a brief history of zonophone – from the salvation army
to the move to the cramps…
zonophone (also rendered as 'zon-o-phone' early on), was a
record label founded in 1899 in camden, new jersey by frank seaman. the
zonophone name was not that of the company, but was applied to the records and
machines sold by seaman from 1899-1900 to 1903.
seaman had worked for emile berliner's 'berliner
gramophone'. seaman decided to start his own company to produce disc records and
disc phonographs. seaman's "zon-o-phone" records' design and
technology were shamelessly stolen from berliner, and his machines were
similarly copied from the products of eldridge r. johnson's 'consolidated
talking machine company'.
astonishingly, seaman then attempted to sue berliner and
johnson for violating his technology. with the help of lawyer phillip mauro,
seaman arranged for an alliance with columbia records (then manufacturing only
cylinder records and machines), arguing that the patents held by columbia
concerning cylinders applied to any type of recording where a stylus vibrated in
a groove, and that zon-o-phone would pay royalties if columbia helped him drive
berliner out of business. in 1900 seaman and mauro succeeded in getting a judge
to file an injunction that berliner and johnson stop making their products.
johnson and berliner counter-sued, and the following year emerged victorious in
court—prompting the name of their new combined company, 'the victor'.
further legal actions dragged on until 1903, when all of
the united states and latin american assets of zon-o-phone were turned over to
victor, and the europe and british commonwealth assets to the gramophone &
typewriter company (which was to become hmv).
victor talking machine continued use of the "zonophone"
name to market cheaper records which for whatever reason were not of the
technical standard of the victor label until retiring the label in the u.s. in
1910. in the united kingdom and the commonwealth, the gramophone company
continued to use the "zonophone" label through 1931. when hmv and
columbia(uk) merged to form electrical and musical industries, ltd. (e.m.i.),
the lower-priced labels of the two firms were merged also as regal zonophone, an
imprint which offered recordings by the salvation army, gracie fields, george
formby as well has handling the uk distribution of american recordings from such
labels as columbia, okeh and victor.
regal zonophone continued well into the 60's and early 70's
with successful 60's producers denny cordell and tony visconti both having
production companies releasing records through the label. during this period the
label had both album and single success with artists such as the move, joe
cocker, t rex and procol harum. during the mid 70's many of these production
deals ended and eventually e.m.i. ceased to use the imprint as a major pop
label.
in the early 80's, the zonophone half of the imprint was
revived by e.m.i. to ride the post punk train with artists such as angelic
upstarts, the cockney rejects and compilations such as the oi! album. in fact,
many of the releases on the label at the time did reflect the oi! arm of post
punk rather than anything else.
by the mid 80's the zonophone imprint had disappeared
again. it wasn't until the mid to late 90's that both regal and zonophone
reappeared in very different guises. regal was revived by e.m.i.'s parlophone
label to house one off singles, and slightly off beat artist and album projects.
success was initially had with the beta band followed by a major success story
in 2006 with lily allen.
zonophone in the mean time was quietly being used as a home
for back catalogue artists of cult credibility and the odd one off single.
zonophone has now become the home to the cramps' illegal recordings in the uk
along side david axelrod produced albums by david mccallum, the cult sitar
classic lord sitar, and classic compilations of their capitol era material from
the likes of glen campbell and bobbie gentry.
in 2007 the zonophone label will begin to blossom further
with the release of cult, hard to find, or just plain unreleased material from
the whole spectrum of e.m.i.'s vast back catalogue either as physical cd's,
digital downloads only or both. either way, the next phase of zonophone's life
will offer something to those who love music and are looking for that little
something different. "a new kind of kick" perhaps...
by nigel reeve for zonophone
more detail : here