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PYE or Pye Records is an independent British record label. It was first established in 1955 and played a major role in shaping rock 'n' roll and pop music history. The Pye name was dropped in 1980 due to trademark issues, after which it produced almost no music until the company name and trademark was acquired by the Scottish broadcaster and music producer, Tony Currie , in September 2024.

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85-711: The new Pye Records has begun to release new albums on vinyl: ‘Race The Sun’ from the Tony Currie Orchestra, conducted by Gavin Sutherland (principal guest conductor for the English National Ballet), and Callum Au. 'Race the Sun' was conceived to pay tribute to the pop orchestras of the original Pye Records. The revived label has also released 'Harvest Gold' by the London-based singer-songwriter Andrea Black. Pye Records

170-589: A Canadian artist whose first English-language album (largely recorded in England) was issued on UK Pye, and Jackie McAuley, whose lone solo album was originally issued on UK Dawn. In 1974, Pye established an American version of its record label. The label was not a success, however, and closed its US operations in 1976. The head of the US division, Marvin Schlachter , then started Prelude Records , named after one of Pye's acts of

255-537: A late renaissance when in 2000 he appeared on Van Morrison 's album The Skiffle Sessions – Live in Belfast 1998 , an acclaimed album featuring him singing with Morrison and Chris Barber, with a guest appearance by Dr John . Donegan also played at the Glastonbury Festival in 1999, and was made an MBE in 2000. Donegan also appeared at Fairport Convention 's annual music festival on 9 August 2001. His final CD

340-460: A revival of the 1920 musical Mr Cinders . More concert tours followed, with a move from Florida to Spain. In 1992 he had further bypass surgery following another heart attack. In 1994, the Chris Barber band celebrated 40 years with a tour with both bands. Pat Halcox was still on trumpet (a position he retained until July 2008). The reunion concert and the tour were on CD and DVD. Donegan had

425-472: A son and a daughter (Anthony and Juanita) with his second wife, Jill Westlake (divorced 1971), and three sons (Peter, David and Andrew) with his third wife, Sharon whom he married in 1977. Lonnie Donegan died on 3 November 2002, aged 71, after having a heart attack in Market Deeping , Lincolnshire mid-way through a UK tour, and before he was due to perform at a memorial concert for George Harrison with

510-528: A specialized demodulator to decode four fully independent sound channels. This allowed for full channel separation. Such systems could be prone to reduced record life. However, more durable vinyl formulations were quickly developed to work around this problem and nearly all discrete LPs use special vinyl. When discrete quadraphonic LPs are played on conventional stereo record players the entire music program can be heard in stereo. The third major format for four-channel vinyl LPs, known as CD-4 or Quadradisc ,

595-650: A tea-chest bass, with " John Henry " on the B-side . It was a hit in 1956 (which also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs , released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960s), but because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money beyond his session fee. It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and it reached the Top Ten in

680-417: A two-channel transmission medium (usually an LP record) before being decoded to four channels and presented to four speakers. To transmit four individual audio signals in a stereo-compatible manner, there must be four simultaneous linear equations to reproduce the original four audio signals at the output. These systems used matrix decoding technology to recover four channels from the two channels recorded on

765-670: A variety of acts alongside its eponymous founder, including actress Caroline Munro . Postman Pat songs and music, from the television series of the same name, were recorded at PRT Studios. PRT's parent company ACC was purchased by The Bell Group of Australia in 1982. In 1988, the Bell Group was purchased by the Bond Corporation . However, the Bond Corporation was suffering financial problems itself and proceeded to quickly sell off most of its assets. PRT's record and cassette factory

850-466: A version of Handel 's " Music for the Royal Fireworks " in 1959. This featured the conductor Charles Mackerras who made other recordings on the label, including a Janacek compilation. Golden Guinea Collector was closed in the 1970s and replaced by Marble Arch Records , selling at an even lower price. A full-price subsidiary, Piccadilly Records , was for new pop acts, including Joe Brown &

935-457: A while on Chiswick Mall in Middlesex . As a child growing up in the early 1940s Donegan listened mostly to swing jazz and vocal acts, and became interested in the guitar. Country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White , attracted his interest and he bought his first guitar at 14 in 1945. He learned songs such as " Frankie and Johnny ", " Puttin' On

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1020-510: A ⋂ horseshoe topology. However, all these came too late in the game and were too expensive or difficult to procure for public purchase, to rescue matrix quad from obscurity. By the early 2000s more sophisticated "discrete" multichannel systems had mostly replaced matrix technologies, providing a higher level of performance and full channel independence. Today, software can be used to take the place of hardware decoding. Modern software algorithms are capable of more accurate decoding performance than

1105-399: Is different than for stereo versions of the same recording. Most studio equipment is designed for stereo only, so specialized multichannel mixing consoles and playback systems must be available. For classical music, producers have typically preferred an effect where the orchestra appears in stereo in only the front channels, and the natural reverberation or "echo" of the concert hall is in all

1190-450: Is half of the full speed. The slower speed results in significantly poorer sound quality. RCA Records followed, in April 1970, with its announcement of a four-channel version of the 8-track tape , named Quad-8 or Quadraphonic 8-track tape (later shortened to just Q8 ). These eventually appeared in staggered releases (70 Tapes) split by October, November, and December 1970. The format

1275-651: Is shown in the (entirely fictional) final scene generously allowing her to make one last appearance on stage. Most of the above records were accredited to Lonnie Donegan; except, as follows: † Billed as the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group ‡ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and his Skiffle Group ¶ Billed as Lonnie Donegan meets Miki & Griff with the Lonnie Donegan Group ↑ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and his Group ↓ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and Wally Stott's Orchestra ♠ Billed as Miki and Griff with

1360-711: Is to say, the four channels produced at the final stage were not truly identical to those with which the process had begun. In order for the effect to work as intended a recording engineer needed to be specially trained for working in each of these formats. Special mixing rules for matrix recording minimize the technological limitations inherent in matrix formats and mask or eliminate undesired side effects. The first of these were basic systems with relatively poor performance developed by Electro-Voice ( EV-4/Stereo-4 ) and Dynaco ( Dynaquad (DY) ). A so-called matrix format, it utilized four sound channels which were "encoded" into two stereo album tracks. These were then "decoded" into

1445-516: The Dan Burley Skiffle Group of the 1930s. In 1954 Colyer left and the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band. With a washboard , tea-chest bass , and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan played folk and blues songs by artists such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie . This proved popular and in July 1954 he recorded a fast version of Lead Belly's " Rock Island Line ", featuring a washboard but not

1530-754: The Royal Festival Hall they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson . Donegan adopted his first name as a tribute. He used the name at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 2 June 1952. In 1953 cornetist Ken Colyer was imprisoned in New Orleans for a visa problem. He returned to Britain and joined Chris Barber's band. They changed the name to Ken Colyer's Jazzmen and made their first public appearance on 11 April 1953 in Copenhagen . The following day, Chris Albertson recorded Ken Colyer's Jazzmen and

1615-509: The SQ system was greatly improved by the introduction of SQ Full Logic decoding in 1975 using the Motorola chips MC1312, MC1314 & MC1315. Both SQ and QS had significant support from major record companies and hardware manufacturers during the 1970s. They also achieved notable sales and market penetration. Unfortunately, due to the similarities in name and technology these could easily be confused by

1700-565: The " Deep South " of Brighton and finds an "obscure folk song hidden at the top of the American hit parade", re-records it and reaches number one in the UK. David Letterman pretended to try to remember Jimmy Fallon 's name during the Tonight Show conflict between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien , calling Fallon "Lonnie Donegan." In the 2019 movie Judy , the actor John Dagleish portrays Lonnie Donegan, who replaces an ill Judy Garland . He

1785-461: The 1970s have been reissued in modern surround sound systems such as Super Audio CD , DTS , Dolby Digital , DVD-Audio and Blu-ray . Multichannel home audio reproduction has experienced a revival since 2000 and new four channel recordings have also been released to the public since this time. A quadraphonic system will reproduce right front, right rear, left front, and left rear audio signals in four separate speakers. The reproduction capability of

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1870-515: The 1970s this station broadcast a signal which could be tuned as two separate stations with conventional stereo receivers. San Francisco classical music station KKHI-FM broadcast the San Francisco Opera in "compatible" (that is, matrix-encoded) quadraphonic format during the 1970s, as did Chicago station WFMT 's live "Chicago Lyric Opera" broadcasts. KRMH -FM ("Good Karma Radio")(San Marcos/Austin, Texas) broadcast in "Quad Stereo" in

1955-439: The 1970s used "matrix" technologies to encode and decode four channels of audio information in a 2-channel medium, usually an LP. The poor decoding performance of early matrix formats was the main reason they disappeared once improved matrix systems arrived. The later matrix systems were based on work by Peter Scheiber . His basic formula used 90° phase-shift circuitry to enable enhanced 4–2–4 matrix systems to be developed, of which

2040-404: The 1970s, particularly among car audio enthusiasts. In the 1970s specialized hardware systems were marketed by major electronic manufacturers to the public for decoding 4-channel recordings. These decoders were often sold as separate electronic components. Decoders were also available as built in features of some audio receivers or amplifiers sold during the 1970s. Many quadraphonic recordings in

2125-637: The Bruvvers, Clinton Ford , the Rockin' Berries , Sounds Orchestral , the Sorrows , The Bystanders , Jackie Trent and, later on, the Ivy League . In 1969, Pye launched a less mainstream label for folk , jazz , blues and progressive acts, Dawn Records . The label artists included Mungo Jerry , Man , Donovan , Comus , Titus Groan and Trifle. Beginning in 1971, Pye issued a series of "4D Stereo" LP recordings in

2210-547: The Lonnie Donegan Group Quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic ) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for the reproduction of sound signals that are (wholly or in part) independent of one another. Four channel quadraphonic surround sound can be used to recreate

2295-556: The Monty Sunshine Trio—Sunshine, Barber, and Donegan—for Storyville Records . These were amongst Donegan's first commercial recordings. While in Ken Colyer 's Jazzmen with Chris Barber , Donegan sang and played guitar and banjo in their Dixieland set. He began playing with two other band members during the intervals, to provide what posters called a "skiffle" break, a name suggested by Ken Colyer's brother, Bill, after

2380-449: The Pye/PRT classical music catalogue and controls it via Warner Classics . Pye Records was a sister company to the better-known ATV Music Publishing. This company, which owned Beatles publisher Northern Songs , was bought by Michael Jackson in 1985 and later merged with Sony to form Sony/ATV Music Publishing . Starting with the " British Invasion " of 1964, Pye placed their artists in

2465-697: The Quality label. Its earliest Pye Canada releases such as Lonnie Donegan 's "My Old Man's A Dustman" were distributed by Astral Music Sales. Around 1963, distribution shifted to Allied Record Corporation. In 1968 distribution shifted to Phonodisc. (including the US labels that issued records by the artists during the time they were on Pye) Other artists who recorded for Pye during their careers include Jimmy Young , Dickie Valentine , Russ Conway , Emile Ford , Val Doonican , Jackie Trent , Tony Hatch and Tony Hancock . Lonnie Donegan Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002)

2550-504: The Rolling Stones . He had cardiac problems since the 1970s and several heart attacks. Mark Knopfler released a tribute to Lonnie Donegan titled "Donegan's Gone" on his 2004 album, Shangri-La , and said he was one of his greatest influences. Donegan's music formed a musical starring his two sons. Lonnie D – The Musical took its name from the Chas & Dave tribute song which started

2635-597: The Style " single was number one in the UK in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney . His Skiffle rendition of Hank Snow's Country song " Nobody's Child " was also the inspiration for Tony Sheridan 's blues version which he recorded with the Beatles as his backing band. Donegan went on to successes such as " Cumberland Gap " and " Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight?) ", his biggest hit in

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2720-533: The Style ", and " The House of the Rising Sun " by listening to BBC radio broadcasts. By the end of the 1940s he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs. Donegan first played in a major band after Chris Barber heard that he was a good banjo player and, on a train, asked him to audition. Donegan had never played the banjo but he bought one for the audition and succeeded more on personality than talent. His stint with Barber's trad jazz band

2805-552: The UK. These were designed for playback in 4-channel quadraphonic sound. The records were encoded in the QS Regular Matrix system which was licensed from Sansui in Japan. Pye also marketed its own line of consumer electronics used for decoding quadraphonic records. These products were not especially successful. The last LP release in this series was in 1977. When the rights to the name Pye (then owned by Philips ) expired in 1980,

2890-599: The US mostly on labels that they distributed in the UK: the Kinks to Cameo Records and then to Reprise Records , David Bowie , the Sorrows and Petula Clark to Warner Bros. Records , Donovan to Hickory Records , the Searchers to Mercury Records , Liberty Records , and finally Kapp Records , and Status Quo to Chess Records (which issued their records on their newly created Cadet Concept Records label). From 1969 to 1971, Pye

2975-556: The US, on Dot . He turned to music hall style with " My Old Man's a Dustman " which was not well received by skiffle fans and unsuccessful in America on Atlantic in 1960, but it reached number one in the UK. Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally Denny Wright or Les Bennetts, playing lead guitar and singing harmony, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett—later Steve Jones—on upright bass , Nick Nichols—later Pete Appleby, Mark Goodwin, and Ken Rodway on drums or percussion, and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing

3060-574: The United States and had quadruple bypass surgery. He returned to attention in 1978 when he recorded his early songs with Rory Gallagher , Ringo Starr , Elton John , and Brian May . The album was called Putting on the Style . A follow-up featuring Albert Lee saw Donegan in less familiar country and western vein. By 1980, he was making regular concert appearances again, and another album with Barber followed. In 1983, Donegan toured with Billie Jo Spears , and in 1984 he made his theatrical debut in

3145-688: The United States on the Perry Como Show and the Paul Winchell Show . Returning to the UK, he recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase , in summer 1956, with songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr , plus " Ramblin' Man " and " Wabash Cannonball ". The LP sold hundreds of thousands. The skiffle style encouraged amateurs and one of many groups that followed was the Quarrymen , formed in March 1957 by John Lennon . Donegan's " Gamblin' Man "/" Puttin' On

3230-614: The United States. The Acoustic Music organisation made this comment about Donegan's "Rock Island Line": "It flew up the English charts. Donegan had synthesized American southern blues with simple acoustic instruments: acoustic guitar, washtub bass, and washboard rhythm. The new style was called 'Skiffle'.... and referred to music from people with little money for instruments. The new style captivated an entire generation of post-war youth in England." His next single for Decca , "Diggin' My Potatoes",

3315-496: The United States. Such machines appeared in some European electronic-music studios by 1954. Early attempts to reproduce four channel sound for home playback began with audio laboratory engineers in the late 1960s. Producer Thomas Mowrey, initially working at the Eastman School of Music , was one of the pioneers of classical quadraphonic recording. He later made quadraphonic productions for Deutsche Grammophon and other labels in

3400-461: The audible range and uses the difference channels to separate rear audio information from the main channels. Because the CD-4 system maintains four independent signals throughout the process it can accurately reconstruct the intended four channel sound field. UD-4/UMX was developed by Nippon/Columbia ( Denon ). This is a hybrid discrete/matrix system. Only 35 to 40 items are encoded in this format and it

3485-466: The broader UK skiffle movement. Donegan had 31 UK top 30 hit singles , 24 were successive hits and three were number one. He was the first British male singer with two US top 10 hits. Donegan received an Ivor Novello lifetime achievement award in 1995 and in 2000 he was made an MBE . Donegan was a pivotal figure in the British Invasion due to his influence in the US in the late 1950s. Donegan

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3570-548: The channels at a time. The last release in the quadraphonic 8-track format was in 1978, although most had stopped appearing by the end of 1976. There were some experiments done with radio broadcasts (e.g., a Cliff Richard concert by the BBC , whose earliest quadraphonic broadcast was in July 1974 ), but they were short-lived. One of the longest-lived radio broadcasts was WQSR -FM "Quad 102½" in Sarasota, Florida . Throughout most of

3655-444: The company. Pye Nixa became Pye Records in 1959, and ATV acquired 50% of the label. ATV bought the other half of the business in 1966. Under the management of Louis Benjamin , the company entered the budget-priced album market in 1957, reissuing older Pye material on Pye Golden Guinea Records , priced at a guinea (one pound and one shilling). A series of classical recordings was released on Golden Guinea Collector; for example,

3740-520: The earlier hardware technologies. All of the multichannel audio systems in common use today are digital systems. Digital multichannel audio has been available for the home since the introduction of surround sound movies in the 1990s using Dolby Digital and DTS. The most common digital media capable of reproducing surround sound music today are Super Audio CD, DVD, and Blu-ray, all of which are capable of playing high-resolution audio with multiple channels. The audio mixing process for four channel sound

3825-456: The early 1970s, but many of these were released only as stereo recordings. A small number of quadraphonic recordings were introduced to the American consumer market by Vanguard Records in June 1969 on reel-to-reel tape. The most popular medium used to market recordings to the public during the 1970s was the vinyl LP phonograph record . Quadraphonic recordings on 8-track tape were also popular in

3910-430: The highly realistic effect of a three-dimensional live concert hall experience in the home. It can also be used to enhance the listener experience beyond the directional limitations of ordinary two channel stereo sound. Quadraphonic audio was the earliest consumer product in surround sound. Since it was introduced to the public in the early 1970s many thousands of quadraphonic recordings have been made. Quadraphonic sound

3995-640: The label changed its name to PRT, which stood for Precision Records and Tapes, via a brief flirtation with Precision. At that time, it had sub-labels such as Fanfare Records , a late 1980s and early 1990s UK-based Hi-NRG label issuing records by Sinitta ; R&B Records , a 1980s disco/electro label featuring Imagination ; and Splash Records, which featured Jigsaw and the Richard Hewson Orchestra/RAH Band . PRT provided manufacturing and distribution for Gary Numan 's label Numa Records, founded in 1984, which went on to release two dozen singles by

4080-556: The label's catalogue from 2007 to 2013, controls the catalogue of reissues from Pye/PRT artists' releases on Sanctuary's behalf after BMG assigned UMG to distribute them in October 2023. Previously, it was distributed by Warner Music Group through its Alternative Distribution Alliance division from 2017 to 2023. WMG owns Pye's American former distributors Warner Records (formerly Warner Bros. Records) and Reprise Records . With its acquisition of EMI Classics' catalogue in 2013, WMG now owns

4165-507: The lead. His last hit single on the UK chart was his cover version of " Pick a Bale of Cotton ." His fall from the chart coincided with the rise of The Beatles and the other beat music performers whom he inspired. Donegan recorded sporadically during the 1960s, including sessions at Hickory Records in Nashville with Charlie McCoy , Floyd Cramer , and the Jordanaires . After 1964 he

4250-436: The listener. Quadraphonic audio reproduction on vinyl phonograph records was problematic. As technologies advanced rapidly during the 1970s several different solutions were proposed to reproduce four channel sound from LPs. Some of these systems were much more successful than others. The simplest systems were "derived" (2–2–4) formats. These were soon followed by much more sophisticated "matrix" (4–2–4) formats, and finally, by

4335-410: The main channels. The difference signals are encoded in ultrasonic carrier frequencies in the range of 30 kHz, which is above the audible range. CD-4 requires a specialized phono cartridge with a "Shibata" stylus to read these additional high frequencies. The combined signals are then sent to a special demodulator for four channel decoding. The demodulator converts the ultrasonic signals back into

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4420-445: The most advanced "discrete" (4–4–4) formats. Derived (2–2–4) formats are simple and inexpensive electronic solutions that add or extract rear "ambience" or "reverberation" sound channels from stereo records i.e., studio reverb, audience applause, etc. There is no precise placement of individual instruments in the rear channels. With matrix formats four channels are converted (encoded) down to two channels. These are then passed through

4505-483: The original Chris Barber band for a concert in Croydon in June 1975. A bomb scare meant that the recording had to be finished in the studio, after an impromptu concert in the car park. The release was titled The Great Re-Union Album . He collaborated with Rory Gallagher on several songs, notably "Rock Island Line" with Gallagher performing most of the elaborate guitar work. He had his first heart attack in 1976 while in

4590-401: The original four sound channels. But with poor decode performance, these systems failed to match the accuracy or channel independence of later matrix formats. The original systems (DY and EV-4) suffered from low front left-right separation (around 12 dB) and a poor rear left-right separation of 2 dB. The decoders were designed more to give an effect rather than accurate decoding, which

4675-465: The original four sound channels. The QS system debuted in the United States in March 1971 and was improved by their Vario-Matrix system in 1973. The second, SQ , was developed and marketed by Columbia Records and Sony and entered the US market in April 1971. The SQ format was also used by companies such as EMI in Great Britain, who pressed several SQ album releases. The sound separation of

4760-415: The public. Discrete reproduction describes a quadraphonic system in which all four channels are fully independent of each other. As its name suggests, with discrete formats the original four audio channels are passed through a four-channel transmission medium and presented to a four-channel reproduction system and fed to four speakers. This is defined as a 4–4–4 system. Discrete phonograph systems use

4845-516: The rear channels that are of equal importance to the front channels. It can expand on the listener's sense of direction and spaciousness in a way similar to what happened when recording engineers introduced stereo recording. In some four channel recordings sounds move in full rotation around the listener. Mixing engineers can also aim for a hybrid effect between styles. While quadraphonic effects have sometimes been considered artificial, musical enjoyment can be dramatically enhanced by more fully involving

4930-450: The rear speakers should be of the same quality or almost the same quality as the front speakers; ideally, a quadraphonic system uses four identical speakers. The first machines used for 4-channel sound recording were analog reel-to-reel tape recorders. These were developed for use by audio engineers in professional studios during the 1950s in Germany by Telefunken and also by Ampex in

5015-411: The record. Matrix systems can have a significant level of channel independence but not full channel separation. Matrix quadraphonic recordings can be played in two channels on conventional stereo record players. There are varying levels of stereo and mono compatibility in these systems. The term compatible indicates that: This 4:2:4 process could not be accomplished without some information loss. That

5100-596: The recordings of the former's daughter, Petula Clark. Pye merged it with Nixa Records to form Pye Nixa Records . In 1958, Pye International Records was established. The company licensed recordings from American and other foreign labels for the United Kingdom market, including Chess , Disques Vogue (France), A&M , Kama Sutra , Colpix , Warner Bros. , Buddah , Cameo , 20th Century , Casablanca Record and Filmworks and King . It also released recordings from British artist Labi Siffre which were produced outside

5185-564: The show. Subsequently, Peter Donegan formed a band to perform his father's material and has since linked with his father's band from the last 30 years with newcomer Eddie Masters on bass. They made an album together in 2009 titled Here We Go Again . Lonnie Donegan's eldest son, Anthony, also formed his own band, as Lonnie Donegan Junior, who also performed "World Cup Willie" for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. On his album A Beach Full of Shells , Al Stewart paid tribute to Donegan in

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5270-476: The song "Katherine of Oregon". In "Class of '58" he describes a British entertainer who is either Donegan or a composite including him. In a 2023 video interview with Steve Houk, Stewart described 'Rock Island Line' as a record "that completely changed the complexion of English society, and changed my life and everybody else's". Peter Sellers recorded Puttin' on the Smile featuring "Lenny Goonagain", who travels to

5355-513: The speakers. Some live concert recordings of popular music have also been mixed this way. Classical recordings rarely place primary or solo instruments in the rear channels, though it is done occasionally. A few classical recordings have been made from a perspective in which the listener seems to be seated in the middle of the orchestra. One example is the 1973 Columbia Masterworks recording of Béla Bartók 's Concerto for Orchestra , conducted by Pierre Boulez . The original four channel recording

5440-407: The tape running in the same direction. Pre-recorded four channel reel-to-reel tapes were recorded at 7 1 ⁄ 2 inches per second (IPS), which is the fastest speed used for consumer grade reel-to-reel machines. By comparison stereo pre-recorded reel-to-reel tapes have 2 different programs with each running the opposite direction. Many stereo tapes were recorded at only 3 3 ⁄ 4 IPS, which

5525-553: The time, Prelude ; its initial LP and 45 catalogue series were carried over from the ill-fated American Pye label (with the catalogue prefix changed from PYE- to PRL-), and Prelude had a string of disco and dance music hits into the early 1980s. Whilst Pye did not have its own operations in Canada, it arranged with Canadian record companies to issue Pye recordings on the Pye label in Canada. Before then, Quality Records issued Pye recordings on

5610-413: The two main leaders were Columbia 's SQ and Sansui 's QS systems. The three most popular quadraphonic LP formats in the 1970s were SQ (Stereo Quadraphonic) , QS (Regular Matrix) and CD-4 (Compatible Discrete 4) / Quadradisc . The Japanese governing body and audio hardware manufacturers defined standards for quadraphonic sound. RM ( Regular Matrix ) was used a synonym for QS, QM ( Quadraphonic Matrix

5695-491: Was This Yere de Story . Peter Donegan started touring as his father's pianist when he was aged 18. In 2019, Peter appeared on the show The Voice as a contestant, and duetted with Tom Jones with the song " I'll Never Fall in Love Again ". Anthony Donegan also performs under the name, Lonnie Donegan Jr. Donegan married three times. He had two daughters (Fiona and Corrina) with his first wife, Maureen Tyler (divorced 1962),

5780-512: Was a British skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the " King of Skiffle ", who influenced 1960s British pop and rock musicians. Born in Scotland and brought up in England, Donegan began his career in the British trad jazz revival but transitioned to skiffle in the mid-1950s, rising to prominence with a hit recording of the American folk song " Rock Island Line " which helped spur

5865-409: Was a co-owner with GRT (General Recorded Tape) of Janus Records , which at the outset served as the US label for such Pye acts as Jefferson, Sounds Orchestral , Pickettywitch , Mungo Jerry and Status Quo, and also re-issued the early (pre-1966) recordings of Donovan. Pye sold its share of Janus back to GRT in 1971. In 1972, Bell Records set up a short-lived Pye label, featuring Michel Pagliaro ,

5950-589: Was a commercial failure when first introduced due to a variety of technical issues and format incompatibilities. Four channel audio formats can be more expensive to produce than standard two-channel stereo. Playback requires additional speakers and amplifier channels. It may also require specially designed decoding equipment. The introduction of home cinema products in the 1990s were first intended for movie sound, but also brought multi-channel music reproduction into popularity again. By this time new digitally based formats had been created. Many four channel recordings from

6035-512: Was a record producer for most of the decade at Pye Records. Justin Hayward was one of the artists with whom he worked. Donegan was not popular through the late 1960s and 1970s (although his " I'll Never Fall in Love Again " was recorded by Tom Jones in 1967 and Elvis Presley in 1976), and he began to play the American cabaret circuit. A departure from his normal style was an a cappella recording of " The Party's Over ". Donegan reunited with

6120-485: Was almost identical in appearance to stereo 8-tracks, except for a small sensing notch in the upper left corner of the cartridge. This signaled a quadraphonic 8-track player to combine the odd tracks as audio channels for program 1, and the even tracks as channels for program 2. The format was not backward-compatible with stereo or mono players; although quadraphonic players would play stereo 8-tracks, playing quadraphonic tapes on stereo players resulted in hearing only one-half

6205-423: Was best known for artistes such as Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherhood of Man (1975–1979). The label changed its name to PRT Records (distributing as Precision Records & Tapes ) in 1980, before being briefly reactivated as Pye Records in 2006. In September 2024, Pye

6290-794: Was born in Bridgeton, Glasgow , Scotland, on 29 April 1931. He was the son of an Irish mother (Mary Josephine Deighan) and a Scots father (Peter John Donegan), a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra . In 1933, when Donegan was aged 2, the family moved to East Ham in Essex . Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire to escape the Blitz in the Second World War and attended St Ambrose College in Hale Barns . He lived for

6375-637: Was devised by the Japanese JVC Corporation along with its US counterpart RCA Records . This quadraphonic format was first marketed in the United States in May 1972. A fully discrete system, it eschewed matrix technologies in favor of a method similar to the encoding of stereo FM broadcasts. With stereo records, the system uses 2 main left and right audio channels, and this is what allows CD-4 to maintain compatibility with conventional stereo playback. CD-4 also adds 2 additional "difference" audio channels to

6460-458: Was intended by the producer or recording engineer. Improved systems based on Peter Scheiber 's work on utilizing 90-degree phase-shift circuitry came later, namely the QS and SQ systems. The first of these, known as QS , was developed by Sansui Electric . A so-called matrix format, it utilized four sound channels, which were "encoded" into two stereo album tracks. These were then "decoded" into

6545-606: Was interrupted when he was called up for National Service in 1949, but while in the army at Southampton , he was the drummer in Ken Grinyer's Wolverines Jazz Band at a local pub. A posting to Vienna brought him into contact with American troops , and access to US records and the American Forces Network radio station. In 1952, he formed the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which played around London. On 28 June 1952 at

6630-454: Was mainly due to limitations in both systems. Since both systems were very closely related mathematically, users only needed one decoder of either system to playback albums of both systems. The differences between the early and late matrix systems were so vast, it made decoding DY/EV-4 with either SQ or QS decoders with accuracy impossible; the results often being a "smeared" or poorly defined sound stage, which could be vastly different from what

6715-764: Was marketed only in the UK, Europe, and Japan. The short-lived system suffered from incompatibility with regular stereo playback due to phase differences between the left and right channels. UD-4 was less critical in its setup than CD-4 because the carriers did not have to handle frequencies as high as those found in the CD-4 system. Quadraphonic systems based on tape were also introduced, based on new equipment capable of playing four discrete channels. These recordings are all discrete 4–4–4 recordings released in reel-to-reel and 8-track cartridge formats. Specially designed four channel machines were required to play these recordings. They are not compatible with stereo players. In these systems all four available tracks were recorded on

6800-523: Was reactivated by Sanctuary Records as an indie and alternative label, featuring artists such as Scottish alternative rock group Idlewild . However, plans for continued usage of the Pye name were abandoned when Universal Music Group bought Sanctuary in 2007. To fulfil conditions imposed by the European Commission following UMG's acquisition of EMI in 2012, Universal sold Sanctuary to BMG Rights Management in 2013. Universal Music Group, which owned

6885-681: Was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954. Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI 's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band, and by spring 1955, signed a recording contract with Pye . His next single "Lost John" reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart . He appeared on television in

6970-567: Was relaunched by Currie, using a wind-powered pressing plant in Edinburgh to press its vinyl. The Pye Company originally manufactured televisions and radios with its main plant situated off what used to be Haig Road, in Cambridge . The company entered the record business when it bought Nixa Records in 1953. In 1955, the company acquired Polygon Records , a label that had been established by Leslie Clark and Alan A. Freeman to control distribution of

7055-486: Was released on matrix LP and 8-track tape, and reissued on the Super Audio CD format by Dutton Vocalion in 2018. Notes supplied with the recording indicate the direction from which each group of instruments can be heard. Pop, rock and jazz music producers have tended to employ a mixing style with a relatively high degree of musical separation between the four channels. This type of recording may place musical sounds in

7140-550: Was sold to another record manufacturer, Meekland. Most of the masters of PRT's catalogue (except classical music catalogue) were sold to Castle Communications , which eventually became Sanctuary Records (now a division of BMG Rights Management ). Precision Records & Tapes Ltd, formerly Pye Records Ltd, was officially liquidated in December 2013. At the same time, EMI acquired masters of PRT's classical music catalogue and assigned them to EMI Classics . In July 2006, Pye Records

7225-688: Was used for Stereo-4 and Dynaquad ) and QX ( QuadXtra , based on D.H. Cooper "Dual-Triphonic") for UD4 . With Scheiber and Martin Willcocks, Jim Fosgate developed the Tate II 101 SQ decoder, which produced a very accurate sound field by using gain riding and the Haas effect to mask decoding artifacts. It used custom, hand-assembled and ‑calibrated circuitry with components sorted to 1%, for exact performance. Sansui's QSD-series decoders and QRX-series receivers were very good, even synthesizing left-right stereo into

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