City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society (CLPGS)
Without question, anyone interested in early British sound recordings, and the phonographs (cylinder machines) and gramophones (disc machines) upon which they were – and still are -played, should join the City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society. This is, de facto, the British National Society for such things. It has existed for over 100 years, and the quality, quantity and range of its publications on these matters is almost certainly the largest in the world. The annual subscription is modest, and a quarterly magazine is published. You can easily join the CLPGS on its website, and subscribe by PayPal. Just click on the link below:
Mike Thomas
An indispensable website for dealing with ALL British 78 rpm records – as opposed to the early, mechanically recorded (acoustic) era, which is all we deal with on this site – is that of my old friend Mike Thomas. Not only does he cover the whole era of 78s, right up to the 1960s & beyond, he also has many extensive label listings, particularly those of labels not covered by the CLPGS publications.
Golden Mystics of Old Time Music
Just recently, we got a call from a website called Golden Mystics of Old Time Music. Based in the U.S., they thought that early78s.uk was quite interesting, so kindly put a link to us, on their site. So of course I went to look at their site, and it is indeed excellent. It covers retro swing, jazz, C&W, with audio, written articles, and much else. Besides that, the design & artwork of the site is gloriously lavish – and has a significant tinge of actual mysticism in the images & illustrations. And why not? Early sound recordings enable us to listen to voices and music by people who were born nearly 200 years ago – and if that isn’t mystic, I don’t know what is.