Change of plans, after the opening, festivities will continue in bar Pelikaan, just across the street of the store in stead of Bar Mondial. DJs and beer galore.

We have been busting our assess off to get ready for Wednesday. But the result is rewarding. The place looks amazing! The crates are stacked with divine vinyl, the Art-Wall is virgin white waiting to be abused by young artistic exploits and fa resh pot of coffe is brewing.

The only thing we still need to do? Post the final line-up of live performances for the opening on Wednesday April 1st.

Seatsniffers wont make it on Wednesday, but promised to schedule a record release gig in the store later next month. Date to be announced.

Stay tuned

Title: Radio Modern Leuven
Location: Het Depot
Link out: Click here
Description: OnMarch 7th, Radio Modern throws a party with The Mighty Quiffs on stage, backed up by special guests from Louvain city, Big Bill, Johnny Trash, El Fish, Patrick Ouchene, Boogermen etc
Start Time: 20:00
Date: 2009-03-27

Title: Vintage van ‘s morgens tot ‘s avonds in Hasselt
Location: Muziekodroom (Bootstraat 9), Hasselt
Link out: Click here

Start Time: 14:00
Date: 2009-04-04

Recommended by the Party Crew: A whole day of vintage in Hasselt.

Rummage around at the vintage fair in the afternoon. Then, get dressed and fired up for one of Radio Modern’s swinging signature retro dance parties.

Another New York label this week. This is the first major label to be formed after the start of the rock ‘n roll era.

Background:

The Am-Par Record Corporation was founded in 1955 in New York as a subsidiary of American Broadcasting Theatres, Inc. The record label was called ‘ABC-Paramount’. The label was managed by Samuel Clark and Larry Newton and specialized in Pop, Jazz and R’n B.

The label had three subsidiaries – Impulse, Bluesway and Probe (which I’ll discuss in a later post).

In 1959 Enoch Light and his partners sold their New Jersey labels to ABC-Paramount. These included Audition, Command Performance, Colortone, Grand Award and Waldorf Music Hall. Grand Award until 1966 and Command until 1976 continued to operate under ABC-Paramount, the three other labels stopped issuing records altogether.

ABC-Paramount also purchased Dunhill in 1966 and the Duke/Peacock labels in 1973.

Important artists on the label were Paul Anka, Joe Bennett, Danny & the Juniors, Lloyd Price, Ray Charles, Cliff Richard, Josh White, Billy Taylor, Impressions, Fats Domino, the Tams, Toots Thielemans, Candido, Art Blakey, Roy Brown, Fifth Dimension, Isaac Hayes, Quincy Jones, John Mayal, Dramatics, Dells, Rufus, B.J. Thomas, Freda Payne, Dixie Cups, Art Farmer, Gerry Mulligan, Eydie Gormé, Don Costa, Poco, Steppenwolf, Joe Turner, Jimmy Witherspoon, Steely Dan and B.B. King.

In 1966, ‘Paramount’ was dropped from the name, becoming simply ‘ABC’.

In 1979 ABC was sold to MCA who kept on releasing ABC albums.

The label:

The first label was black with silver printing, on top ‘ABC-PARAMOUNT’ and on the bottom ‘A PRODUCT OF AM-PAR RECORD CORP.’, both printed in white. Stereo pressings had ‘STEREO’ in large letters on the left side of the centre of the label. These were used between 1955 and 1961 on the ‘100’, ‘200’ and ‘300’ series.

The second label was the same, only with ‘A PRODUCT OF ABC-PARAMOUNT RECORDS, INC.’ added at the bottom as used on the ‘400’ and ‘500’ series between 1962 and 1964.

The third label came after ABC-PARAMOUNT became ABC.

The label was black with silver printing. Above the centre hole was a black ‘ABC’ in a white circle captured in a multi colored box. ‘ABC RECORDS INC, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10019 – MADE IN THE USA’ or ‘1 PRODUCT OF ABC-PARAMOUNT RECORDS INC. A SUBSIDIARY OF AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANIES INC.’ printed on the bottom of the label. This label was used from 1966 until 1974, staring with series number ‘565’ through ‘830’. Stereo issues have ‘STEREO’ either on the right or on the left side of the label.

The fourth label was an interim label using black with children block’s spelling out ABC in a white triangle. The label was used from 1972 until 1974 on some labels, as used on the ‘769′ until ‘830′ series.

The fifth label had a purple centre which graduated to a gold outer circle with black printing, ‘ABC’ on top in a white circle, as used on the ‘830’ until the ‘1090’ series, between 1975 and 1977.

The sixth label was the same as the previous one, only the ‘ABC’ logo printed in a musical note on top. This label was used from 1979 starting from the ‘1090’ series.

Some recommendations:

I’m not aware of a good compilations, so you have to check the studio albums.

Pictures of the labels:

Otber labels in the series

Title: Grand new opening
Location: Melkmarkt 17, 2000 Antwerp
Description:

At last!

After a valuable collaboration and an endless search for a new and bigger store for almost a year, Tune Up & Vintage Crew are putting the hands together. We are moving right around the corner to the first and second floor of IMS.

One plus one will be more than two. Music meets art in a super chill Vintage setting. The best of vinyl from around the world will find a new home. Young and established artists get a forum to show their work on the Art-Wall and the Crew will foresee in-store concerts on a regular basis.

The grand opening will be on April 1st with live bands, dj sets, opening of the Art-Wall, drinks and snacks all day long. There will be an after party at Bar Mondial.

Of course everybody is invited to come and take a look. The new address is Melkmarkt 17, 2000 Antwerp.

rsvp: crew@vintagecrew.com
press release
invitation

See you then

Start Time: 1:00
Date: 2009-04-01

This week’s label is ‘Sun’, the birthplace of rock ‘n roll!

Background

Sun Records was founded in February 1952 by Sam Phillips, a former disc jockey and owner of Memphis Recording Service in Memphis, Tenn.

The label focused in general on Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Rockabilly and Country. Mr. Phillips’ strength was to merge white Country with black R’n B to create a new sound. The embodiment of this was Elvis Presley, a white man who sounded like black man. Elvis came to Memphis to record a song for his mother’s birthday for only $4.00. The rest is history.

Other legendary artists on the label include Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Merle Haggard, Charlie Feathers, Barbara Pittman, Billy ‘the kid’ Emerson, Rufus Thomas, Roscoe Gordon, James Cotton, Walter Horton, Junior Parker, Little Milton, Howling Wolf, and the inmates from the Nashville State Penitentiary, the Prisonaires.

Starting off as a small independent label, Sun became a major force, almost becoming a national label. The Sun label was first and foremost a single label, only 12 albums were issued on the label.

In 1957 Mr. Phillips established a subsidiary label called Phillips International. On July 1, 1969, Mr. Phillips sold his label to Shelby S. Singleton Jr. who focussed on re-releasing the Sun material.

The label.

The original label was yellow with brown printing, ‘SUN’ above the centre hole alternating yellow and light brown rays from the centre hole to the top. Around the perimeter of the label are music notes. On the bottom is a yellow ‘MEMPHIS TENNESSEE’, below this ‘A PRODUCT OF SUN RECORD CO., INC. – MEMPHIS, TENN.’, as used on the ‘1200’ series.

The 2nd label used the music notes only going around on top of the label and four targets on the bottom half with ‘Sun International Corp. – a Division of the Shelby Singleton Corp. – Nashville, U.S.A.’, as used in the late sixties on the ‘100’series and in the seventies on the ‘1000’ series.

The 3rd label used ‘Sunnyval Records’ and/or ‘GRT’ on the ‘900’ series.

Some recommendations.

‘From the Vaults, the Complete Sun Singles’ Volumes 1 – 6, each containing 4 CD’s and
‘Memphis Belles, Various Artists’, a 6 cd box set both on Bear Family

Otber labels in the series

Back in NYC, just for a couple of days though. So I decided to pay a visit to probably one of my favorite record stores in NYC: Big City Records. It is a fairly new store on 12th str btwn Avn A and B that split off from the old Sound Library a couple of years ago. It is a small one, and in this exceptional situation size does not matter. A good store for Headz who like good soul, funk, jazz, hip hop, soundtracks and that kind of stuff. Definitely would recommed it to people who want to dig. But as most of the time is the case, these stores know what they own so there is no cheap price for it. Also, if you are in the area pass by Academy records just down the block west from it on 12th btwn 1st and ave A. I will ty to post something bout them some other time.