Classics Club (record label)

Classics Club was a British record label active from 1956 to 1964, notable for pioneering low-cost classical music LPs sold directly to the public through a record club. It was founded by Marcel Rodd, who returned to London in 1955 after success in US mail-order publishing. Rodd established Allied Records Ltd, converting a disused chapel at 127 Kensal Road into a factory with lacquer cutting lathes and record presses. In October 1956, he licensed recordings from US companies Urania and the Concert Hall Society, registering Art & Sound Ltd to hold the tape rights.

A pseudonymous company, Record Sales Ltd, issued the LPs under the Classics Club label. The label first advertised in The Listener on 27 June 1957; its adverts were refused by Gramophone magazine, prompting a promotional letter in Truth magazine under the pseudonym “Dorothy Whistler. Critic Trevor Gee reviewed the discs, noting performances by artists with unfamiliar names, possibly pseudonyms, and a shallow, unbalanced recorded sound. Sleeve notes were initially compiled from reference books; after a subscriber complained, Frederick Youens took over writing them and also promoted the label at local gramophone societies.