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Bye bye, Decca?

Oh yes ..... swoon...

And then there were the red or blue bordered inner sleeves with the little hole in the cover so you could see if it was mono or stereo (although actually, I think that Decca fanciers mostly pronounced it steerio in those days)
 
As promised...

I wrote to Decca to find out more about the record production process. The main reason I chose Decca was that they were one of the very few companies who put their full address on the label. I was 14 at the time. I also have the re-printed article mentioned in the letter.

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Mull.

PS, I no longer live at the address, or even in the same town. ;)
 
I find myself wondering, in my current phase of life, why I wasted my time at 14 on street corners and misguided fumblings in bus shelters when I could have been writing to Decca too! This is one of the most delightful things I have read in some time; I actually find it inspirational and wish I was you just so I could tell the story. Cool.
 
Thank you!
I find it hilarious and at the same time very gratifying that this little thing still resonates today. I also love the idea that the respondent assumed that I had already 'consulted my library, or technical bookseller'. When I wrote the letter, I was a Grammar School lad off of a council estate. I was obsessed with music and with sound reproduction, but we had only just acquired a Dansette. My record collection was tiny, because an LP was about 25% of a factory worker's weekly wage at the time. I probably spent more time listening to my old Columbia portable wind up 78 player.... and my stack of 40s-50s 78s.

Somehow, although slightly delayed by the 'male only' grammar school thing, I also managed a bit of fumbling. It was, on balance, preferable to writing letters to record companies, though possibly somewhat messier.... :)

Mull
 
I have a Decca release by a sweet little Portugese fado singer as late as 2005: Ulisses- Cristina Branco. Positively lovely sound, too. Hate to see them go.
 
Mull - This latest update resonates all the more... My son goes to Grammar school in Septemeber, is a bright mathematician with a very keen interest developing in my record collection. I see this as an excellent opportunity (for me) to persue a line of investigation within the record industry (through him), so he can have an uber cool piece of corresponence. The issue is, and I suppose this is my tenuous link back into the OT of this thread, that nothing would be quite the same as having such a letter from Decca! Decca were (as someone else on here said) uniquely British and period is everything in this case, both culturally and technically (the latter for perhaps some of the reasons DSJR pointed out).... so I can not make a contemporary comparison with whom to pull off a similar stunt. Re-Issue labels are not of the same stock.
 
Maybe ECM? Sure they are German, but they are also independent of the big companies while still being fairly large which puts them in a unique position IMO.
 
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