78rpm records often had florid labels as a way of drawing attention to themselves in shops - there were no illustrated records sleeves, just brown paper cases with a cut-out to show the label and sometimes an advertisement. This is a typical example - it's noticeable that it's often the small labels which had the most complicated designs. Pathe was a French firm but opened operations in Britain after the First World War: their trademark cockerel (familiar from their films) can be seen at the top. The recording is of the music-hall artist Lily Morris singing a little-known song, 'Don't Leave Me'. The record is quite noisy, but I have cleaned it up as best I can. It was recorded in London around October 1923. The recording lasts 3m 16s and the file size is 2.2MB |