Platina Records
Platina Records (Platina Skivor) was a Swedish independent record label founded in 1964 by businessman and songwriter Evert Jakobsson. The label saw great success throughout the mid-1960s with rock acts such as Tages, before turning to dansband music in the 1970s, gaining success with Flamingokvintetten and Thorleifs. After turning to pay to play in 1984, the label shut down in 1989. History 1960s During the early 1960s, Evert Jakobsson worked for Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF) as a computer technician. During his free time, he dreamed of becoming a teen idol, and as a result turned to music. He wrote two songs, "About Rita" and "You Sent Me A Rose", but unable to secure a recording contract, Jakobsson decided to register Platina Records as a company and almost immediately started pressing a batch of the single under the pseudonym Glenn Jackson and the Glentones. This was the first release on the record label but it failed to garner any major attention, both commercially and critically. This led to Jakobsson dropping his ambition to instead focus on running the label. Jakobsson almost immediately focused on the blossoming Gothenburg music scene that had many popular bands that were unsigned. Tages was a band that had been the victim of extreme popularity, but hadn't been approached by any record labels. He decided to contact their manager Lars Fryklund for a meeting shortly after their victory in the Västkusens Beatles contest. Fryklund and drummer Freddie Skantze were optimistic to get signed which led to a two and a half year contract, much to the shock of Jakobsson who thought that they wouldn't sign with him. Jakobsson also produced their debut single, "Sleep Little Girl" as no other producers were present during the session. This single was both the group's and the label's breakthrough, reaching number one on Tio i Topp and three on Kvällstoppen. The follow-up to "Sleep Little Girl", "I Should Be Glad" was also self-released by Platina. However, at the time the label wasn't assigned to any studio due to monetary restraints, which led to Jakobsson booking various studios for his label, including Metronome Records studio in Stockholm. Partly due to this, Jakobsson arranged for a deal with EMI Records, who would distribute the label's records from that point on. This deal also gave Jakobsson access to EMI's studio on Sandhamnsgatan in Stockholm which he promtply took advantage of. Jakobsson could now afford to manufacture more records which led to more and more commercial success, affording him two gold albums, Tages and Tages 2, both in 1966. Also in 1966, several singles released on the label also sold over 100.000 copies, most notably Tages "In My Dreams", which was a number one hit on both Tio i Topp and Kvällstoppen. Tages would leave the label in January 1967, after their contract expired. The reason behind this was that Tages were offered a contract by another EMI sub-label, Parlophone Records, who could afford them more studio time and a bigger budget. Other rock bands were