The 7" Victory record, launched in the Autumn of 1928, was a product of the Crystalate Gramophone Company. It was not their first 7" record; for some years they had been making "Imperial Junior" and "Aerona" records but these had only been available in Australia. In 1925, when "Kiddyphone" first appeared, that too was a 7" record, before it's reduction to 6". Victory Records were sold for 6d in Woolworth's Stores and they were a direct replacement for the 6" Mimosa record, also a Crystalate product. Victory obviously offered better value for money, but still retained the need for a non-copyright side on each record to save costs. Generally the couplings were different types of music; most of the dance-band Victories have a non-dance coupling, though, towards the end of it's life, Victory was offering double-sided dance records, with the one side being of a tune for which the copyright was owned by Crystalate and hence they didn't need to pay the fee on that side. The catalogue ran from (sensibly) 1 up to about 324 (the highest so far seen) which appeared in March 1931. The recording quality was quite good - all new recordings were electric, but some earlier acoustic masters from the "Imperial Junior" days were re-used on Victory. The only problem was the usual one where the groove gets too close to the centre of the disc - loss of fidelity, coupled with a tendency to wear. Matrices were nearly all English and in a DC- series which had started in 1924 with the Kiddyphones & Imperial Juniors mentioned before. There were some American masters, specially recorded for Victory by Banner (Plaza group) in America and carrying an A- series matrix (starting at 1). There were also a couple of dubbings from QRS, speeded up to be able to fit the 10" master onto the 7" disc. (The matrix prefix wasn't always shown on the label.) The dance band recordings were mainly by genuine bands (as opposed to studio bands) such as Jay Whidden's Music Masters, Jim Kelleher's Piccadilly Hotel Band, Pete Mandell's Rhythm Masters and an isolated side by Sid Phillips' Melodians. A number of issues labelled "Victory Dance Orch" were usually studio bands directed either by Stan Greening or, later on, Jay Wilbur, though the Victory Dance Orchestra name also covered items by Jay Whidden's band and Simon Wurm's band. Many of the orchestral sides were by George Cathie's band. Vocal items were by artists also recording for Imperial such as Cavan O'Connor, Jack Plant, Albert Whelan & Leslie Sarony, the latter two often under their own names. Label designs: 1. This looks strangely empty as the famous HMS Victory logo is missing, perhaps because of patent problems. Highest I have is No 14. This was soon replaced by... 2. Probably the best design - the ship in its rightful place and the record label name in a smart banner beneath. Highest I have is number 34. 3. A simplified version of "2", the banner removed, probably to cut costs. After all, when you are charging 6d for a record, every half-farthing counts! There are a couple of other minor design differences shown here. The "type 3" design but with a pale blue label was only used on three issues (nos. 209, 210 & 211) and the tunes were from a film called "The Girl From Woolworth's". The colours are (I believe) Woolworth's official company colours. The plain lavender with black printing version was for a series of nursery rhyme issues which had catalogue "numbers" starting at A and running alphabetically up to U (highest so far found). Sleeves: These four are the only designs I recall seeing and I have placed them in the sequence I believe they were used. I don't know how they correspond to the variations in label design. I have added an image of a Victory album, kindly sent to me by Barry McCanna. Label listing: An almost complete listing of this label was published by Arthur Badrock in "Gunn Report" some years ago; Arthur is currently working on an updated version for republishing. If you have information on any of the following Victory records, Arthur & I would be very grateful to know about them... Nos. 6, 7, 8, 71, 75, 115, 119, 156 and any higher than 324. Nursery series: J, K, L, P and any above U. |
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