Steve King of Pye Records on Outsight Radio Hours #44 08-Feb-04

 

It was a great pleasure to speak with someone who had direct experience in the process when I interviewed Steve King of quality control at Pye Records, Lyntone, etc. on Outsight Radio Hours #44 08-Feb-04. The original audio for this interview is archived as selection #382 at archive.org and a transcription is going to be part of an anthology of interviews, etc. that I am compiling covering a quarter century of music journalism. 

He confessed to some individual record marking on the UK edition of the eponymous album George Thorogood And The Destroyers [Sonet SNTF 760, 1978].

SK: Yeah. And I actually did inscribe records. Not masters or positives, but I actually inscribed a number of records individually myself, saying “George is thoroughly good.” 

Really? 

SK: Really, yeah. And if you've got one of those out there, then you're very lucky, ‘cause there's probably only about four or five out there in total.

[...]

Was there many other records you or other quality people did that with or was that highly irregular?

SK: That was highly irregular. Yeah.

Then that was an incredible vote of confidence. 

SK: It was, yeah. I did it with one other record. I don't know if you've heard of Van Der Graaf Generator. 

Oh yes. 

SK: Yeah, well there was an offshoot group in the years when the Van Der Graaf Generator was inactive and it was called The Long Hello and I sort of wrote “hell”, and then sort of dash, “low”. And then in brackets, “was that long enough?” I did that on a few.

If you see one of these, let me know!