Proper Records
Encyclopedia
Proper Records is a record label
founded in 1988 by Malcolm Mills and Paul Riley
. Commencing with a handful of releases, including The Balham Alligators
and Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers
, the label grew in stature and renown through its reissue marque, 'Proper Box', whose 4CD boxsets for reissue products are available at a budget price. Featuring jazz, country, and rock 'n' roll artists, these releases now total nearly 150.
These days, the label has become better known for releasing new albums by contemporary artists such as Joan Baez, Richard Thompson, Nick Lowe, Mary Gauthier, Jimmie Vaughan, Dr. John, Angelique Kidjo, Los Lobos, Willie Nelson & Asleep At The Wheel, Texas Tornados, Paul Heaton, Andy Mckee, Tom Russell, Cowboy Junkies, Elizabeth Cook, Art Garfunkel, Don McLean, Dave Rotheray, Jimmy Webb, Paul Brady, Pete Brown, Dennis Locorriere, Ian McLagan, Ruthie Foster, Sonny Landreth, Little Feat, Andy Fairweather Low, Baddies, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Diana Jones, Tom Russell, Hot Club Of Cowtown, Robyn Hitchcock, Loudon Wainwright III, Bill Kirchen, The Features, Tim O’ Brien, Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham and more. There is also a subsidiary jazz label, Specific Jazz whose roster currently includes Jay Phelps, Tony Kofi, Anita Wardell, Alan Barnes and also the annual BBC JAZZ AWARDS compilation.
The company is based on an industrial estate in the south London suburb of Beckenham
. where it also has a fully equipped modern studio named Specific Sound. Proper Music Distribution has twice won the Music Week
Distributor of the Year Award, most recently in 2010.
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
founded in 1988 by Malcolm Mills and Paul Riley
Paul Riley (musician)
Paul Riley is an English bassist, singer and record producer. He was a member of Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers and Roogalator in the 1970s.-Biography:...
. Commencing with a handful of releases, including The Balham Alligators
The Balham Alligators
The Balham Alligators were a band from London that mixed rock 'n' roll, cajun, country and R&B. The band centred around singer and instrumentalist Geraint Watkins.-Career:The band came together by chance at a London pub in 1983...
and Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers
Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers
Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers were one of the main British pub rock groups of the early 1970s. Later managed by Jake Riviera, who first worked for the band as a roadie, they reached their peak as part of the "Naughty Rhythms Tour" of 1975, along with other stalwarts of the same scene, Dr...
, the label grew in stature and renown through its reissue marque, 'Proper Box', whose 4CD boxsets for reissue products are available at a budget price. Featuring jazz, country, and rock 'n' roll artists, these releases now total nearly 150.
These days, the label has become better known for releasing new albums by contemporary artists such as Joan Baez, Richard Thompson, Nick Lowe, Mary Gauthier, Jimmie Vaughan, Dr. John, Angelique Kidjo, Los Lobos, Willie Nelson & Asleep At The Wheel, Texas Tornados, Paul Heaton, Andy Mckee, Tom Russell, Cowboy Junkies, Elizabeth Cook, Art Garfunkel, Don McLean, Dave Rotheray, Jimmy Webb, Paul Brady, Pete Brown, Dennis Locorriere, Ian McLagan, Ruthie Foster, Sonny Landreth, Little Feat, Andy Fairweather Low, Baddies, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Diana Jones, Tom Russell, Hot Club Of Cowtown, Robyn Hitchcock, Loudon Wainwright III, Bill Kirchen, The Features, Tim O’ Brien, Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham and more. There is also a subsidiary jazz label, Specific Jazz whose roster currently includes Jay Phelps, Tony Kofi, Anita Wardell, Alan Barnes and also the annual BBC JAZZ AWARDS compilation.
The company is based on an industrial estate in the south London suburb of Beckenham
Beckenham
Beckenham is a town in the London Borough of Bromley, England. It is located 8.4 miles south east of Charing Cross and 1.75 miles west of Bromley town...
. where it also has a fully equipped modern studio named Specific Sound. Proper Music Distribution has twice won the Music Week
Music Week
Music Week is a trade paper for the UK record industry.Founded in 1959 as Record Retailer, it was relaunched on 18 March 1972 as Music Week . On 17 January 1981 the title was again changed, owing to the increasing importance of sell-through videos, to Music & Video Week...
Distributor of the Year Award, most recently in 2010.
Artists
Proper Records has released albums by the following artists:- Joan BaezJoan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
- Richard Thompson
- Little FeatLittle FeatLittle Feat is an American rock band formed by singer-songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles....
- Andy Fairweather Low
- Nick LoweNick LoweNicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...
- Sonny LandrethSonny LandrethSonny Landreth is an American blues musician from southwest Louisiana who is especially known as a slide guitar player. He was born in Canton, Mississippi, but soon after, his family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, before settling in Lafayette, Louisiana...
- Ian McLaganIan McLaganIan McLagan is an English keyboard instrumentalist, best known as a member of the English rock bands Small Faces and Faces.-Small Faces and Faces:...
- Blind Boys Of Alabama
- Tim O'BrienTim O'Brien (musician)Tim O'Brien is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and mandocello...
- Hacienda BrothersHacienda BrothersThe Hacienda Brothers is the name of an alternative country band composed of Chris Gaffney, Dave Gonzalez, Dave Berzansky, Dale Daniel, and Hank Maninger. They have been described as "the finest country-rock band since the Flying Burrito Brothers in their prime," and were called "the best country...
- Bill KirchenBill KirchenBill Kirchen is an American rockabilly guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was the guitarist with the original Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen from 1967 to the mid 1970s, although, in reality, his time with the Commander accounts for only a portion of his career...
- Dan PennDan PennDan Penn is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including "Dark End of the Street" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "Out of Left Field" & "Cry Like A Baby"...
and Spooner OldhamSpooner OldhamDewey Lindon "Spooner" Oldham is an American songwriter and session musician. An organist, he recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and at FAME Studios on such hit R&B songs as "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge, "Mustang Sally" by Wilson Pickett and "I Never Loved a Man" by Aretha... - Ruthie FosterRuthie FosterRuthie Foster is an American singer-songwriter of blues and folk music.Foster is from Gause, Texas and comes from a family of gospel singers. She studied music at McLennan Community College and then worked in the US Navy, where she started performing. Her debut was released in 1997 and she has...
- Mary GauthierMary GauthierMary Gauthier is an American folk singer-songwriter.-Life and career:Gauthier was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Given up at birth by a mother she never knew, Gauthier was adopted by an Italian Catholic couple in Thibodaux, Louisiana...
- Art GarfunkelArt GarfunkelArthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...
- DrumboJohn French (musician)John "Drumbo" French is an American drummer and musician. He played on Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica and on various other Beefheart recordings: Beefheart dubbed him "Drumbo"...
- Robyn HitchcockRobyn HitchcockRobyn Rowan Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano and bass guitar....
- BlancmangeBlancmange (band)Blancmange are a British synthpop band who came to prominence with a string of hits in the early to mid 1980s.-Biography:Blancmange was formed in Harrow, Middlesex in 1979 by singer Neil Arthur and instrumentalists Stephen Luscombe and Laurence Stevens...
- Dave StewartDave StewartDave Stewart may refer to:* Dave Stewart , former pitcher in Major League Baseball and 1989 World Series MVP* David A. Stewart , English musician and record producer best known for his work with Eurythmics...
- The Webb SistersThe Webb SistersThe Webb Sisters are a musical duo comprising the siblings Charley and Hattie Webb who are based mostly in the United Kingdom.-Biography and history:...
- Diana JonesDiana Jones (singer-songwriter)Diana Jones is an American singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. Jones's career gained wider critical acclaim in 2006 with the release of her album, My Remembrance of You. The album made a number of critics end-of-the-year "best of" lists...
- Loudon Wainwright IIILoudon Wainwright IIILoudon Snowden Wainwright III is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor. He is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, brother of Sloan Wainwright, and the former husband of the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle.To...
- The WaterboysThe WaterboysThe Waterboys are a band formed in 1983 by Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland and England. Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Spiddal, New York, and Findhorn have all served as homes for the group. The band has played in a...
- Red Sky JulyRed Sky JulyRed Sky July are an alternative country band, founded in 2009 by Texas guitarist Ally McErlaine; his wife Shelly Poole, a former member of Alisha's Attic; and Charity Hair, formerly of The Alice Band. The band release their debut self titled album via Proper Records on the 18th October.-External...