FONTANA RECORDS
Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records. The independent label distributor Fontana Distribution takes its name from the label. Fontana’s U.S. counterpart label was started in 1964 and distributed by Philips US subsidiary Mercury Records. (More from Wikipedia)
When Manfred Mann left EMI Records and signed with Fontana Records in 1966, this was a new direction for the band that was described as “Chapter Two”. A more definitive chapter was announced with the formation of the jazz/rock group Manfred Mann Chapter Three, with only Mike Hugg and Manfred Mann himself remaining from the original band – described on the liner notes as “the Manfred Mann pop group”.
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(June 2014)
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Mike Stax’s exhaustively researched article over four issues in Ugly Things on the Misunderstood led to the publication of a book on the band called Like, Misunderstood that was co-written with the band’s lead singer Rick Brown; as quoted in the Union Tribune article, Stax says: “They came pretty close to making it in London, they got a deal with Fontana Records, had a single out and had media (coverage). Then, the [U.S. military] draft claimed the lead singer, and they were finished overnight, just as they were on the verge of success. They would have been the first psychedelic band, with an album out before before [Jimi] Hendrix and Pink Floyd. They were cheated. Their music was world-class.”
(September 2017)
