Bob record Glasgow Scotland

[oldgrooves]

I found one last year, a ten inch record of two Irving Berlin numbers. The record cost a "bob". Apparently the company was only in existence a short time (1912-13). Curious if anybody else has one or knows more about them. Thanks.

[gramophoneshane]

If no-one here can help, I'd recommend contacting Chris Hamilton via his website here- http://www.sol.co.uk/c/chrishamilton/Index.htm

I've never seen "The Bob" record label before, but Chris has one pictured on his site and appears to be very knowledgable about early obscure Scottish labels, so can probably tell you everything there is to know about the company.
Being a small short lived Scottish company, I'd image their records are quite rare.

[Wagnerian]

Unfortunately, Chris Hamilton passed away in May this year. There ia an obituary to him in the Autumn issue of the CLPGS magazine "For the Record". He was indeed a great expert on Scottish records and music and will be sorely missed.

The infallible Frank Andrews in his series "We Also Have Our Own Records" of February 1998 says this of Bob Records:

"The Bob Record was a 10 inch double-sided disc from the Bob Record Co. Ltd., registered on July 1st 1913 as a private company with a nominal capital of £500. Its first adress was 45 Renfield St. Glasgow, Scotland but by the time its first discs were issued the address on their labels was 4 Howard St. Galsgow. A trade paper cynically remarked "There is nothing like slang for being expressive. We understand negotiations are being made to formulate the Tanner Syndicate - and then the Bankruptcy Court". The "Bob", slang for a shilling, pre-dates the arrival of the shilling records of September 1913, but it was well known in trade circles that the coming season was to witness the introduction of bargain priced records.

The Bob Record was a stencilled disc. Its source was the Berolina Schallplatten GmbH of Berlin's matrices, as ermployed for the production of its British issued Invicta Records. Invicta Records were Berolina's export label for a number of countries.

In Britain the Invicta Record was in the hands of W.A.Barraud Ltd from the first but by October 1913 the commercial ties had broken down....... All Bobs show the same catalogue numbers and the dating codes in the wax as the Invicta Records, with M signifying 1912 and N signifying 1913.

The Bob labels were pale blue, printed white and had the design of our imperial crown in the lower half, which was surmounted by a standing lion, also wearing an imperial crown. The label name was in red. The price, one shilling was printed around the lower half."

Hope this helps

Tim W-W

[oldgrooves]

Sorry to hear about Mr. Hamilton. Thanks to both posters for the info.