Deram Records

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Deram Records
Parent company	Decca Records (UK)
Founded	1966
Genre	Pop music
Country of origin	England
Location	London

Deram Records was a record label set up by Decca Records. It was active from 1966 until 1979.

1 History
2 Artist roster
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Decca established Deram Records initially as an outlet for its 'Deramic Sound' recordings, which allowed for more space between instruments, rendering these softer to the ear. The first releases (with a DSS logo on the label and sporting 7xx catalogue numbers) were easy-listening albums with 'smooth' sounds. The label was soon moulded into a home for 'alternative' or 'progressive' artists and received 1xxx catalogue numbers to mark the change in direction. The roster now included British jazz and folk as well. Some of the more progressive jazz musicians of the late 1960s were released under the Deram imprint including Mike Gibbs, John Surman and Mike Westbrook.

Deram albums bore a DML prefix for mono and an SML prefix for stereo releases. As with other UK Decca subsidiary labels, Deram's U.S. counterpart was distributed under the London Records arm. Decca positioned it against Island Records, Harvest Records (launched by EMI) and Vertigo Records (launched by Philips Records), but it failed to compete long-term. An 'extra' progressive series with SDL prefixes did not improve th situation.

From the start, Decca placed pop records alongside progressive artists on Deram. Cat Stevens found early success on there before moving to Island Records and David Bowie's first album appeared on the label. Three of Deram's earliest hits, Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade Of Pale, The Move's "Night Of Fear" and "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" were not artists actually signed to Deram; they were part of a deal with Straight Ahead Productions, who moved their acts to EMI and had them released on the reintroduced Regal Zonophone imprint.

In 1969, Decca launched a true progressive label called Nova, which lasted less than a year. This casued further confusion as simultaneous releases on "Deram Nova" and "Decca Nova" appeared.

Decca released Justin Hayward (of Moody Blues fame)'s Songwriter (1977) and Night Flight (1980) vinyl albums on Deram. Deram was briefly revived in the early 1980s, when its roster included Bananarama and Splodgenessabounds. Deram has also been used as a reissue imprint for the Decca/London catalogue.