Motown in Europe; 1964/65

[jsmith]

In October 62, Motown's license in the UK was acquired by Oriole Records.
Maurice Levy [[Oriole's owner) assured John Schroeder [[who he'd hired) he wanted to put Oriole up against the big boys – we wanted to become a major force. I said ‘if you’re going to do that you’re going to need a lot of finance. You got to have promotion guys, Radio Luxembourg airtime, all sorts of things.’ But he said he wanted to. At the time I believed him. Unfortunately as time went on, the support wasn’t there in the strength it should have been. I don’t think he realised what he’d let himself in for and what was needed to make Oriole a major force. However, I did do a lot in the 2 & a half years I was there. I had free rein, restricted by the budget so I was always held down a bit. I took on the Motown catalogue. Oriole had their own studios but they were deficient in lots of ways and they didn’t want me to hire any other studios, so we had to put up with the faults and technical difficulties. Then I set up Oriole as a proper label, got rid of a lot of artists, signed new ones and retained a few old ones, like Maureen Evans and Clinton Ford. I redesigned the label, the yellow and black one. I established an Oriole magazine – it had its own magazine that went to the retailers to tell them about the label. The lengths I went to !
. . . MORE ON ORIOLE >> the label had it's London studios + pressing plants in Colnbrook [[near Slough) and in Aston Clinton [[south of Aylesbury). The Oriole pressing plant building in Aston Clinton, ahead of Oriole buying it had been a garage [[Bakers). It was quite an antiquated building even back at the start of the mid 1950's. Most people in Aston Clinton village knew each other back then, so the set-up at Oriole had a very informal atmosphere. Back when Oriole took over the London Rd building in Aston Clinton [[1954) & set up their operation, most people got to work by bike or bus. So the workforce was just about all local. The plant manager lived in a house located next to the factory. If jobs were available with Oriole, staff would tell local family / friends and they would apply & land the posts, so it ran very much on the 'big family' principal. Oriole Records under the Morris Levy also pressed up the cheap cover versions of current hits on it's Embassy label . Each week, workers were allowed to take a record of their choice home for free. The factory site was opposite to the Rising Sun pub in Aston Clinton [[now the China Water restaurant), so I'd guess on a Friday after work, the lads would have a drink before heading off home. I haven't been able to establish how many people were employed there, but it can't have been that many.
In late 1964, CBS [[Columbia US) bought out Oriole & took over all their facilities. The factory [[pressing plant) in Aston Clinton was famous in the village for the Christmas parties it put on. Certainly, in CBS days, they took on temporary staff in busy periods, usually older kids in their school holidays [[no doubt mainly the children of existing workers). CBS bought out Oriole in late 64 & after CBS moved out, the facilities was sold on.
Initially, after CBS took over, things carried on much as before. They [[CBS) had a storage warehouse in the village as well [[I think this had been Oriole's before CBS), this was at the opposite end of the village. A local firm, Shorewood packaging printed the record labels for CBS and also made their record sleeves / LP covers, family members of Oriole / CBS workers had jobs there. Again, I think Oriole had used them ahead of CBS. Even in CBS's days, the workers / locals still called it 'Oriole Records'. After CBS moved to Aylesbury, a company called Leading Plastics took over the building until it was demolished to make way for houses / flats. The plant managers old house [[from Oriole / CBS records days) was sold off in 1982 [[a couple of years after CBS relocated to their new Aylesbury CD manufacturing plant). The people that bought the house found the loft floor space totally lined out with old Oriole record boxes to form a floor that some stuff had been left on. A large number of records were up there still, obviously old stock from the plant [[the guy told me had no interest in vinyl, so couldn't remember if it was Oriole or CBS stuff).
The two girls in the picture below were workers @ Oriole's Pressing Plant back in the 60's. They were allowed to take home 1 x 45 every Friday [[just ONE) -- but got their mates that weren't into 45's to take one for them too. So some [[who were soul fans) ended up with most of the Oriole Motown related 45's.

[jsmith]

Motown was expanding in the UK & Europe in the mid 60's. When Oriole had been taken over, EMI jumped in to acquire the Motown catalogue in the UK [[& in many other territories where it had a local base -- that was around 100 other countries). EMI's first release, on the newly created Tamla-Motown label had been issued on March 19th, 1965.
Attachment 21488

[mysterysinger]

Great thread.

Of course EMI issued Tamla-Motown product [[singles, LPs, EPs) on the Stateside label before the launch of Tamla Motown in 1965. Even in 1961 EMI issued The Spinners "That's What Little Girls Are Made For" on Columbia [[from the US Tri-Phi label).

Prior to Oriole, Motown product had been issued on London American and Fontana in the UK.