Thanks for your patience. I have been working on my new album "BACK FOREVER" for quite a while now, I am happy to announce that it is ready for the public.
I will be uploading singles and posting information about the songs all week. Blogging about it, and where to purchase the CD online. Thanks much..
Reply
Decca sets up its Decca West Africa subsidiary in Ghana, releasing over 20 records in local languages in the first year. By 1952 they had released over 100 78s and had Ghanaian artists like E.T. Mensah, the Black Beats, Onyina, the Builders Brigade, Broadway, the Red Spots and Gyasi’s guitar band on their roster, plus performers from Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
In the 50s Decca set up a recording studio in Accra and was sending engineers to Lagos regularly to record. By the early 1960s Decca West Africa was selling 250,000 records a year.
With the collapse in the Ghana economy in the 1970s, Decca moved its West Africa operations to oil-rich Nigeria, setting up a studio in Lagos and a sister label, Afrodisia, managed and part-owned by oil tycoon (and later presidential candidate) Chief Moshood Abiola. When Decca fell apart in 1979 and got taken over by Polygram, the rights to the West Africa catalogue were sold to Afrodisia.
Scroll down for an E.T. Mensah track issued on the Decca West Africa label in 1953.
Courtesy: folkcatalogue's blog
Reply
Mighty Star / Blog
Album News
Thanks for your patience. I have been working on my new album "BACK FOREVER" for quite a while now, I am happy to announce that it is ready for the public.
I will be uploading singles and posting information about the songs all week. Blogging about it, and where to purchase the CD online. Thanks much..
Reply
1947: Decca in Africa
Decca sets up its Decca West Africa subsidiary in Ghana, releasing over 20 records in local languages in the first year. By 1952 they had released over 100 78s and had Ghanaian artists like E.T. Mensah, the Black Beats, Onyina, the Builders Brigade, Broadway, the Red Spots and Gyasi’s guitar band on their roster, plus performers from Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
In the 50s Decca set up a recording studio in Accra and was sending engineers to Lagos regularly to record. By the early 1960s Decca West Africa was selling 250,000 records a year.
With the collapse in the Ghana economy in the 1970s, Decca moved its West Africa operations to oil-rich Nigeria, setting up a studio in Lagos and a sister label, Afrodisia, managed and part-owned by oil tycoon (and later presidential candidate) Chief Moshood Abiola. When Decca fell apart in 1979 and got taken over by Polygram, the rights to the West Africa catalogue were sold to Afrodisia.
Scroll down for an E.T. Mensah track issued on the Decca West Africa label in 1953.
Courtesy: folkcatalogue's blog
Reply
I spent most of my youthful days at the Decca studio in Accra at the time. My father was the executive producer, managing all the productions and the record releases and distribution for Decca and Philips records of West Africa.. I enjoyed my days watching all the activities taking place in the studios.