labelindexG

British 78rpm record labels whose name begins with G. Using the letter links below you can see pages for other letters.
Unless otherwise noted, all research and images are my own, but as you will see, many other people have helped, especially with the label catalogue listings.

All images are thumbnails, so clicking on them will display a full-sized image. Where the label name is a link, clicking it will take you to a new page with more information and, in most cases, an attempt to list all issues on that label.

******* Private Record Companies, those that produced bespoke one-off recordings, have now been moved to a separate page. Click here to go there ***********

Label	Label Description	Images
Gabriel Pares	Pares was, for many years at the start of the 20th century, the director of The Band Of The Garde Republicaine, one of the finest French military bands of the time. They were first offered for sale in Britian in December 1912 and were lateral cut 11" sized and it seems trhat Warroners Ltd were the agents selling these records and they cost 3/6. It is believed that all the recordings were by the Garde Republicaine, under Pares' baton. Adverts for the records continued until March 1915 when it was announced that the records would now be labelled "Warroners Record", though none of this style has been reported to date. Any record sold in Britain at this period would most likely carry Brtish copyright stamps, but I have not seen a Gabriel Pares record with one. It would also be likely that the wording would be in English for the British market as well.
Gaelfonn	A Glasgow based record label from the 1950s, Gaelfonn concentrated on Gaelic (Scottish) material. The label was founded by Murdo Ferguson, a Gaelic speaker from the Isle of Lewis. The company address was 102 Maxwell Street, Glasgow C1. My thanks to Richard Prout for providing the label scan.
Gaelic Phono- Grammar	This was manufactured by Parlophone in the early 1930s. **My thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for providing the label scan.**
Gael-Linn	**My thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for providing the label scan.**
Gaiety	A very rare label from the WWI period. The two examples that are known, use masters also available on Jumbo records of the period. The label of the example shown doesn't even state the country of manufacture. Frank Andrews reports not seeing them mentioned in trade journals of the time, and doesn't know for whom they were produced. My thanks to Norman Field for providing the label scan.
Gala	Like the similarly named Gala Goldentone, this was a 6" plastic children's record dating from the 1960s. I don't know if there is any link between these two labels, but this one was produced for Selcol (see label of this name), and the master numbers with a LYN-prefix shows them to be recorded by Lyntone Ltd. Frank Andrews reports a Gala Recoird Company founded in September 1928 but doesn't know if they ever produced any Gala records. Certainly none have been reported. My thanks to Richard Prout for the image.
Gala Goldentone	A 6" childrens' record from 1960s. The source material was from America, and presumably would have ben issued on an equivalent childrens' record there. The UK Gala Goldentone records were pressed in orange/red plastic and sold in pictorial sleeves such as the one shown here. They date from the early 1960s and the reverse of the sleeve states that a series of 7" EP records were also available at 2/6, later 3/6. I don't know how much the 6" 78s were sold for.
Gallotone	**My thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for providing the label scan.**
Gamage	Gamage was produced by The British Homophone Company for A. W. Gamage Ltd, of Holborn, London. They are very rare nowadays and little is known about what may be found on this label, or for how long it was available. They use the same source of masters as Homochord, i.e. English Vocalion, American Vocalion, Zonophone and possibly Emerson, too. The catalogue numbers are in a G-500 series and they don't quite seem to reach G-700. The earlier Green labelled one here, I know nothing about.
Gaytone	**My thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for providing the label image.**
GB	This record was produced by the Gui de Buire recording Company of Mayfair, London. My thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for providing the label image.
Girmac	Produced by The Girmac Recordinmg Studio of 111, Union Street, Glasgow. Girmac records may be found both as direct cut (acetate) discs or as solid stock pressing (like the example seen here). My thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for providing the label image.
Glenside	Glenside was a record label recorded and manufactured in Dublin, (Republic of Ireland), dating from the post WWII period. The master numbers were allocated by EMI in an OEP- series. Many, if not all the 78rpnm issues were also issued on 45rpm using the same matrix numbers but with a different prefix. My thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for providing the label image.
Globe (sold in Australia)	Globe records were pressed by the Homophon company for sale in Australia during the pre-WWI years. Masters from both Beka and Favorite were also used. It is conjectured that these were sold using the tallyman system of selling direct to customers door-to-door. My thanks to Derek Kell for providing the label scan.
Globophon	A German manufactured disc available in Britain from late 1912 in Britain, made by the Globophon Company. They had no catalogue numbers, just face numbers, which corresponded to the matrix numbers. The British agent was Frank Rauth in London. The records cost 1/6, a price match for the new cheap records such as Coliseum & Scala which had been introduced to Britain a few months before. You may notice that the label design is identical to Festival Records, made by the same company, and using the same recordings. My thanks to Ray Stephenson for the label photo.
Globos	These records date from 1906-7 and were available from Frank Rauth of 9, Christopher Street, Finsbury Square, London. They were allegedly indestructable and cost 2/- for single sided and 3/- for double sided discs. Frank Andrews reckons that the term "indestructable" may refer to the fact that shellac discs were very much more robust that the very fragile wax cylinders which were the primary records of the period. Until we see one, we won't know. I have added this monochrome image here of a Dutch Globos of the period, taken from Hillandale News 234, in lieu of a British pressing. The design may be the same, but then again.... Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records. Also a scan.
Golden Chords	These 10" 78rpm records date to the 1950s and were prodcued by the Christian radio & Television Commission, and were disctributed by The Victor Press, who had presviously been involved with Elim Records (q.v.). See also "Silver Tone" records. My thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for providing the label image.
Goodson	One of the more eccentric flexible records available during the late 1920s and early 1930s, Goodson (named after the company's owner, Jack Goodson) were made out of a flexible white material known as Rhodoid. They cost 1/9 (about 9p) and purchasers were encouraged to play them with a used needle! U.S. masters were from Emerson, Grey Gull, Banner & QRS. Own-produced masters were used later on. The vast majority are dance records with the occasional more "serious" item thrown in, sometimes using early continental masters. The sound quality is quite good, but, like most flexibles, they suffer from warping.
Good Time Jazz	Dating from the 1940s and 50s, this label devoted itself to issuing American Jazz, usually of the "Trad" or New Orleans style, and always contemporary recordings. My thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for providing the label image.
Gospel Melodies	*My thanks to Bill Dean-Myatt for providing the label image.*
Grafton	A fairly elusive label, Grafton records were available from 1924 until 1927, initially with a green label, changing to red quite soon. It was a product of the Scala Record Company, denoted in the space for the copyright stamp as SRCo. U.S. matrices were from Emerson & Federal to start with, but subsequently, all were from Pathe, both American and English masters. Numbering started at 9001 and may not have reached 9300 by the time the label was withdrawn. They were 2/- each and thought to be sold in general retail shops. However, a report on the Western Morning News in November 1924 said they were on sale for 2/3, a rather unusual price for a record! My thanks to Hector Hill for the pricing information.
Grammavox	This was the principal label of the Sound Recording Company od Swallow Street, Piccadilly, London and the records were available from 1910 to about 1915. The pressings were done by Crystalate. The records themselves were oversized at 10¼" and played at 77 rpm. There were nine catalogue series, usually depending on the type of material being recorded. Each series was a letter followed by the number. The letters ran from A to J (without using 'I') and each numerical series started at 1. Having said that, it was not unusual for the label only to show the master number (different on each side, of course) and no Catalogue number. There were two or three main designs of the label, with other minor changes over time, but the colouring was always a very dark blue background with gold printing.
Gramophone	Although the word "gramophone" referring to a player of disc records became a generic term, it was originally the trade name of the Gramophone Company and the records were therefore Gramophone Records. The "recording angel" trade mark used by the company in it's Berliner period was retained from 1902 to 1909, when Nipper and the gramophone appear and the label name changed in 1910 to "His Master's Voice". This was as a result of the company trying to copyright the word "Gramophone", unseccessfully. Gramophone records were available in three sizes: 7" (Gramophone), 10" (Gramophone Concert) and 12" (Gramophone Monarch) and all were single-sided.
Gramstop	These were pressed by Crystalate and sold in 1921, on behalf of The Automatic Gramstop Syndicate Ltd of Retford, Nottinghamshire. The label design is unusual as it encompasses a stroboscopic design around the edge, but experiments by Norman Field show that isn't a stroboscope for modern electrical mains. It may be suitable for whatever was being used in1921, or may just be a design which lookds like a strobe! The catalogue series atarted at 100 and the highest reported by Frank Andrews is 123, though No. 1113 has been seen (see below), which just makes the whole things more mysterious! The masters were from The Sound Recording Companies own recordings, also issued on Popular. The only examples I know of are: No. 100; mx 2995; Suzette (waltz) played by the "Burlington" Orchestra (ex-Popular P-1096) No. 100; mx 2998; Sour Grapes (fox trot) (L. Jerome) played by the "Burlington" Orchestra (ex-Popular P-1096) No. 109; mx 2714; Delilah (valse) (H. Nicholls) played by the "Regent" Orchestra (ex-Popular P-994) No. 109; mx 2754; Beautiful Ohio (valse) played by the "Regent" Orchestra (ex-Popular P-964) No. 1113; mx 6004; Berceuse De Jocelyn (Godard) played by D.F. Flynn (cornet) (ex-Popular P-373) Please e-mail me with details of ANY of these records.
Grand Pree (sold in Australia)	Grand Pree records were made in England for export to Australia during the early 1920s. The earlier Grand Pree records are pasted over Winner records (see example 1) and have a rather crude black on red design (not unlike Curry's Westport label). Subsequently, Grand Pree records were made by Pathe, with a properly pressed-on label, using Actuelle masters. There were two styles: a 10" one with 18000-series catalogue numbers and a 12" one with 17500-series catalogue numbers. The third image shown is from one such Pathe-styled issue. All Grand Pree records date from the early to mid 1920s. Thanks to John Culley (via Norman Field), Bill Dean-Myatt and Adam Miller (in order) for providing the label photos.
Great Scott	Great Scott records was set up by John Drummond (the 15th Baron Strange) at his home at Megginch Castle, Perthshire, Scotland in late 1933. Drummond purchased the recording equipment from Edison Bell Ltd, which was being wound up at the time. The equipment was of a high quality, having been designed by Edison Bell's pioneering engineer, P.G.A.H. Voigt. Between 1933 and late 1935, the company made a number of recordings, both commercial and private , mainly of local artists and of Scottish music. Even the commercial issues were pressed in small quantities and are ver scarce these days. Scan kindly provided by Charles Hippisley-Cox.
The Greek Dance Association	This appears to be one of a series made by Decca for this association. Thanks to Richard Prout for the label image
Grey Gull	A well-known American label whose masters were widely available in England on labels such as Piccadilly, Goodson & Dominion, but at some point actual Grey Gull records must have been sold in Britain, as occasionally they turn up with British Copyright stamps on the labels. (see example, right). All those I've seen with the UK copyright stanps on are from the latest period, which leads me to believe they were being shipped to the UK at the time that the company went bankrupt in 1930 (or even afterwards - in order to clear the stock of records?). The 1d stamp on the record guides us to a selling price of about 2/6, which is quite expensive and rules out the old hoary myth of them being jobbed off by Woolworths. As to who sold them in the UK? It is still a mystery to me at the present.
Guardsman	Guardsman records first appeared in May 1914. This was a result of a disagreement and a court order imposed on William Barraud, to stop him using the "Invicta" name for his records. These first Guardsman records were manufactured by Crystalate and using Barraud's Invicta master series which had started at 101 the previous year. The first genuine Guardsman (as opposed to a re-pressing of an Invicta) was catalogue number 340 with masters of 245 & 246. The first Guardsman label was either dark mauve or dark blue, but during the war, it seemed they had to use whatever colour was available and they appear also in various shades of red and also in black and later in a pale blue and after the war it became a buff or stone colour. In 1922, Vocalion took over the label, using their own masters and those from Gennett & Vocalion, continued the label until 1928 when they producing ceased 10" contract pressings, by which time the numbers had reached the early 2100s (2140 is the highest known). The likeness of a guardsman on the label was taken from a painting by Francis Barraud (who also painted the famous HMV trademark) of Lieutenant Charles Hassell. In the early Vocalion period there were also a number of masters which were recorded specifically for issue on Guardsman, though some did leak out onto other Vocalion group labels. Also during the Vocalion period there were also a number of other catalogue series catering for ethnic peoples in Britain. These include the well-collected 7000- Negro Jazz series, 6000- and 8000- series Jewish series, a solitary (so far) 6750 Polish, a couple of Welsh series of 7250- and N-8250 and probably others which have not been located as yet. 12" Guardsman records were available throughout the whole period, with a catalogue series starting at 2000 and running up to 2136 (the highest found so far) from the Crystalate era (up to 1920), and there was also a 12" series made by Vocalion in the early 1920s with a 500-series catalogue. Who said record collecting was simple ? Guardsman recordings from the Barraud/Crystalate period may also be found on the early yellow "Curry's" label sold by the famous bicycle manufacturer, and also on Citizen, Neptune and Melody Record labels.