Unusual Australian 78.

[Viva-Tonal]

As we have a number of 78 collectors here from Australia, I thought I might ask some questions of them regarding this unusual record I found at a local thrift shop last year.

Around the upper portion of the label it says RECORDED AND PROCESSED BY AMALGAMATED WIRELESS (AUSTRALASIA) LTD SYDNEY. I don't know if this was a proper label they had, or just the product of a custom recording service.

At bottom centre is a logo with a likeness of the signature of Marconi. Did they manufacture disc recording equipment? (I presume that such may have been used to record this disc?)

The title of the song on this side is 'I jisu au cuya e yavamuni'. I have no idea what language this is (African? Aboriginal of some type?) but given the artiste is identified as 'Jubilee Methodist Church, Suva' and the conductor's name is Anare K. Raiwalui, this is some form of church hymn. There is no instrumentation; this is a large choir, singing a cappella. (Where is Suva, by the way?)

With this music it is difficult for me to determine if the drift in pitch of their singing is due to the singers not staying on key, of if the recording machine was slowly drifting off speed. Both this side and the other ('Isa lei' by the same ensemble) have this phenomenon. Both sides of this record lack lead-in grooves or eccentric stop grooves. There's only two or three turns of close-threaded leadout spiral (think like unto an ARC record from about 1932) ending in a concentric stop groove after each song.

The catalogue number of this record is AW18117, the matrix number AW 47/18117 B. (Recorded in 1947?)

Click the label to listen....

[Amberola 1-A]

Suva is the Capitol of Fiji, so my guess would be that this is a Fijian language song.

[gramophoneshane]

That is one of AWA's custom recording labels. Their commercial releases were on the AWA Radiola label.
I'm guessing it's a plastic record?
I've only got a couple of their custom recordings myself, and they're all radio commercials.
Nice find.

[Viva-Tonal]

It's a shellac pressing.

And thanks for the info!

[gramophoneshane]

As far as I know, AWA started pressing commercial releases in shellac in 1951,but it's quite possible they were doing custom pressing earlier. My CP's are all plastic & date from the mid-late 50's.

[VictorScroll]

That is one of AWA's custom recording labels. Their commercial releases were on the AWA Radiola label.
I'm guessing it's a plastic record?
I've only got a couple of their custom recordings myself, and they're all radio commercials.
Nice find.

AWA pressed Telefunken records in Australia,at least after the war.I have early Lp pressings of Kulenkampff,Hans Schmidt-Isserstadt,and Keilberth,the latter using Capitol stampers.

[gramophoneshane]

Yes, most of the content on the Radiola label was from masters borrowed from other companies. Those from Telefunken appeared on the pink label, except for the 12" Augmented series which played for 9 minutes per side, and used a buff label.
There's also a red & blue label, the difference depending on where the masters were obtained.
Unlike Telefunken, those companies didn't get their name added to the label, and I can't remember now who was on red & who was on blue

I don't think I have any of their vinyl records, so I don't know if they dropped the Radiola name from the label or not.

[Viva-Tonal]

So the 'Augmented' series was like unto the equivalent of an EP done as a 12" 78? Were they intended for playback with a microgroove stylus (as I'd expect, given that you'd have to do cutting on the order of 220-240 lpi to cram 9 minutes on a 12" side at 78) or a standard stylus?

[gramophoneshane]

Well, according to the cover they could be played with either. When I first bought this one, I tried it on an acoustic machine & the needle was blunt half way through the song, but it works quite well with an electric pick-up & semi-perminant needle like Columbia duragold or Polar Bear Brand.
Somehow I doubt than an ordinary steel needle would last a full side, even with a light weight pick-up.

[Mechtronix]

The catalogue number of this record is AW18117, the matrix number AW 47/18117 B. (Recorded in 1947?)

The "47" in the matrix number tells me this was recorded at 47 York St. Sydney. The 18117 tells me this was recorded about Jan. 1952.

AWA were recording and processing material for lots of the Pacific Island nations over many years for local broadcast and school use.