the hmv heritage

August 1897 – William Barry Owen leaves New York to set up syndicate to exploit the Berliner Gramophone

April 1898 – the Gramophone Company formed in London by Trevor Williams and Barry Owen and becomes a Limited company in August

September 1899 – a letter is sent to artist Francis Barraud by the Gramophone Company making him a formal offer for His Master’s Voice Painting – originally painted with the dog Nipper listening to a phonograph cylinder machine – after a re-painting to show Nipper and a gramophone

January 1900 – His Master’s Voice painting first appears on the British Record supplement

January 1900 – the Gramophone Company pays Barraud a further £50 for the copyright to his painting after originally paying £50 in 1899 for sole reproduction rights

May 1900 – Emile Berliner, investor of the gramophone, visits UK and sees the Nipper painting. He successfully acquires the copyright of His Master’s Voice for both America and Canada

March 1901 – the Gramophone Company registers the His Master’s Voice Nipper painting as a trademark in the UK

October 1901 – Victor Talking Machine Co. starts in the U.S and begins to use HMV painting with Victor name and later assumes U.S rights for HMV painting and adopts it as their trademark

Early 1902 – Nipper painting appears on Gramophone Company needle boxes

1904 – Gramophone Company and Victor Talking Machine Co. agree deal giving Victor company rights to HMV trademark in Japan. (Victor company taken over by RCA in 1929)

February 1909 – Nipper appears on record labels for the first time in the UK

July 1910 – Gramophone Company registers the words His Master’s Voice in UK and begins to use words and Nipper logo on all HMV products

July 1919-21 – Gramophone Company renovates menswear store at 363 Oxford Street, London and at inaugural lunch on the premises renowned composer and conductor Sir Edward Elgar, with the artist Francis Barraud in attendance, officially opened the first HMV store

A decision made in 1921 by the Gramophone Company to renovate a
menswear store in London’s West End that rejoiced in the name Our Boy’s Clothing, led to the opening of the World’s first HMV shop. The new shop was described at the time as “the most up-to-date and artistic business house yet seen in London.”

Renowned composer and conductor Sir Edward Elgar performed the opening ceremony. Also in attendance was Francis Barraud, who had painted the world famous HMV Dog & Trumpet painting some 23 years earlier in 1898.

While the first HMV shop was dedicated to selling only HMV branded goods ranging from records and sheet music to gramophones, it also served as a training centre for officially appointed HMV dealers throughout the country.

In December 1921, “the most striking illuminated electric motion sign yet seen in London” was erected on the front of the store. Featuring a man 9ft 6ins tall placing a record on the turntable of a giant HMV gramophone, which then revolved as musical notes, then lit up, the sign dominated the shop’s 1,500 square foot Oxford Street frontage.

In 1934, a special HMV train left London’s Paddington station on a nationwide tour lasting nearly four months and visiting 58 towns and cities in England, Scotland and Wales. This National Show Train displayed the latest HMV goods to the designated HMV retailers throughout the country.

On 26 December 1937 tragedy struck at the HMV store and offices in Oxford Street when fire destroyed the building. Over 250 firemen were needed to bring the fire under control and the store’s caretaker, William Travis, died in the blaze. Eventually, after a rebuilding project to repair the fire-damaged premises, a new and bigger HMV Oxford Street was officially reopened in May 1939. The ground floor was devoted to gramophone records, the lower ground floor displayed HMV household appliances and an all-electric kitchen and on the first floor there was a radio showroom and a recording studio.

While the Second World War raged across Europe the HMV Oxford Street store stayed open for business. During the war, while parent company EMI’s record factory at Hayes, near London was used for munitions manufacturing, the HMV store in Oxford Street became a collection point for customers’ old records, which were re-cycled and used to make new records.

Following on the heels of the fashion started in the USA, HMV Oxford Street introduced their first self-service showroom in the store’s lower ground floor in 1953. The opening of the 5,000 square foot ‘Browserie’ apparently followed a careful study and acknowledged that “there is a section of the buying public, especially amongst teenagers, office and factory workers who welcome the saving of time that this service offers.”

In the same year, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place in London and when the royal coach passed along Oxford Street and in front of HMV, the new young Queen was greeted with a massive sign proclaiming: “The Choicest Gifts in Store on Her Pleased to Pour-Long May She Reign.”

The 1960s in England are forever associated with the Beat Boom and Mersey Beat and in a small but important way HMV played its part in the story of the most famous group of all time The Beatles. On 8 May 1962 the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, having previously been rejected by both Decca and EMI, took a tape into HMV’s Oxford Street in-store recording studio to make a demonstration record. Jim Foy, who ran the small studio, liked what he heard as he cut Epstein’s disc and called publishers Ardmore & Beechwood. This led to a meeting with the head of A&R at EMI’s Parlophone label, George Martin. The meeting between Epstein and Martin took place the next day at Abbey Road studios, and the rest is history.

In the mid-1960s, with the record industry booming, EMI decided it was time to expand the HMV retail operation and the Saville Pianos chain was acquired. EMI also added shops previously operated as Feldman, Rimington Van Wyck, Diamond Records and Landaus to the newly expanding chain.

HMV’s expansion continued through the 1970s and it was during this period that the brand’s modern day credentials for service, stock, knowledge and range truly began to appear.

By 1977, the HMV Record Shops Ltd consisted of chain of 39 stores stretching from Glasgow to Brighton and Bristol to Newcastle.

The 1980s arrived and brought with them a major change in HMV’s operations and fortunes. Following a merger of Thorn and EMI the stores were transferred into Thorn EMI’s Retail Group, thereby ending a direct association between HMV and a music company that had lasted nearly 60 years.

In 1984, HMV organised the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate Nipper’s final resting place in Clarence Street in Kingston upon Thames. Shortly afterwards, the company set its sights on another major HMV achievement – the opening of the world’s biggest music store on Oxford Street just over a mile away from where the HMV story began in 1921.

Officially opened by Bob Geldof, HMV Oxford Circus was opened on a 50,000 square foot site at 150 Oxford Street and remains the world’s biggest known entertainment store.

HMV Group was formed in 1986 to cultivate a strategy for UK and international expansion and within four years stores run by locally-based management teams had been established in Ireland and Canada (1986), Australia (1989) and Japan and the USA (1990), Hong Kong (1994), a small trial in Germany (1996), followed by Singapore (1997).

In March 1995, HMV Group expanded into a new area of retailing with the addition of the famous book retailers Dillon’s, including the stores Hatchard's of London and Hodges Figgis, in Dublin.

Three years later, following the 1996 demerger of Thorn and EMI, a new entity, HMV Media Group, backed by private equity investor Advent International, was created to acquire HMV and Dillon’s from EMI and the Waterstone’s book chain from WH Smith plc. The Group operated as a highly leveraged buy-out for four years, before successfully completing its IPO on the London Stock Exchange in May 2002.

In 2010, following a successful 12-month joint venture, the Group acquired MAMA Group plc, a leading UK operator of live music venues and festivals, and continued its strategy to evolve HMV into a broad-based entertainment business.

Waterstone’s was separated from the Group via disposal in mid-2011. Today, HMV Group operates through over 200 entertainment stores, predominantly in the UK, and a portfolio of live music venues and festivals.

Francis Barraud’s 1898 painting His Master’s Voice

Sir Edward Elgar officially opens the inaugural HMV shop at 363 Oxford Street, London, 20 July 1921

The ‘striking illuminated electric motion sign’ erected at the front of the 363 Oxford Street store in December 1921

The HMV National Show Train from 1934

1950s ‘Browserie’

The royal coach passes HMV at 363 Oxford Street on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 Coronation

Nipper has a role to play as the Beatles, with manager Brian Epstein, team up with George Martin and EMI

Nipper remains prominent as HMV’s trademark over 100 years after first appearing in the painting by Barraud