Penny Farthing Records was a British

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

, established in 1969 by the British record producer

Larry Page Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American businessman, computer engineer and computer scientist best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. Page was chief executive officer of Google from 1997 until August 2001 when ...

as a progression from his mildly successful 1960s

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, ...

, Page One Records. The label signed some artists of note. It released a number of hit songs, including "

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

" by

Shocking Blue Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band formed in The Hague in 1967. They were part of the Nederbeat movement in the Netherlands. The band had a string of hit songs during the Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture movement of the 1960s and e ...

, " Beautiful Sunday" by

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (, 1734September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyo ...

, " Blue Is the Colour" by the Chelsea football team, and "Sleepy Shores" by the

Johnny Pearson John Valmore Pearson (18 June 1925 – 20 March 2011) was a British composer, orchestra leader and pianist. He led the ''Top of the Pops'' orchestra for sixteen years, wrote a catalogue of library music, and had many of his pieces used as the ...

and His Orchestra.

History

Page first founded Page One Records with Dick James in 1966, but left the company in 1969 to start a new label. He bought the name of another company Penny Farthing to use it for his label, and located the headquarters on Tilney Street. Penny Farthing Records had its first success with their second single released in 1969, which was "

" by the Dutch group,

. In 1970, Penny Farthing Records released the single, "Sister Simon (Funny Man)" PEN 738, by the UK group Heatwave (later known as The Sensations). While the a-side received airplay, the funky b-side, "Rastus Ravel", was well received in the clubs. Both songs were written and produced by

John Edward John Edward McGee Jr. (born October 19, 1969) is an American television personality, writer and self-proclaimed psychic medium. After writing his first book on the subject in 1998, Edward became a well-known (and controversial) figure in the ...

for Instant Sound Productions. The single featured Maggie Stredder and Jean Ryder of The Ladybirds with

Doris Troy Doris Troy (born Doris Elaine Higginsen; January 6, 1937 – February 16, 2004) was an American R&B singer and songwriter, known to her fans as "Mama Soul". Her biggest hit was " Just One Look", a top 10 hit in 1963. Life and career She was ...

as back-up singers. The group was a regular on the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in Britain for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday brea ...

, Dave Cash, Jimmy Young and Radio 1 Club shows. In 1970, Killing Floor's second album, ''Out of Uranus'', was released on Penny Farthing Records. The former

Honeybus Honeybus were a 1960s pop group formed in April 1967, in London. They are best known for their 1968 UK top 10 hit single, " I Can't Let Maggie Go", written by group member Pete Dello who also composed their previous single "(Do I Figure) In ...

bassist, Colin Hare, released an album ''March Hare'' on Penny Farthing in 1971, which was not a commercial success. It was re-released through Hare's own Runfast label in 2004.

's " Beautiful Sunday" (written by the singer) and released in 1972, was a staple of early 1970s disc jockeys. Picked up by the Japanese TV show ''Beautiful Sunday'' some ten years later, this song was re-popularized in Japan. Page also recorded Daniel's wife (Lesley) Lelly Boone, but with no success despite an appearance on

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...

's ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

''. In 1971, Larry Page also signed up

and released a stream of easy listening albums, the last of these being released in 1982. Pearson is notable as being the pianist and arranger behind British studio outfit

Sounds Orchestral Sounds Orchestral was a British studio-based easy listening group, assembled by John Schroeder with Johnny Pearson in 1964. Career John Schroeder had worked with Johnny Pearson previously at Oriole Records, producing Johnny Pearson's first s ...

. The Johnny Pearson Orchestra's track, "Sleepy Shores", was a No. 8 hit in the UK Singles Chart for Penny Farthing in 1971, and an album of the same name was released the following year. Page also recorded

The Barron Knights The Barron Knights are a British humorous pop rock group, originally formed in 1959 in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire,Colin Larkin, ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'', (Muze UK Ltd, 1997), ), p. 32 as the Knights of the Round Table. C ...

, whose comedy records had some UK

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

success. However, Page's attempts to turn them into a mainstream pop group failed. He eventually resorted to the flop "The Ballad of Frank Spencer". Even his attempt to record them under another name – Philly Dog – did not produce the desired hits. Paul Da Vinci, the voice on

The Rubettes The Rubettes are an English pop/glam rock band put together in 1974 after the release of " Sugar Baby Love", a recording assembled of studio session musicians in 1973 by the songwriting team of Wayne Bickerton, the then head of A&R at Polydor ...

hit "Sugar Baby Love", turned to Penny Farthing immediately after this song made the UK no. 1 slot. The resulting "Your Baby Ain't Your Baby Anymore" sold modestly. Page One Records stalwarts

The Troggs The Troggs (originally called the Troglodytes) are an English beat music band formed in Andover, Hampshire, in May 1964. Their most famous songs include the US chart-topper " Wild Thing", " With a Girl Like You" and " Love Is All Around", al ...

were persuaded to join Penny Farthing but their label debut, Page's attempt at the

Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by thei ...

hit "

Good Vibrations "Good Vibrations" is a song by the American rock music, rock band the Beach Boys, produced and composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. Released as a single on October 10, 1966, it achieved immediate critical and commercial success, ...

" with

Reg Presley Reginald Maurice Ball (12 June 1941 – 4 February 2013), known professionally as Reg Presley, was an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer with the 1960s rock and roll band the Troggs, whose hits included "Wild Thing (The Troggs ...

's vocals, did not produce sizeable sales. Penny Farthing also recorded an early album by

Raymond Froggatt Raymond William Froggatt (13 November 1941 – 23 July 2023) was an English songwriter and singer.Larkin, Colin (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music'', Virgin Books, , p. 159-160 Biography Froggatt (otherwise known as "Froggy") was ...

. However, most of the company's revenue was gained from Germany, where their solo artist signing Kincade had a number of minor hits, including "Dreams Are 10 A Penny", "Big Hand For Annie" written by John Carter. Carter, writing under a number of different names, also had hits with Penny Farthing in the early 1970s. Page formed Rampage Records as a successor for Penny Farthing in 1978.

References

{{Authority control Defunct record labels of the United Kingdom Rock record labels Pop record labels

History

See also

References