Dec 14

Polydor Records

POLYDOR RECORDS
 
 
Polydor Records  is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group.  Its artists have included Cheryl Cole and Girls Aloud, Take That, Haim, James Brown, Ellie Goulding, Duffy, James Blake, Snow Patrol, Elton John, The 1975, Years & Years, and American artists Lana Del Rey and Azealia Banks.   (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Many rock critics were not ready for a “concept album” from a punk rock band, and the Wanderers were often dismissed as “the Sham Boys” or “Stiv 69”, though they did get some favorable notices (from Trouser Press, among others).  Their label Polydor Records had expected more than a cult following and made only minimal efforts at promoting the Wanderers; in retrospective paranoia, this seemed like sabotage to Stiv Bators.  The band was dropped by Polydor and broke up almost immediately. 
 
Today, the original album is almost impossible to find, but a reissue in 2000 on Captain Oi! Records has brought the album to a wider audience.  (“Oi” refers to a working-class subgenre of British punk rock; Sham 69 was one of the first such bands).
 
(February 2011)
 
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The band’s fourth and final single came out on Polydor Records in May 1966, “A-Minor Explosion” b/w “Pits of Darkness”, under the name Don Shinn and the Soul Agents.  Both sides were instrumentals that were composed by Don Shinn.  

 

(May 2014)

 

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The first single that is generally credited to the Beatles is “My Bonnie” b/w “The Saints”; the artist is Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers on the album and the EP, but the single on Polydor Records shows Tony Sheridan and the Beatles.  The Beatles met and befriended Tony Sheridan, a rock and roll singer on their first trip to Hamburg, Germany in 1960; when they returned to Hamburg in 1961, they backed Sheridan as lead singer in a series of recordings.  Since Tony Sheridan later re-recorded several of the songs, the songs that actually feature the Beatles are uncertain in many cases; but it is known that they played on both of these songs.  The single was released in 1961 and reached #26 in the US and #48 in the UK.  

 

I have an album collecting this music that still hasn’t shown up from the Katrina remains called The Early Years.  It doesn’t sound much like the Beatles after they hit the big time, but I still love that music. 

 

(June 2015)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021