Everest cronology

[recordchaser]

[Question]

Hello list,

I have been an Everest freak since the early 60's and still actively "hunt"
both the 2 trk open reel tapes and stereo Silver Back l.p.s.

Over the years I have become acquainted with all of the re-issue variants of the original Belock pressings. Most of the reissues have an address on the l.p.
label stating some L.A. location. Most but not entirely all of these variants
are grossly inferior to my 1st generation pressings and my P/C 2 nd generation
pressings.

I have long wanted to know who the California entity was that Harry Belock
sold his label to. And was the label sold again, again, again. In other words,
who produced each succeeding generation of Everest l.p.s. Does this explain
the continual degredation of the pressings?

I realize that I am in a very small minority of Everest lovers but Steve did do
some excellent reissues of a few Everest discs and I hope that this is indicitave of enough shared interest that someone in the L.A. area may know
or be able to find via the net the answers to my admittedly low priority
question.

Phil Samuelson [recordchaser]
samuelson@coast.net

[Steve Hoffman]

Hi Recordchaser!

I can give you a short account of the Everest story after H.B. sold out.

Bernie Soloman bought the label in the middle 1960's. He lives in LA and also at the same time bought the Hi-Fi/Arvee (Arthur Lyman, George Wright) and Period/Esoteric labels. RykoDisc owns a bunch of that stuff now.

Bernie has licensed the Everest Catalog to Omega Record Productions. Their web site is at: http://www.omegarecords.com/

They are issuing the best sounding Everest stuff to date.

The old Everest pressings? Well, here is the REAL DEAL. Read it and weep:

The first Belock pressings were mastered directly from the three-channel analog master or the three-channel 35mm fullcoat film.

When Belock started losing money (real quickly), he sold out, and the NEXT pressings were made from 2-track and mono mixes derived from the original three-channel recordings. These "Cutting Master Dubs" were all done at Radio Recorders in 1962, and boy, oh boy do they stink (the tapes I mean). The cuttings stunk too.

And so on, using COPIES of the COPIES of the three-channel tapes every time a new cutting was made.

It wasn't until I came along wanting to do some Everest LP's that Bernie broke out his vault key and unearthed the original three-channel tapes.

Most of the 35mm fullcoat mags were totally turned to vinagar, but the 1/2" tape seemed all right.

Omega is using these same great sounding tapes to do their SACD's and CD releases of the Everest catalogs.

Their Vaughn Williams 9th is amazing!

That help?

[FabFourFan]

Originally posted by Steve Hoffman
Hi Recordchaser!
I can give you a short account of the Everest story after H.B. sold out.
I say, is this the best forum in the world or what??? :)