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Three Score and Ten

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Three Score and Ten:A Voice to the People is a multi-CD box set album issued by Topic Records in 2009 to celebrate 70 years as an independent British record label.

The Album is Consists of a hardback book containing the seven CDs and a paper insert detailing the Topic release list complimented by a card insert to balance the release list.

The album provides examples of the full range of recordings issued from the beginning of the label and includes tracks of multiple genres from British Music Hall to World Music.

The album was curated, researched and produced by David Suff[1]: 108  of Fledg'ling Records.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]
The Guardian[3]

The box set was received with a lot of very positive comment by the general and specialist press

Comendations

The Weekend Planet said "This is one of the more remarkable boxed compilations"[4].

Redlick said "This is obviously a huge labour of love and a wonderful tribute to a record label respected the world over."[5]

Awards

The album won fRoots Reissues and Compilations of the Year and Best Packaged Album of the Year in 2009[6].

Packaging

The package consists of a 108 page hard-backed book with 4 CDs in the front cover and 3 CDs in the back cover together with a booklet cataloguing all the recordings issued by Topic up to the publication in 2009 and a card insert to balance the recordings list. The book details the history of Topic records with a number of spotlight studies of key albums, and brief biographies relating to Topic of artists and other personnel involved in the record label from the start up to the date of issue of the album.[7].

Hardback Book

Introduction

The hardback book provides a history of Topic Records from its start as a subscription label run by the Workers Music Association issuing 78rpm shellac records, through the introduction of vinyl and its associated formats to CDs and subsequent to the boxed set the release of some of the older albums as downloads. The book contains pictures of album covers and artists that recorded them for Topic with a chronological history of the label up to 2009. . As part of this history there are spotlight studies of classic records and short biographies of key personnel and performers.

Spotlight Studies of Classic Records

Title Artist(s) Reference Year
Her Mantle so Green Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman 12T123 1965
The Iron Muse A Panorama of Industrial Folk Music Various Artists 12T86 1963
Frost and Fire The Watersons 12T163 1965
Paddy in the Smoke Irish Music from a London Pub Various Artists 12T176 1968
For Pence and Spicy Ale The Watersons 12T265 1975
Penguin Eggs Nic Jones 12TS411 1980
Handful of Earth Dick Gaughan 12TS419 1981
Aqaba June Tabor 12TS449 1988
Waterson : Carthy Martin Carthy, Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy TSCD475 1994
Unity John Tams TSCD508 2000
the Voice of the People Various Artists TSCD651 – 670 1998
Anglicana Eliza Carthy TSCD539 2002
Prodigal Son Martin Simpson TSCD567 2007

Biographies

Name Reason for Inclusion
Alan Bush Helped found the WMA in 1936 and was elected the first president of the association in 1941
A L Lloyd Was appointed artistic director of Topic records which was officially only for one year but was a powerful influence over many years with Ewan MacColl.
Ewan MacColl With Bert Lloyd was a driving force behind the folk revival after the second world war.
Bill Leader Recording engineer and producer who recorded a lot for Topic records and other companies before setting up his own record company with 2 labels.
Dick Swettenham Electronics engineer who worked with Bill Leader and developed the first transistorised control desk in the world
Gerry Sharp Accountant and business manager who kept the business of a financial even keel in its early days
Reg Hall Musician associated with Topic records since 1963 as an accompanist, complier and annotator of many recordings.
Tony Engle Joined Topic in 1963 and took over the label in 1973 following Gerry Sharp’s death

Catalogue of Releases

The catalogue details all the releases from the first record through to 2009. Each record is assigned a number starting from 1 with a prefix that denotes the format of issue.

Prefix Format First Issue Last Issue Comments
TRC (Topic Record Club 78rpm record 1939 1958
TRL 12 Inch Long Playing Record 1956 1956
12T 12 Inch Long Playing Record 1958 1990 an S after the T signifies a stereo recording
10T 10 Inch Long Playing Record 1957 1960
T 10 Inch Long Playing Record 1956 1956
8T 8 Inch Long Playing Record 1957 1957 Only 3 records issued
7T 7 Inch microgroove EP 1957 1958
TOP 7 Inch microgroove EP 1958 1958 S prefix indicates a stereo record. This prefix was used in 2014 for a special issue. Some of the titles appear to be single records.
TPS Sampler 1964 1973 Length and size not specified
TSCD Compact disk 1990 present day If the album was issued as a record then the number is re-used

The catalogue details The Voice of the People series separately. This series includes Ewan MacColl’s Radio Ballads originally issued by Argos. A number of the recordings appear to be from the Free Reed label issued as CDs. A separate section details the Topic World Series CDs. A section details the only recording issued under the WMA heading.

Three further sections detail the Impact, String and Special Delivery labels.

Track Listing

Introduction to the CDs

The seven CDs are themed covering different aspects of the Topic catalogue with a title appropriate to the content. The origin of the track will be displayed under the track name with traditional when the composer is not known. A reference to external numbering systems will be used where identified. The external systems are the Roud Folk Song Index, Child Ballads and the Laws Ballad Index

Disk one – . . . a selection of treasures from the Topic catalogue

The disk contains a range of the music from various parts of the English speaking world that Topic Records has issued over its 70 year history. These include English folk songs, instrumentals including dance music, American blues, music hall and a recent composition that is regularly played by Irish folk groups. Track 2 was a instrumental issued as part of a joint album with Alexis Korner. This track and track 4 are now available as digital downloads of either the track or the full recording. Track 10 is from an album in the series “The Voice of the People”. Track 12 was originally issued by Fontana in 1969 and is licensed to Topic by Polygram through Gama Records.

Disc two - England Arise!

The second disk contains music by English artists including a number that were from the tradition so providing a link to the time when this music was the popular music of the country.

Disk three - Ireland Boys, Hurrah

The third disk concentrates on the music of Ireland, including traditional musicians from all the provinces. The disk features more instrumental tracks that the other national disks.

Disk four - Scotia The Brave

This disk covers the music of Scotland

Disk five - The Singer & The Song

This disk concentrates on the compositions in a traditional style with the composer often singing the song.

Disk six - The People’s Flag

This disk covers the music that closely reflects the origins of Topic records with the Workers Music Association. Both sides of the original record issued by Topic are featured on this disk. Versions of track 3, Joe Hill are the third most popular selection on the radio show Desert Island Discs for British Labour Party Politicians.[8]

Disk seven - . . . even more treasures from the Topic catalogue

The seventh and last disk in the set contains more tracks from the Topic records catalogue and features a number from non-English speaking countries.

References

  1. ^ Three Score and Ten acknowledgements
  2. ^ Anderson, Rick. Three Score and Ten at AllMusic. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  3. ^ Denslow, Robert. "Guardian Review". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  4. ^ http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/weekendplanet/topic-records-three-score-and-ten/3095238
  5. ^ http://www.redlick.com/review_read.php?id=156,
  6. ^ http://threescoreandten.wordpress.com
  7. ^ http://www.topicrecords.co.uk/category/three-score-ten Topic Records Catalogue notes
  8. ^ Martin Kettle, http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/nov/21/theresa-may-desert-island-discs, Guardian newspaper,date=21-Nov-2014