help identifying UK EMI record label font

[laptopsmurf]

hi all

This is my first post, as i've been looking for the name of this font for years. Basically it is the font which was used on UK EMI distributed record labels (such as Columbia, HMV, Tamla Motown, Parlophone) in the early and mid 1960s. It was used on the record title, artist and catalogue no. (i.e TMG 501/R 5160 in the examples here), and is often described in record collecting texts as the "tall thin type" (as opposed to shorter, fatter type that EMI used in the late 1960s). Any ideas of its name and if it's avilable to download?

Thanks for any help,

Mac

[Riccardo Sartori]

It looks like a cut of Helvetica Compressed, but some details are different from the available digital cuts.

[Untiltheen]

Hello! I believe it is Trade Gothic, either No 18 or No 20 (likely the latter).

[Riccardo Sartori]

12 hours ago, Untiltheen said:

I believe it is Trade Gothic

Unfortunately, the leg of |R| doesn’t match (the request was for titles and artists).

[Untiltheen]

Yes, but I believe the designers of the labels at the time used Letraset transfer characters, in which case it could very well have been a mix of Trade Gothic and Helvetica Condensed (or even something else---whatever was available). Several of the characters are an exact match for Trade Gothic, and do not match Helvetica Condensed, while other characters do look like Helvetica Condensed.

[Kevin Thompson]

I thought I had solved a similar question on the fontid.co forum, but I can’t locate the post at the moment.

Given the age (1960s), geographic location (UK), and characteristics of the letters (the overbite lowercase r), the type is likely a mix of Grotesques by Stephenson Blake. Unfortunately, not all weights and widths have survived into the digital age. Bureau Grot was inspired by those typefaces, and may work as substitute for recreating the look.

EDIT: Ah, the post was on the WhatTheFont forum, for one of the exact same labels.

[laptopsmurf]

Hi again

thanks for your help and input folks - I've downloaded the ones suggested - it looks like Trade Gothic and Bureau bold are the closest, so i'll try them. Kevin - that was also me on the WhatTheFont forum, with a different example of the same font - I was getting desperate, so thanks again.

best

Mac