>> Expansion
bio: The very first releases on Expansion were through an original partnership of Richard Searling and John Anderson. In the beginning Expansion was distributed by a company called PRT which was based in London and were a division of Pye Records that put out Petula Clark records and the such like during the 60s. The head of PRT distribution was a rare and unusual species himself in that he was an old soul fan from Australia. His name was Matt Haywood, and among his other label acquisitions for the company at the time were Sugarhill, Becket (of Garfield Flemming and Archie Bell notoriety), Philly World, Doctor Jazz and Sound Of New York (which blessed us with Indeep's 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life'). They also had such British soul acts as Imagination and were enjoying some major success.
Expansion were to get a label manager in Dave Brooker (now at Rumour Records), and a sales person in Darren Ensom who remained a key person in the running of the label at its 'Skratch Music House' offices for some years. The Expansion legacy, however, pre-dates even the first 12" EXPAND 1 as Richard and John first began their label venture together as Grapevine Records. At the time John had access to new and unreleased soul gems through his many trips to the States buying up records for Soul Bowl in Kings Lynn, and Richard was working for RCA and so had the right connections to put records out. Grapevine was affiliated with RCA from 1977 to 1980 and is perhaps best remembered for the original UK issue of Leo's Sunshipp 'Give Me The Sunshine' on a 12". Others may argue that equally important were Carol Anderson's 'Sad Girl', Judy Street's 'What', and Al Williams' 'I Am Nothing'. The liaison ended when Richard was to leave RCA, but in 1984 a deal was struck with PRT and the Expansion legend was born with WQBC's 'Love You Anyway'.
All releases during this period came out on 12" vinyl only and were very popular. Records like James King's 'Memory' and Chas' 'For Your Love' were huge dance floor fillers as well becoming timeless classics for the label. There was also Charles & Gwen Scales (later to rejoin Expansion as Modern Tribe), General Crook, Andrew Barrax and others who 'stretched the boundaries of independent soul', hence the name Expansion Records, as coined by Richard Searling.
During this time Ralph Tee enjoyed a run at Blues & Soul as Assistant Editor with Bob Kilbourne, and then was poached by the 'Street Scene' to become Editor-In-Chief.
The Street Scene also featured a weekly soul column by Richard Searling, who Ralph had met some years before while publishing his own soul fanzine 'Groove Weekly' (1980-1982).
Ralph and Richard were to meet quite regularly after this, also DJ'ing together in some weird and wonderful places. Then Expansion Records the shop was to open, which again was originally a partnership between John and Richard (before being taken over by Dean Johnson). While Expansion was up and running through PRT, Ralph was working at Arista in black music a&r/marketing while re-issuing delights by Phyllis Hyman, Breakwater, and Don Blackman as a side line. He was even able to put 'How Could You Break My Heart' by Bobby Womack out on a 12", though Richard was integral to this event too on a special visit to London where they both sat in the Managing Director's office to put pressure on to do it.
A call eventually came from Richard Searling to Ralph Tee when Expansion's distribution agreement with PRT came to an end. PRT closed, and the label was effectively left with no one to take care of pressings and getting releases to the shops. A meeting was called, and Ralph drove one morning to Kings Lynn for a meeting with John and Richard.
From that day in 1989, Ralph became part of the team and there were immediately three releases to deal with. Ronnie McNeir had just delivered a new album, and there were a couple of singles to release. In these early days, and without any formal distribution, Ralph collected records from the pressing plant and drove round the major wholesalers selling them out the back of his car. But all of this was soon to change. During the time Ralph had been Editor of 'Mix Mag' (just prior to 'The Street Scene'), Gary Taylor had been to the UK and performed, believe it or not, at the 'Hippodrome' in Leicester Square. He was signed to Virgin at the time, and Ralph interviewed him when he came here to promote his album at the DMC DJ Convention.
Their meeting took place at the 'Halcyon Hotel' in Holland Park, a popular stop over booked by record companies for their visiting artists. After they spoke, Gary was told of Expansion and passed on Richard's details as at that time Ralph was not yet officially on board the label. The thought was maybe Gary may have some productions of his available, but it wasn't long before his manager rang Richard offering an actual Gary Taylor album.
The situation caused a bit of a rumble at Expansion HQ up at Kings Lynn because John Anderson felt the music was too mainstream for the label, and not really what they did. He was also totally opposed to the CD format saying it 'stifled creativity', and that any bonus tracks should be on the vinyl and not the CD (as was the trend at the time). Still, Richard and Ralph really wanted to go ahead with it and John reluctantly went along with it.
Ralph and Richard's vision at the time was that Expansion could be a front line label, still a soul label, but one that competed on parallel lines with the likes of your Sony, Warners, BMG and MCA. They did not have had recording facilities, so the focus was on working with companies and artists who already had the music but were looking for a great label to market and distribute it. Richard and Ralph had very clear ideas of where the parameters of the music would be on the label, and be contemporary without selling out. They could be the most purist if they wanted, but also make the charts with the right record. They could celebrate the past with quality re-issues, or be taste makers themselves with the newest of ideas by artists whose heart was in the music we loved.
Gary Taylor's album 'Take Control' was a definite turning point for the label. It was also the first release to carry the new Expansion logo from which our current logo is derived. However it wasn't long before John would leave Expansion and start up on his own under another name, Rare Grooves. And so it happened, in an amicable way, that Richard and Ralph would keep the Expansion name, but John would keep Ronnie McNeir as an artist. John would also keep the Expansion shop with Richard.
Ralph would soon take Expansion to Passion Music where the label was offered administraion and distribution, initially through Pinnacle and then Sony Music.
The situation was ideal, so the Expansion/Passion affiliation began just before Christmas 1990 - even though there were no releases for nearly a year. In the meantime Ralph took on additional a&r roles for Passion Music labels Debut, Jumpin' & Pumpin', Elevate, Passion Jazz etc.
Expansion scored some immediate success with Helen Baylor's 'Oasis', so with a little more confidence they began to pick up more singles, some more eclectic than others. With the demise of the singles market as an economic format, Expansion moved into compilations and ultimately artist albums through which they continue to deliver quality through to this day. For five consecutive years Expansion has been voted the UK's No.1 soul label by readers of Blues & Soul magazine.
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