Blue Horizon
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Blue Horizon was a British blues record label founded by Mike Vernon in the early sixties.
It started as a mail order fanzine under the label Purdah with just four 7" single releases by British Blues artists, notably Bernard Jenkins b/w Lonely years by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton . There are thought to be only 99 releases of each - limited apparently, to avoid purchase tax - although there is a widely held view that there are 500 pressings of the Mayall/Clapton single.
The next incarnations were the orange label Outasite and first series Blue Horizon white label featuring licensed work by pukka US blues artists. Mainly singles there are thought to be a handful of now-unobtainable albums by Dr.Ross and others.
A licensing and distribution deal with CBS heralded the glory years of the label; starting with two 7" singles with combined CBS /Blue Horizon stamps featuring Fleetwood Mac and Aynsley Dunbar there followed a string of singles and albums by both British and US blues artists, both licensed and recorded. Some releases featured Mike Vernon produced recordings of US artists like Otis Spann and Champion Jack Dupree and were backed by the cream of the British Blues scene including such luminaries as Peter Green, Rory Gallagher, Paul Kossoff, Stan Webb, Pete Wingfield and Duster Bennett
The label produced chart single hits for Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack and a string of albums in imaginative gatefold sleeves
The distinctive blue label singles eventually gave way to red and then no-centre white labels as the blues boom died away.
Although the label ceased production around 1971, all the titles are still highly collectible. Later vinyl re-releases by both Sire and Line kept the flame alive but CD product was very limited until Mike Vernon himself re-emerged in the 21st Century to remaster the best material and finally do justice to the Blue Horizon legacy
