Joe Geesin at Record Collector Magazine wrote a feature article on Eloy for the magazines May 2012 Issue. A small snippet of the article can be read here with the full article available online for subscribers of the magazine. The Magazine hits the streets today (26th April 2012)
An extract below features an interview with Heavy Metal Records and Revolver Records Managing Director, Paul Birch who talks about how the HMR deal with Eloy came about!
Paul Birch (FM Revolver)
The deal came through MIDEM in Cannes, France, the bands manager at the time was Wolfgang Rott - he came to our stand at the MIDEM around 1982. We had already signed Accept from Dieter Dirks in Cologne so we were known to the music industry there. Birgit Wiritz from EMI Electrola was in touch with me, I flew out to Cologne and watched them perform at a gig. I had an idea about how the band could be introduced here. I signed them for Planets, Time to Turn,Performance and Metromania. I would have done earlier albums but somehow the moment passed.
I was working with Rodney on other albums sleeves, he had done Predator for me by Bitches Sin, Diamond Head's Am I Evil, I felt he was exactly the right artist to work on Eloy and the band commissioned him directly to work on Metromania. There new manager after Wolfgang was Jürgen (Yogi) Dramm, who ended up running our German office.
Metromania was a CD release as well as LP and cassette. The LP releases were all specially grained by Delga Press in Bromley, who still do our print today. The one thing I felt about their existing artwork was that it let them down. They were a complex group and there album art needed to reflect that.
I loved the band then, still do. I am disappointed they didn’t come back to the label following Metromania but Frank and the band knew their own mind and probably had opportunities that came along as a consequence of the new markets they were now reaching.
EMI Electrola were about to drop the band when we signed them. EMI continued with them until Performance when the band moved to SPV. Manfred's label was located in Hannover, it was on the rise at that point and it was likely by then that the relationship at EMI would have come to a natural end.
Many thanks to Joe for this! Be sure to pick up a copy of Record Collector Magazine to see the full feature on Eloy and much more.
www.recordcollectormag.com
www.joegeesin.com
