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Thursday 29 March 2012

HARVEST ...............PROGABLY THE BEST RECORD LABEL IN THE WORLD........EVER!

Harvest is a subsiduary of EMI as I am sure most people will be aware, and were mainly active between 1969 & 1984, with PINK FLOYD & DEEP PURPLE being their main acts.
The iconic green and yellow label didn't change much over the years unlike many other major labels, and Harvest issues are still popular with collectors today.


Deep Purple were one of a number of heavy rock groups that surfraced in the late 60's and early 70's, their second LP The Book of Taliesyn was the first to be realeased on Harvest in 1969, Subsequently they released a number of LP's on Harvest before moving to their own Purple Records label in 1976.

Other important artists on Harvest around this time were Kevin Ayres, Barclay James Harvest & Roy Harper, But of course the biggest name on Harvest were The Pink Floyd and they stayed with EMI throughout their career, with their early albums on EMI  - Columbia in the UK
The first Harvest release was Ummagumma cat # SHDW 1 followed by Atom Heart Mother & Meddle.




After Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd he made a couple of solo albums on Harvest - The Madcap Laughs & Barrett, they were never going to be million sellers but they do have an important ploace in the history of the Harvest label. (Pictured below) 


SYD BARRETT





The Electric Light Orchestra also released ELO / ELO 2 / Showdown & The Light Shines on, the 2nd album being particularly good. The Move, Love, Roy Wood & Wizzard were signed to the label in the early 70's and then in 1974 Be-Bop Deluxe and Triumvirat released Axe Victim and Illusions of a double dimple respectively.

In the late 70's & 80's the individual members of Pink Floyd worked on their own projects and released them on Harevst too.These included Rick Wright's Wet Dream, Dave Gilmour's self titled LP and About Face and Roger Water's Pros & Cons of Hitchiking.



Other rock acts signed to the label were German band Scorpions , Wire and Soft Machine



Now go and find some Harvest and enjoy!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_Records_discography

This information is not complete nor meant to be, it is merely a summary of important releases down the years.