Lyric

Michael Thomas' Website

Records

Lyric

Records

British Dance Bands

The first Lyric label was a very short-lived one made by the German Kalliope company,using J. Blum's masters, for the Midland Gramophone Company of Birmingham & London. These date from late 1912 and are very scarce.

The more usual Lyric record (see blue, red & green label images) appeared about the same time and were made by Favorite in Germany. The 10" catalogue was a 3-digit number with a blue or red label; the 12" were green labelled with the same design and a catalogue series starting at 1. Again, this Lyric label was quite short-lived, though they do turn up, albeit rather infrequently.

Some Lyric records (with lighter blue labels) have been reported as being paste-over labels on Polyphons and Scalas. Examples of any other Lyric records than those shown would be gratefully received.

In 1913, Columbia succeeded in banning all other companies from selling records called Lyric, as it was a name they had been using back in 1906 for cylindrical records. If this is the case then this would explain the scarcity of both of these styles of Lyric records, which may only have been on sale for a few months.

Thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for the green-labelled Lyric image and to Frederick Murphy for the red-labelled "Favorite-styled" image.

Kalliope-style

Favorite-style - 10"

Favorite style - 12"

This is a first attempt at a listing. Please e-mail me if you can help me fill in the gaps in any of these series.

My thanks to Frank Andrews in providing most of the initial information for this page.
Additional information kindly provided by:
Mike Atkin, Paul Cleary, Graham Farnell, Norman Field, Robert Girling, Warren Hodgson, Mike Jones, Mike Langridge, Chris McDonald, Ian McPherson, Adam Miller, Jonathan Sanders, Mark Schuler, Jeff Smallcombe, Adrian Smith

Firstly, the Kalliope-made issues, which have prefixes. It seems that, like the company's other labels such as Diploma, Stella & Victory, there are several series, but so few have been found that I just don't know at the present.

Now, the more usual blue-labelled series (some, like No, 250) are reported to have red labels):

Cat No	Matrix	Title	Labelled Artists
A-1
A-2
A-3
A-4
A-5
A-6
A-7
A-8
A-9	1048 1051	Wreck Of The Troopship Departure Of The Troopship	Descriptive
A-10
A-11
A-12	1060	Waltz Solita	Royal Symphony Orchestra
A-13
A-14
A-15
A-16
A-17	1140 1143	Scottish Airs, part 1 Loch Katrine; Pibroch O' Donald Dhu; The De'il Among The Tailors	Pipe Major Forsyth (bagpipes)
A-18
A-19	1265 1317	Cavalleria Rusticana - selection (Mascagni) Cavalleria Rusticana - Intermezzo (Mascagni)	Band of the 12th Hussars (some may be labelled Royal Milltary Band)

A-26	1061 1076	Midsummer's Eve, waltz Passing Of Salome	Royal Symphony Orchestra

A-48	1323 1325	Gypsy Love, waltz (Lehar) Nell Gwyn Dances, No. 1 (German)	Royal Military Band

Cat No	Matrix	Title	Labelled Artists	Notes
B-1

B-7	1041 1205	The Diver Meet Me To-Night In Dreamland	T. F. Kinniburgh Robert Carr (baritone)
B-8
B-9
B-10	1040 1127	Rocked In The Cradle Of The Deep (J.P. Knight) Drake Goes West (Wilfrid Sanderson)	T. F. Kinniburgh

Cat No	Matrix	Title	Labelled Artists	Notes
C-1

C-9	1105 1108	Far Far Away We'd Better Strip The Bed	Alf Willis

C-17	1113 1164	I Tried To Keep From Laughing We Must Have A Song About The Isle Of Man	Charles Penrose Jack Charman

C-30	1186 1201	When mother Dropped A Halfpenny On The Bus I'm Setting The Village On Fire	Claude Graham (= Jack Charman) Jack Gilbey (= Jack Charman)

Cat No	Matrix	Title	Labelled Artists	Notes
E-1

E-7	1296 1360	Nearer My God To Thee Art Thou Weary, Art Thou Languid?	Robert Carr (baritone) T.F. Kinniburgh (bass)

Cat No	Matrix	Title	Labelled Artists	Notes
1
2
3		La Gazza Ladra (Rossini)	The Imperial Grand Orchestra, London
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19		A Night In Venice On With The Motley ("Pagliacci" - Leoncavallo)	Florence Spencer & Herb Williams Herbert Williams
20

Cat No	Matrix	Title	Labelled Artists	Orig. Issue
201	5763-t	Our Bluejackets, march	Band of H.M. Irish Guards	Favorite 328
202
203
204	1459-f 1460-f	Under The Double Eagle Washington Post	Garde Republicaine Band	Favorite 1
205		Lyric March Hapsburg March	Lyric Military band	. Favorite 312
206		Selection From Carmen	Garde Republicaine	Favorite 22
207		Poppies, A Japanese Intermezzo Distant Greeting March	Lyric Orchestra (= Earl Of Lonsdale's Private Military Band) Lyric Orchestra (= Favorite Elite Orchestra)	Favorite 70 Favorite 379
208
209
210	2681-b .	King Of England March Life Guards	Lyric Military Band	Favorite 303
211		The Black Man March De Concors	Descriptive Lyric Symphony Orchestra	Favorite 509 Favorite 508 ?
212
213	793-t 6611-t	Semper Fideles March Liberty Bell March	Lyric Military Band	Favorite 74 Favorite 425
214	. 6265-t	Weymouth Chimes The Church Parade	Lyric Concert Band	? Favorite 365
215
216
217
218
219		Christchurch Bells Bells Of St. Malo	Lyric Concert Band	Favorite 365 Favorite ?
220
221	. 13519-o	Barcarolle "Tales Of Hoffman" The Rosary	Trio (= The Favorite Trio)	Favorite 507 Favorite 521
222
223
224		Temptation Rag	Lyric Symphony Orchestra	Favorite 311
225
226		Nearer My God To Thee The Lost Chord	Alice Thornhill (contralto) (= Emily Foxcroft)	Favorite 497
227
228	1924-t 2135-o	Venus On Earth, waltz The Choristers Waltz (Phelps)	Lyric Orchestra (= Earl of Lonsdale's Private Military Band)	Favorite 96 Favorite 65
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236		The Jingle Of The Gold Paree (actually plays "On Strike")	Harry Bluff
237
238
239	? 2671-b	Pretty As Pink Sons Of The Empire, march	Robert Ward (bells) (= Billy Whitlock) Robert Ward (xylophone) (= Billy Whitlock)	Favorite 468 Favorite 309