GI Records (2)

GI was a record shop in Edinburgh, I think it was 26b Raeburn Place and later 37-39 Cockburn Street. GI Records was its inhouse label. It reissued a few sought-after beat and prog albums of the '60s and '70s in very anonymous editions. An album like The Roulettes' Stakes And Chips on Parlophone was fabulously expensive in the 1970s and 1980s (and still fetches a pretty penny today) so a reissue probably did quite well for them. Wether they had access to the mastertapes, who knows. As far as I the vinyl was very thin.

They seemed to be able to license the music, but not the artwork. Seems strange if true. Or maybe they just reissued them unofficially and assumed if there was no artwork then folk would be less likely to recognise them. The shop closed in 84 or 85.

At one time I had quite a few of these reissues including High Tide, Third Ear Band and Roulettes. Now I only have the Battered Ornaments 'Mantlepiece' which I got autographed by Pete Brown when I interviewed him around 1990. One good thing about these plain white sleeves - plenty of room for a good signature.