Harvest Records

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Lore & Background

In the 1970s, Harvest primarily released recordings by British rock acts including Pink Floyd, Roy Wood, Michael Chapman, and Barclay James Harvest. It also featured Bill Nelson's Be Bop Deluxe. Notable exceptions to the British roster included Australian progressive bands Spectrum and their successor Ariel, both of whom had their first two LPs issued on the label. Between 1972 and 1974, Danish musician Sebastian released three albums in Denmark under Harvest. As the decade closed, the focus shifted with the release of The Roxy London WC2 (Jan – Apr 77), a compilation produced by Mike Thorne featuring unknown punk rock bands that became a huge success.

In Their Own Story

In the United States, Capitol initially treated Harvest as a separate label expecting big sales, but after only a few issues yielded few sales, they issued very few releases. Consequently, they numbered them within their standard Capitol LP series, mostly using Harvest specifically for Pink Floyd releases. After this initial short-lived series, Capitol passed on most of the UK Harvest artists. In 1975, a reissue sub-label called Harvest Heritage launched to compile material released from 1969 onward, though it also reissued late 1960s EMI bands like the Gods and Love Sculpture that never recorded for Harvest. Later, new wave artist Thomas Dolby and Duran Duran released their debut and first two albums respectively in North America on the label.

Reader's Guide

Harvest functioned as the European licensee for Blue Thumb Records from 1969 to 1971 before focusing on its own roster. Pink Floyd switched to Columbia Records in the US after The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, though Iron Maiden's first three albums were later released in the US by Harvest. Following Universal Music's takeover of EMI, most of the European back catalogue including Pink Floyd was divested as part of the Parlophone Label Group. Warner Music Group bought this catalog in February 2013. Sony Music controls the Pink Floyd catalog through Columbia Records since its full acquisition in 2024. From 2016 to 2024, former members licensed the catalog for manufacture and distribution by Warner Music Group for UK/European markets and Sony Music Entertainment for North America via their company named Pink Floyd Records.

Did You Know?

• Harvest was created to compete with Philips' Vertigo, Decca's Deram, and the independent Island label.
• Australian bands Spectrum and Ariel both released their first two LPs on Harvest despite being non-British acts.
• The label launched a reissue sub-label in 1975 called Harvest Heritage, which primarily drew from Harvest's own catalog rather than serving as a general EMI reissue line.
• Pink Floyd's US distribution moved from Capitol to Columbia starting with Animals (1977), though Wish You Were Here was the first Pink Floyd album distributed by Columbia in some regions.
• Harvest released a compilation album titled The Roxy London WC2 (Jan – Apr 77) featuring unknown punk rock bands produced by Mike Thorne.