Deram Records was a subsidiary record label of Decca Records established in the United Kingdom in 1966. At the time, U.K. Decca was a different company from the Decca label in the United States, which was owned by MCA Inc. Deram recordings were distributed in the U.S. through UK Decca's American branch known as London Records. Deram was active until 1979, then continued as a reissue label.
History 1966–1968 In the 1960s, Decca recording engineers experimented with ways of improving stereo recordings. They created a technique they named "Decca Panoramic Sound." The term "Deramic" was created as abbreviation of this. The new concept "allowed for more space between instruments, rendering these sounds softer to the ear." Early stereo recordings of popular music usually were mixed with sounds to the hard left, centre, or hard right only. This was because of the technical limitations of the professional 4-track reel-to-reel recorders, which were considered state of the art until 1967.
Decca initially conceived Deram Records as an outlet for Deramic Sound recordings of contemporary pop and rock music, however, not all of the early recordings on Deram used this technique. 'Deramic Sound' was intended to create recordings that had a more natural stereo spread. The basic difference was that, instead of overdubbing and mixing four individual (mono) tracks from a four-track recorder, the Decca recording engineers used a pair of four-track machines to layer multiple two-channel (stereo) recordings. This new concept, with additional tracks, permitted the engineer to place instruments more easily in any position within the stereo field.
To launch the 'Deramic Sound' concept, Deram issued a series of six easy listening orchestral pop albums in October 1967. The albums all included the word Night in the title, i.e. Strings in the Night, Brass in the Night, etc. Artists in this series included Gordon Franks, Peter Knight, and Tony Osborne. The label was soon reinvented as a rival to early pre-punk 'indie' record companies like Island Records and moulded into a home for 'progressive' or 'psychedelic' artists. Among the first recordings in this series was the November 1967 album release Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues, while Crocheted Doughnut Ring and Beverley Martyn were also signed to the label around this time.
Professional eight-track recorders began to appear in many British studios starting with Advision Studios and Trident Studios in early 1968. The eight-track machines were far more flexible than the dual four-track recorder setup. By 1969, Decca had obtained its own eight-track recorder. Since Decca engineers no longer had more tracks than other major studios, the 'Deramic Sound' concept quickly became outdated and was dropped.
1969–1982 The roster later included British jazz and folk. Some of the more progressive jazz musicians of the late 1960s were released under the Deram imprint, including Mike Gibbs, John Surman, and Mike Westbrook. Deram albums bore a DML prefix for mono and an SML prefix for stereo releases. As with other UK Decca subsidiary labels, Deram's U.S. counterpart was distributed by London Records. Decca positioned it against Island Records, Harvest Records (started by EMI), and Vertigo Records (started by Philips Records), but it failed to compete. An 'extra' progressive series with SDL prefixes did not improve the situation.
From the start, Decca placed pop records next to progressive artists on Deram. Cat Stevens found early success there before moving to Island Records, and David Bowie's first album appeared on the label. Three of Deram's earliest hits, Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and the Move's "Night of Fear" and "I Can Hear the Grass Grow", were produced outside the company by artists not directly signed to Deram. They were part of a deal with Straight Ahead Productions, which later moved its acts to EMI and had them released on the re-introduced Regal Zonophone imprint.
In 1969, Decca launched Nova, a progressive label that lasted less than a year. This caused further confusion as simultaneous releases on Deram Nova and Decca Nova appeared. Decca released Justin Hayward's Songwriter (1977) and Night Flight (1980) vinyl albums on Deram. In 1980, Sir Edward Lewis sold Decca to PolyGram, which put its new acquisition under the control of Roger Ames. Even though the label name was briefly used in the early 1980s for records by Bananarama, the Mo-dettes, and Splodgenessabounds, Ames decided to focus on Decca (for classical music) and London Recordings (for pop music), with London run as his own 'semi-autonomous indie' from within the major. From this point Deram was used as a reissue imprint for other recordings in the Decca/London catalogue and was eventually sold to Universal/UMG as part of Decca Records (London went with Ames to WMG, which sold it to French indie Because Music in 2017)
Discography (singles) 1966 Month Cat.No. Artist Title NotesSeptember101Beverley"Happy New Year"/"Where the Good Times Are"102Cat Stevens"I Love My Dog"/"Portobello Road"No. 28October103The Gibsons"Two Kinds of Lovers"/"Hey Girl"104Barry Mason"Over the Hills and Far Away"/"Collection of Recollections"November105The Truth"Jingle Jangle"/"Hey Gyp"106The Eyes of Blue"Up and Down"/"Heart Trouble"December107David Bowie"Rubber Band"/"The London Boys"108Chim Kothari"Sitar 'n' Spice"/"Indian Bat"109The Move"Night of Fear"/"Disturbance"No. 2110Cat Stevens"Matthew and Son"/"Granny"No. 2
1967 Month Cat.No. Artist Title NotesJanuary111The Pyramid"Summer of Last Year"/"Summer Evening"February112Whistling Jack Smith"I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman"/"The British Grin and Bear"No. 5113West Coast Delegation"Reach the Top"/"Mister Personality"114The Eyes of Blue"Supermarket Full of Cans"/"Don't Ask Me To Mend Your Broken Heart"March115Double Feature"Baby Get Your Head Screwed On"/"Come on Baby"116Sir Alec and His Boys"I'm a Believer"/"Green Green Grass of Home"117The Move"I Can Hear the Grass Grow"/"Wave the Flag and Stop the Train"No. 5118Cat Stevens"I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun"/"School Is Out"No. 6119The Gibsons"The Magic Book"/"You Know I Need Your Loving"April120Warm Sounds"Birds and Bees"/"Doo Dah"121The Quik"Love Is a Beautiful Thing"/"Bert's Apple Crumble"122Denny Laine"Say You Don't Mind"/"Ask the People"123David Bowie"The Laughing Gnome"/"The Gospel According to Tony Day"No. 6(1973 RCA re-release)124Mike Redway"Casino Royale"/"My Poem for You"125The Outer Limits"Just One More Chance"/"Help Me Please"May126Procol Harum"A Whiter Shade of Pale"/"Lime Street Blues"No. 1127The Wards of Court"All Night Girl"/"How Could You Say One Thing"June128Les Reed Orchestra"Imogene"/"The Pay Off 28"129Whistling Jack Smith"Hey There Little Miss Mary"/"I Was Bizet's Carmen"130The Syn"Created By Clive"/"Grounded"131Honeybus"Delighted to See You"/"The Breaking Up Scene"132Robb and Dean Douglas"I Can Make It With You"/"'Phone Me"133Jon Gunn"I Just Made Up My Mind"/"Now It's My Turn"July134Rubber Bootz"Joy Ride"/"Chicano"135David Bowie"Love You Till Tuesday"/"Did You Ever Have a Dream?"136Amen Corner"Gin House Blues"/"I Know"No. 12137Beverley/D. Cordell Teatime Ensemble"Museum"/"A Quick One for Sanity"138Richard Kerr"Happy Birthday Blues"/"Mother's Blue-Eyed Angel"139The Quik"King of the World"/"My Girl"140Cat Stevens"A Bad Night"/"The Laughing Apple"No. 20August142The Flower Pot Men"Let's Go to San Francisco" (Part One)/(Part Two)No. 4143Bill Fay"Some Good Advice"/"Screams in the Ears"144The Cuppa T"Miss Pinkerton"/"Brand New World"September141Martin's Magic Sounds"Mon Amour, Mon Amour"/"Midem Melody"145The Syn"Flowerman"/"14 Hour Technicolour Dream"146The Virgin Sleep"Love"/"Halliford House"147John Street & The Inmates of Number 12"Keep a Little Love"/"My Kind of Luck"148Robb & Dean Douglas"Rose Growing in the Ruins"/"Gentle People"150The 23rd Turnoff"Michael Angelo"/"Leave Me Here"151Amen Corner"The World of Broken Hearts"/"Nema"No. 26October149Danny Williams"Never My Love"/"Whose Little Girl Are You"152Honeybus"In Your Life"/"Throw My Love Away"153Timebox"Don't Make Promises"/"Walking Through the Streets of My Mind"154Sol Raye"While I'm Here"/"To Be With You"155The Quik"I Can't Sleep"/"Soul Full of Sorrow"November157Mike Redway"Don't Speak of Love"/"Sometimes I Remember"158Granny's Intentions"The Story of David"/"Sandy's on the Phone Again"159Johnny Howard Orchestra"Bonnie and Clyde"/"Flapper Patrol"160Flower Pot Men"A Walk in the Sky"/"Am I Losing You?"161The Moody Blues"Nights in White Satin"/"Cities"No. 19162The Societie"Bird Has Flown"/"Breaking Down"163Danny Williams"Love Me"/"When You Were Mine"December156Cat Stevens"Kitty"/"Blackness of the Night"No. 47164Tintern Abbey"Beeside"/"Vacuum Cleaner"165Double Feature"Handbags and Gladrags"/"Just Another Lonely Night"166Jon Gunn"If You Wish It"/"I Don't Want to Get Hung Up on You Babe"167The Human Instinct"A Day in My Mind's Mind"/"Death of the Seaside"168not issued169The Crocheted Doughnut Ring"Havana Anna"/"Happy Castle"170Les Reed Orchestra"Theme from Candice"/"The Last Waltz"
1968