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HL 1029 - sep 1955 HL 1030 - sep 1955 No 7XLON matrix on label |
to HL 1199 - 1957 7XLON matrix on label |
to HL 1665 - 1960 |
to 1972 |
| The Australian arm of UK Decca started in Australia in the 1950’s distributing 78’s on hard to read pink labels by Aust Record Co (CBS). London moved to EMI about 1955 when it got it’s familiar black label. 45’s appeared around 1957 on the dark blue label. Some were released simultaneously on the black label. By 1958 the black label was made permanent up to the takeover by Polygram in the 1980’s. Minor changes to the labels were made over the years mainly on the colour of print (from gold to silver) and in 1961 they were better pressed as prior to that the HI FI wasn’t exactly HI. In fact the 78’s were better. Being a distributor label (no one ever recorded for London) distributing material from all major & minor US labels it seemed every second record in Australia was issued on London. Nearly all the classic Rock’n’Roll records were on London, so in Australia it wouldn’t be unusual to find a collector with stacks of London records. Unlike the UK & NZ counterparts the prefix (HL) remained the same from the first EMI 78 till the last EMI 45. The only differences were 78’s were 78-HL and 45’s to 1959 was 45-HL. The 45 was dropped after 78’s were dropped in 1958. | |||
