![]() “Living in Portsmouth at the time made us quite insular,” he says, “so I can’t say it felt like a family, although we were friendly with the other Bron acts who happened to be on Vertigo – Uriah Heep and Jon Hiseman’s Colosseum.” But it never had the unified feel of, say, Island Records’ famous sampler, You Can All Join In, which had the label’s roster photographed together in Hyde Park on its cover.įor Ray Shulman, Vertigo was never a family. “Our manager at the time, Gerry Bron, had a relationship with the newly formed Vertigo, so it seemed a good home for us.”Īlthough Shulman only met Wyper a few times, “he seemed to have a really good vibe, very enthusiastic”, and it was this enthusiasm that informed every aspect of his early work with the label.Īs Wyper had made his name with The Rock Machine Turns You On series, Vertigo released its own samplers (The Vertigo Annual 1970 being the first of several). “It was a different era and times, so there was no real comparison to the days at Parlophone,” he says today. Gentle Giant’s violinist/guitarist Ray Shulman had previously been in Simon Dupree And The Big Sound and had experienced life on a major label in the 60s. Right from the outset, we did much, as a team, to give Philips a new credibility for rock and progressive music.” “The Sabbath records were huge sellers, even outside the UK. “Of the first 17 records on Vertigo, seven charted in the UK and were significant sellers,” said Wyper. Wyper was an enthusiastic manager who led from the front, believed in his acts and would frequently go to see them play live – something of a novelty in those days where record company executives were still regarded as anonymous men in suits. Vertigo had a very successful initial period, with its commercially popular acts (Black Sabbath, Colosseum, Juicy Lucy) helping to support the curious backwaters of its catalogue (Gentle Giant, Dr Z, Mickey Jupp’s Legend). With its first three release – Valentyne Suite, Juicy Lucy’s eponymous debut and Manfred Mann’s Chapter Three – Vertigo was underway.īlack Sabbath (Image credit: Getty Images) On November 6, 1969, an advert appeared in the underground newspaper International Times showing a large picture of the Vertigo swirl: “Watch This Label… For The Sounds To Listen For… Cut It Out, Put It On Your Player, And Switch On!”. “They couldn’t understand how anyone could go out there and play blues and progressive music and actually sell records.” Wyper understood Colosseum and arranged for their second album, 1969’s Valentyne Suite to be the first release on Vertigo. Bron managed three acts – Colosseum, Uriah Heep and Juicy Lucy – that were signed to Philips/Fontana and would form the bedrock of Vertigo. Wyper worked closely with Philips’ managing director Leslie Gould and manager/producer Gerry Bron. “So yes, they were the first to do this sort of thing – create a special label for young progressive acts who reflected the times – but they’d gone past their best by the time we arrived.” “If you look at where Harvest were in 1969, they really had lost their way artistically,” he said. Wyper knew other labels had done something similar (he was especially inspired by EMI’s Harvest imprint), but with his youthful confidence, he knew Vertigo could be special. We did pick up a surprising range of acts, but they were all characterised by being ‘progressive’ in nature.” ![]() “Our attitude was, obviously, that anything we signed had to be good,” Wyper told Prog writer Malcolm Dome, “but it should also fit into the progressive style, whether it was folk, jazz or rock. ![]() One of his first jobs in 1969 was to revive David Bowie’s faltering Space Oddity single and give the Bard of Beckenham his first hit, chiming perfectly with the Apollo landings. Wyper was headhunted by Philips and given a free hand in the direction of the label. In his time at CBS, he pulled off the considerable coup of bringing together its disparate, low-selling US acts, and promoting them on the fondly remembered The Rock Machine Turns You On compilation series. Olav Wyper had a good reputation in the music industry. Philips’ other imprint, Fontana Records, was pushing the envelope with groups such as The Pretty Things and The Herd, but these were also set against acts such as trad jazzer Kenny Ball. As a label, Philips was seen as being past its sell-by date, with Dusty Springfield and The Walker Brothers’ first hits sounding like they were from another era.
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