Chevron cassettes - new research project underway

Chevron cassettes - those of Parade of Pops fame - have interested me for years, but I've never yet found anything like a full discography.

Many years ago I was contacted by a collector named Tony who was part-way through assembling a full label listing. However there remained many gaps and uncertainties, whch would need some more work to sort out. It only took me the best part of a decade, but I've finally gotten around to addressing the issue and starting a full, online discography with images. (And if you're reading this, Tony, thanks for getting the ball rolling.)

You can see the work as it currently exists here

Those familiar with the site, 45Spaces, will know it's an open-access collaborative platform. Anyone can sign up and start adding info, listings of missing cassettes, images, comments - anything you like. It would be great for collectors and fans to pool their info, and help build up the site to its max potential - so, if you're reading this, please join up and help!

The first 100 releases are included already, but research is ongoing - we still have some gaps. It's a learnng process, and so far we have found the following:

• Yellow inserts - Chevron released its first cassettes in mid-1977, a set of 50. These all re-issued LPs from the Windmill label, and all had basic-style yellow inserts in the cassettes. Most, if not all, would be re-issued later on, with better artwork.

above: CHV 001, first release and one of 50 'yellow cover' cassettes

• Chevron launched its LP range in March 1979, with 60 LPs, many of which were vinyl editions of already existing cassette albums. All the LPs show 1979 as their release date - and for some reason, Chevron started putting 1979 on the cassettes too, even when they had been issued before this. Just to confuse us collectors, I presume...

above: 1978 release, which started having 1979 printed on it when the LP version arrived
 

• Red cases - based on what we have found so far, it appears Chevron may well have used red cases throughout its lifespan. We used to think they were only in use for a fixed period, but we're starting to change our minds.

 above: red cassette case 

• Chevron Classics - from the mid-1980s, Chevron issued double-cassette packs in their Chevron Classics range. Not all were classical, and some were soudalike covers of hit singles. We've so far identified at least 80 and perhaps as many as 100 such double packs.

above: Chevron Classics double-pack of soundalike cover versions
  

• Cassette shells - so far we can see no real pattern to the sytle of cassette shells - white with blue ink, black with paper labels, cream with black ink - you name it - and sometimes two or three different types are known from the same release. In addition, many of the Chevron Classics double packs had different styles on each of the two tapes! Maybe some day we will get to the bottom of all this...

above: cassette shell variants

These are a few of the areas of interest we've stumbled upon.

By collectors joining forces and pooling info, we can surely learn more and get the world's first illustrated discography complete. So, do help out if you can, and if not, feel free to stop by the site and have a good look around. I'm sure it will be of interest, and a useful resource for Chevron fans out there.

* At the point of writing this, we have ten albums from the first hundred which we cannot identify. Please let us know if you have the artists or titles for any of these:

• CHV 002
• CHV 011
• CHV 014
• CHV 019
• CHV 023
• CHV 030
• CHV 041
• CHV 065
• CHV 080
• CHV 097

UK one-offs part 10: Pop Concert

This LP appeared on the little-noted Tempo label in 1979, but the clues to its true origins are there - I need not point out to collectors of Chevron's "Parade of Pops" series the act name, The Sound Sensations, nor the credits for Multiple Sound Distributors. For what we have here is, essentially, a "Parade of Pops" compilation (almost - see below) and, to cap it all, it was pressed on groovy green vinyl:

Pretty cool, eh? So the dozen selections can all be heard on "Parade of Pops", on various volumes ranging from CHVP 3 to CHVP 12. (And, since there was track sharing going on, five also turn up on various "Top of the Pops" LPs too.)

Here's the track listing:

• Bang Bang 
• Sunday Girl 
• Mr. Blue Sky
• Lay Your Love On Me 
• Sweet Little Rock 'N' Roller  
• Night Fever 
• Ring My Bell 
• Banana Splits 
• Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick 
• Gotta Go Home   
• You're The One That I Want
• Painter Man

So, what's the odd one out which I mentioned? Well, it's the most ambitious of the lot. "Mr. Blue Sky" never appeared on "Parade of Pops". However Chevron nailed a copy for the album below - an ELO tribute album also from 1979.

Why "Pop Concert" was pressed on the Tempo label rather than Chevron, is unclear, but with the green vinyl to mark it out from the crowd, this is one "one-off" well worth hunting down.

Chevron magazine advert bigs up cover versions

I was recently contacted by Gary Jones, who brought to my attention an old advert for Chevron cassettes - the budget line stocked primarily, probably exclusively, by Woolworths in the late 1970s and 1980s. Gary chanced upon the ad in an old copy of Smash Hits magazine - as featured on this impressive blog. (It's the Christmas edition, posted up on December 1, 2014 - click the mag cover to see all the scans.) Anyhow - here it is, and you can click here to enlarge:

Note first, how the ad is titled "So This Is Music". Since the magazine which carried it appeared in December 1984, the unrelated Now! That's What I Call Music LP series had been up and running for a full and highly successful year - and the similarity of titles is striking.

The advert shows how much emphasis Chevron placed on their cover version cassettes at the time, not least in borrowing that title. Their series, This is Music, was running apace in 1984, and we see no fewer than three volumes cited in the ad, as well as cover scans of two - plus the end-of-year collection, Top Hits of the Year. Below are some close-ups.

 

Here we are in 2014, going on 2015 - an age of MP3s, MP4s, iPods, iPads - whatever - and it's amazing by modern standards that budget cover version cassettes were being actively promoted in a magazine dealing with proper chart music - albeit one aimed at teenagers, none of whom were to be seen dead without a Walkman. It shows how much emphasis Woolies placed on these cassettes, and presumably reflects on their popularity at the time.

Thanks to Gary for the heads up, and the proprietors and editors of the "Like Punk Never Happened" blog - a fine trip down memory lane for us older viewers.

Incidentally, you can find out more about Chevron's This Is Music series here.

Exactly what it says on the tin!

Shoppers milling around the music section of Woolworths in the autumn of 1985 might have been baffled to see a small rectangular object sitting on the shelves, wondering what on earth it was. No problem - the Chevron label forestalled any unease by printing the solution on the front: "This..." they explained, "...Is Music". Volume 6 in fact. Here's my copy, just landed:

This is quite an attractive item really. Check out the songs - a few period classics like "Part Time Lover", "There Must Be An Angel" and "Running Up That Hill". They don't write 'em like that anymore - mind you, we were saying that in 1985 too - witness revived oldies like "Dancing In The Street" and "I Got You Babe"!

This cassette is the sixth in a series of seven, which ran between 1984 and mid-1986. Chevron of course had years earlier been issuing the "Parade of Pops" series, but in the 1980s, they re-launched their cover version offer with this title, plus the concurrent series, "Hits Hits Hits" (only four of which ever emerged). Of course one needn't look too hard to see where they got their titles - massive at the time were the original chart hits album series, "Now! That's What I Call Music" (Virgin) and "Hits" (CBS) - so, "This is Music" and "Hits Hits Hits" were titles bound to fool the unwary (not!).

All this might seem a tad funny these days. Equally quaint/silly were the imaginary artists who were credited on the insert. "Angel" wasn't by Madonna - no, it was by Rosanna. And "Running Up That Hill" was performed by Teresa Green. Do you know Teresa Green?... (If you don't get the joke, ask the nearest 5-year-old and watch them laugh.)

They also use the label's standard group identities on a few tracks, where they apparently ran out of such inspiration - names like LA Sounds and Sound Sensation are familiar enough - while Hit Machins Unlimited is not by collectors of the famous Machin stamps, but a mere typo.

So are we laughing at them, or with them? It's hard to know. I think it was "at" when volume 7 appeared, with the records on the front now perching on little wooden stilts - what on earth??

Anyway, these tapes are pretty rare these days. I'm gradually amassing a collection but it's slow progress! Glad to get volume 6 safely in my cassette case - let's hope some more turn up soon.

Top of the Pops volume 15 - on blue vinyl !!!

This week I was contacted by collector, Ian Danbury, with news of an intriguing find - Top of the Pops vol 15 on coloured vinyl. This was the very first I had heard of anything from the series appearing in anything other than black, so I was pretty amazed. Some photos duly arrived, which can be seen below. First the LP by itself:

At first glance, one might think the blueness is a trick of the light, but Ian also sent a photo of the LP side-by-side with its black vinyl equivalent, and the difference is quite striking.

What a great find! It is not clear at present whether this blue edition was on general sale. The sleeve, labels and matrix number are as per usual, so whether this was a one-off created in the factory as a souvenir, or whether there was a short run pressed on blue by mistake, is anyone's guess. One would have thought that if the LP was deliberately put on sale as a coloured vinyl edition, they would at least have said so on the sleeve. As ever, we appeal to anyone with any knowledge of this to please leave us some details.

And what of other coloured vinyls issued elsewhere? We may as well round up what we know from the world of budget LPs.

First, Top of the Pops itself. Below is an Argentinian edition of TOTP volume 26. Nothing like this ever appeared in the UK, needless to say!

Where anonymous cover versions are concerned, the Flag/Boulevard label was the first in Britain to go for it, to my knowledge, with a pair of red vinyl LPs in 1970. Here's a pressing of World Top 12 volume 1:

Later in the 1970s, the Chevron label also dabbled with coloured vinyl for their Parade of Pops albums. They issued one in red, and three in "gold" (ie, yellow!):

There is also an album called Pop Concert, issued on the Tempo label in the 1970s. It came out on dark green, translucent vinyl:

And we end this round-up with the USSR album, Variety's Orbit, which contains two Top of the Pops recordings among its twelve tracks (the rest being by their original artists). There are at least three different coloured vinyl pressings known, probably all from 1975:

Mystery Chevron cassette

This week I was contacted by Steve, a fellow budget collector, who had stumbled upon the cassette below at a car boot sale. There seemed to be no information about it on the internet, but a bit of detective work has brought to light a bit of background detail - although there are still some unanswered questions...

The label is clear - Chevron, they of "Parade of Pops" fame. But when we look at the track listing, we see that all the songs were hits in the 1970s, before "Parade of Pops" was launched. So, what is actually included here? Steve has confirmed that they are all soundalike cover versions, so one would presume they are from one of the regular LP series.

My first hunch was the earlier "Parade of Pops" album series, on the Windmill label. But on checking the tracks, there are songs such as "In The Summertime" and "Your Song" which were never on the Windmill LPs. Cross-checking has revealed that the only series to contain all eleven titles was "Top of the Pops", but it is not clear whether these are the same versions. It seems unlikely, on the face of it.

The cassette itself, CHV 3010, is from a short-lived series of "Chevron Classics" double-packs which were issued in the mid-1980s. It therefore has a partner cassette with more tracks, and presumably was originally issued in an outer case of some sort, which has been lost over the years. I am not aware that any of the other twin packs in the CHV 3000 series contain cover versions, but there is very little information available and it is possible that more exist.

If anyone can help fill in some of these blanks, I would be glad to hear from you. Meantime, the tricky task begins of trying to find my own copy, now that I know it exists!

Chevron cassette shells - what's the story?

This week, I spotted a copy of the rare Chevron cassette, Top Hits of the Year (1978) on EBay. Although I bid on it, I was outdone by someone - and I wish now that I'd bid higher, because this example differs from the one I already have. This is the copy which was sold on Ebay:

What's unusual about it is the cassette itself, which is inside a black shell, with a white paper label stuck to it. Mine has a white shell, with the details printed directly onto the plastic:

The insert appears the same however; this is my one:

Discovering this alternative "pressing" (if that's the right word to use for cassettes!) prompted me to go through the rest of my Chevron collection and see if there's any pattern to this. The tape above is, of course, assembled from the "Parade of Pops" series, and constitutes one of the end-of-year compilation albums. I knew I'd definitely seen black shell editions of "Parade of Pops" before, but couldn't remember which.

Although my collection isn't quite complete, this is what I found: Cassettes up to and including CHVP 21 (1981) have light grey shells with white labels, but from CHVP 22 (1981), the white shell with direct print becomes standard. The end-of-year collections, Top Hits of the Year, not surprisingly tend to follow the current format.

However there are a few exceptions: CHVP 2 (1978) has a white shell with the printing directly onto the plastic, whereas CHVP 3 (1978) has a black shell with a white paper label, of the type featured above. And there's another one too - CHVP 15 (1978), which is another of these black shell editions.

We might understand the inconsistency early in the series - Chevron presumably had a short-term contract with the manufacturer before the series was fully established, and might have been trying out different companies. But why does CHVP 15 have a black shell? And why does the one above come in two different versions, neither of which is in the then current style?

Please let us know if you can shed any light on this - or if you have any more unusual editions from the series.

Copycat ... er ... Covers - part 2

A little while ago I posted some examples of record sleeves which use the same artwork as the UK covers albums. Part 1 featured examples from the "World Top 12" series - see it here.

This is part 2, which shows sleeves from a range of UK LP series, and overseas counterparts. There are several more examples out there, and we would be grateful for further contributions. Part 3 will follow in due course...

First up, is the Contour label's "16 Chart Hits" volume 12. Below are albums from Finland (left) and Portugal (right). The Portuguese LP reverses the photo, and is part of a series called "Top Pops", from which this is a best-of compilation. Looks and sounds quite familiar to me... 

 

 

These next two examples are from the UK series, "12 Chart Busters" (or "12 Chart Buster Hits" as it was known for a while). Next to volume 10 is a Brazilian LP with the same photo, in the same rectangular frame. Underneath us UK volume 12, plus a Spanish album on the Olympo label (who issued some Top of the Pops LPs there) which has a photo from the same shoot.

 

The British Rediffusion albums are among the more difficult covers LPs for the collector. Nevertheless, the cover art crops up in unexpected places, as shown in these examples. "Hit Parade Special" volume 8 has an equivalent sleeve from Australia, used on an LP of Simon & Garfunkel covers. The photo is slightly different and has also been reversed, which can be seen from the slope of the sea behind the model.

And "Sounds Like Hits USA", an obscure British release from 1970 is mirrored in this Brazilian album, also containing chart cover versions. 

Lastly, here are two examples from the much later Chevron series, "Parade of Pops". In both cases the covers are from LPs, whereas one of these was only released on cassette in the UK. And in both cases, the photos are different, but clearly taken at the same photo session. Top is an album from New Zealand, and bottom, one from Turkey.

 

I'll post some more of these at some point. I think a "Top of the Pops" special might be next...