Ember Records (UK label)

Ember Records was a British independent record label established by Jeffrey Kruger.

In the late 1950s, the eccentric avid jazz fan Jeffrey Kruger, owner of the famous Flamingo Jazz Club, was looking for a new challenge. At the time, the British music industry was largely dominated by four major record companies (EMI, Decca, Pye and Philips) who, thanks to the lack of a national popular music radio station, found it easy to dominate the airwaves by buying slots on Radio Luxembourg. Therefore, the only way independent record labels could achieve success was by concentrating on specialist genres.

Kruger realised that considerable success could be gained if, rather than focusing on one specific musical genre, he instead focused on a plethora of them. Releases under the jazz, pop, R&B, beat, soul, rockabilly, and other genres followed and Kruger started to establish Ember as a major independent force in the UK. As Kruger explained:

I had the publishing on a Continental hit called ‘Banjo Boy’ sung by Jan & Kjeld, two teenage Danish boys. I got it covered by several artists but my contract stipulated that I had to secure a British release for the original version. None of the majors would touch it so I designed labels myself, had 250 45rpm singles pressed on a converted button press in Dagenham, and my Ember label was born. I didn’t know how you were supposed to distribute records so I drove round dozens of independent record shops selling them myself. Then I went down to BBC radio who reluctantly agreed to give it some airplay, and before I knew it distributors around the country were phoning me for copies of the single and we had a Top 40 hit.

The first major achievement and breakthrough for the label came when Kruger realised the British music fan's thirst for American music, and though the five major labels dominated the best licensing deals the US had to offer, some hot American independents did not yet have a presence. Kruger flew out to the US and did deals with, amongst others, 20th Century Fox (a major coup for an independent at the time), Sam Phillips, Harry Simeone Chorale’s ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ label and Syd Nathan, boss of King and Federal Records in Ohio.

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