Decca Records X V&A

The 90th anniversary is really important because Decca hasn’t celebrated an anniversary for many years, and it’s only been really within the last 10 years that Decca really has found its feet again, not that they were ever lost but adjustments needed to be made. Founded in 1929 by a Stockbroker called Edward Lewis who was not a music man by name, but loved music and he bought a company which were producing Grammarphones at the time, but not the records to play on them. Records were a big thing back then so he thought ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a company that makes the Grammarphones and the records to put on them?’ Founded 90 years ago and has been going ever since really, just a few years younger than the queen aha.

I think every era has been very iconic for Decca for different reasons. I think a lot of Pop and Rock fans think of the ’60s because that is the decade that is synonymous with the growth of that decade. Now being a part of the Spotify/Apple music generation who listens back to those memorable days with adverts and films, it still has a currency. Moving from The Rolling Stones to Tom Jones who is now on The Voice and then into the Rock era and more, those were all iconic eras really. Rock and the ’90s were probably the most prominent eras for Decca because we had Pavarotti and other extremely talented musicians that just led to classical and 90’s music to be more popular than pop!

We’re celebrating this all at the V&A and we have Sheku Kanneh-Mason playing the Chello for us, he was the fantastic young Cellist who played at Harry and Meghan’s wedding and Rhys Lewis who is an absolutely amazing singer-songwriter and Tom Ravenscroft who will be djing. We have an amazing collection of rare David Bowie promos from his time, Decca being shown on the big screen alongside beautiful Pavarotti artifacts, a village fate, talks, memorabilia and more! All lovely ways to celebrate the label’s achievement and success in music history over the past 90 years. We also have a book coming out about the label’s history which is coming out in July.

We have worked with the V&A in the past and we have a really lovely relationship with them, so they asked if we could be a part of their Performance Festival celebrating art and culture. In a way, Decca is not dissimilar to the V&A. If you go to the Science Museum, you know you are going to see Science related artwork, you know what you’re going to get. Whereas, the V&A has a lot of different elements in there. Is it a fashion museum? Science museum? Art museum? It has bits and bobs from everywhere and that’s why we think we fit in so well because they are not limited and fixed within their work. Two great British institutions, exporting around the world and collaborating together is a perfect date in my eyes.

Looking at the overview of Decca in 90 years, Decca is in the same place it has always been, slightly left of centre and it doesn’t have the Ariana Grande’s, but it does have legendary historic and organic talent that will probably never go. We are right on the cutting edge in a different way than other record labels. The great diversity that Decca has always had stays present through the raw and rare talent we find and work endlessly with.

My personal view is I think music has been viewed as overdone, as it’s so difficult to be heard above the noise and to be seen amongst the crowd. But you can still be caught and found, the youth have moved away from physically buying the artifacts but they still are listening to the music which keeps us flowing. Music is more alive than ever before in my opinion.