Tony & His Brothers, before returning to Italy where he continued a successful career as a singer and film actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergio Franchi discography</span>

The discography of Sergio Franchi, the Italian-American tenor (1926–1990), consists of a total of thirty-five albums: Two live albums, and thirty-three studio albums. The studio albums are further identified as collaborations, and nine are compilation albums. The Live category included an LP album (1965) and a CD album of selected songs extracted from Franchi's twenty-four Live TV appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. This discography also includes thirty single and EP albums recorded or released in various venues.

Durium was an Italian record label, active from 1935 to 1989. Part of the catalogue and the brand were subsequently taken over by Ricordi, who used it for some reissues. Its initial trademark consisted of the writing Durium in block letters, surmounted by the stylisation of three trumpets and an eagle. Immediately after the war, this logo was abandoned to move to the stylisation of a disk with three internal rays crossed by the writing Durium in italics.

Durium is a synthetic resin.