The early early years of kpm

[soundsville]

Hi all,

I have been purchasing the KPM Archive series that was released in the late 70's/early 80's and noticed the mention of another label called FDH. Can anyone share some info on this?
The lp's are pretty fun to listen to as I recognise tunes that were used in the Goodies ands I think Monty Python

David.

[Seventies Kid]

FDH = Francis, Day Hunter, a publishing company that's been going for years - never seen any of their library lps though.

[sermad]

I know of them. Not got any (I think).

http://www.sculptor.clara.net/ch4/pdf-coll/kpm.pdf

[soundsville]

Francis, Day and Hunter?? Thats interesting because I have a 10 inch library by FDH called "Sounds of Today". Its from the mid 60's (just my guess) and its got some nice big beat jazzy tracks on it. One of the tracks is "BIG BASS DRUM" by Les Reed and also has some stuff by Vic Flick.

[Lord Thames]

FDH are also unusual in that they issued 45rpm 7" singles - not that common a practice in the library world (though de Wolfe did EPs). I don't exactly how many FDH singles there were, but I've got one.

They pre-date KPM as a library by some years (FDH first started their library in the 1940s I think. KPM 001 didn't come out till 1958), but got taken over quite early on, I think. I'm pretty sure they were gone by the mid-sixties.

In a way, it's a pity they went, because they were one of the few libraries who could be persuaded to sell their stuff to the public, although one of their 78s would have set you back a few more shillings that a commercially available one!

The SOUTHERN Library also has/had 7 inchers

I've got some De Wolfe 78's

JD

[Lord Thames]

Oh yes - now you come to mention it, I think Sermad mentioned Southern 7"s too.

I don't suppose you know which Southern tracks were released as 7"s? I'm guessing they'll be the same as the 78s.

[sermad]

Loads maybe 150 of them. I really should have bought them when I had the chance....oh well. Chappell, studio G, KPM, deWolfe and dum de dum someone else have all had library 7's out. Most are samplers.

[wooly]

i've got a few intersound library 7s...

[soundsville]

I remember hearing somewhere that the FDH track BIG DRUM by Les Reed (not BIG BASS DRUM as I had incorrectly stated) came out on a commercial release.

[Seventies Kid]

Still on the subject of Les Reed, does anyone here know that Les bought Wessex studios in the late 60s/early 70s - hence the name change to Wessex-Reed studios?

A great studio that had a great engineer in Robin Thompson - he recorded the Ike Isaac's 'Stars and Guitars' lp among many other things (inc.a lot of library music).

[bionic boy]

I've got one FDH, brown cover but it's way too 50's- early 60's sounding for me