The Winner

[rev_slider The_Winner_UK]

United Kingdom-based record label The Winner was founded 1912.

Its records were manufactured by the Edison Bell Record Works, London. This company, founded by James Hough, had originated in the early 1890s as an importer of Edison and Columbia cylinder phonographs; from 1898 Hough had also made cylinder records, initially using a separate company, Edisonia.

When Edison set up his own European operation in 1904 the import franchise was withdrawn, but the name Edison-Bell remained in use. From 1909 the official name of Edison-Bell was J. E. Hough Ltd.

Winner records, with black or red labels, were mostly of a popular type, although they included some items of musical distinction.

In the early 1920s the company introduced a higher-quality series, Velvet Face Records (so called because the material of which they were made was allegedly smoother than that used by other manufacturers). These had green labels, and the catalogue included some ambitious items.

The Winner records were extremely popular and sold in their millions for twenty years, but competition from other cheaper labels such as Eclipse (sixpence) drove the company out of business in 1935.

Winner Release Dates

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[tab title="1912 - 1919"]

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[tab title="1920 - 1929"]

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[tab title="1930 - 1935"]

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Source: The 78rpm Community