Regal Records (1914)
Regal Records was a British record label that later merged with Zonophone Records .
history
Regal was founded in 1914 as a sub-label of Columbia Records (first records April 1914). The label was intended to help Columbia enter the UK market and distribute Columbia's US recordings there (and also released Harmony's) and started with inexpensive records, including a significant number of jazz. Until 1932, Regal acted as a more or less independent label.
In March 1931, British Columbia merged with Gramophone Co. to form EMI, and in 1932 Regal was together with Zonophone Records from Gramophone to Regal Zonophone Records , also again as a sub-label for Columbia. They passed in the UK and Australia.
In the 1990s, Regal was revived for some time by EMI in areas where their other labels were not active, for example for albums by Duke Ellington in Spain (otherwise released by Columbia). They also released a number of major jazz reissues in the 1970s under the Regal label. In the present, artists like Lily Allen , Beta Band or Jakobinarina are under contract with the label.
Regal was also used for Australian Columbia after it was founded in 1926.
literature
- Barry Kernfeld (Ed.): New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Macmillan 1994, p. 1036