Dep International was a British

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

founded in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

by members of British group

UB40 UB40 are an English reggae band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart and has also achieved considerable international success. They have been nominated for the Grammy ...

. It specialised in

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

and

dub music Dub is a musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend beyond that style.Dub: soundscapes and shattered songs in Jamaican reggae, p.&nb ...

. The label went into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

in October 2006 and into insolvent liquidation in April 2008. It was based in DEP International Studios in

Digbeth Digbeth is an area of central Birmingham, England. Following the remodelling of the Birmingham Inner Ring Road, Inner Ring Road, Digbeth is now considered a district within Birmingham City Centre. As part of the Big City Plan, Digbeth is under ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

History

Dep International was formed in

by members of UB40 to keep control over their record output and to release tracks by other artists. A worldwide distribution deal was struck with

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

in 1982. It was the first label to release a dub album; Present Arms in Dub, which appeared in the British pop charts. They also had the first commercial application of a British method of mass-producing holograms with the limited edition version of UB44 having a

hologram Holography is a technique that allows a wavefront to be recorded and later reconstructed. It is best known as a method of generating three-dimensional images, and has a wide range of other uses, including data storage, microscopy, and interf ...

covering the record sleeve. Although the label was wound-up in 2007, in 2011 five founder members of the group and directors of the label, had

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

proceedings started against them relating to debts of the record label. The five named were Robin Campbell, Brian Travers, Terence Wilson, Norman Hassan and James Brown. DEP International April 2005

References

{{Authority control British record labels 1980 establishments in England 2008 disestablishments in England Record labels established in 1980 Reggae record labels Record labels disestablished in 2008 Virgin Records