The FIRST 10: Dreamland Records (1980-1981)

Mike Chapman and his partner Nicky Chinn had been writing and producing popular British acts like Mud, (The) Sweet, Suzi Quatro, and Smokie throughout the Seventies under their Chinnichap banner before Chapman and engineer Peter Coleman came to America and produced four chart-topping hits in a twelve-month period:

With their decade-long track record of success now extended to both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Chapman and Chinn secured a boutique label deal from Robert Stigwood, whose RSO Records would manufacture and market the new Dreamland Records. In a Billboard story about the label's launch party in March 1980, it was reported that Shandi, Nervus Rex, Spider, Holly Penfield, Consenting Adults and Michael Des Barres were signed to the label.

The article also stated that Suzie Quatro would leave RSO after just one album for Dreamland following her recent Top 5 hit "Stumblin' In" with Smokie singer Chris Norman. "Commander" Mike Chapman (as he often referred to himself in liner notes and interviews) also said he would restrict his outside productions to "friends" such as The Knack and, possibly, Blondie while Stigwood said Chapman and Chinn, as well as their Dreamland acts, would be "cross-pollinated" into RSO's "theatre, motion picture, and television activities." Below are the first dozen US singles released on Dreamland Records, complete with matrix numbers, approximate release dates and B-sides where available:

	matrix	date		title	artist
	DL 100	4/80		New Romance (It's A Mystery)	Spider
				Crossfire
	DL 101	1980		Nobody Loves You Better	Shandi
				Mine ( Mine, Mine, Mine)
	DL 102	7/80		Only His Name	Holly Penfield
				Eyes Behind Your Eyes
	DL 103	7/80		Everything Is Alright	Spider
				Shady Lady
	DL 104	1980		Rock Hard	Suzi Quatro
				State Of Mind
	DL 105	11/80		Little Darlin'	Spider
				What's Going On
	DL 106	1980		I'm Only Human	Michael Des Barres
	DL 107	1/81		Lipstick	Suzi Quatro
				Woman Cry
	DL 108	1980		Nothing's Too Hard	Michael Des Barres
	DL 109	1981		The Only One Who Knows	Consenting Adults
				What's A Matter
	DL 110	1980		Souvenirs	Holly Penfield
	DL 111	5/81		It Didn't Take Long	Spider
				I Love

Initial releases came in custom sleeves (like the one pictured above) or picture sleeves. Want to know a secret? The twelve singles above represent the entire singles discography of Dreamland Records, excluding radio station promo only singles with the same song on both sides of single with one side being Mono for play on AM stations and the other being Stereo for FM stations. (My research indicated that 106, 108 and 110 were only released as promos.) In their admirable efforts to promote the fledgling label, RSO distributed two Dreamland Records samplers in 1980. The first is a ten-inch disc intended for AOR radio with two different artists and songs on each side:

The same four artists appear on the second sampler, a full-sized twelve-inch disc labeled IN-STORE PLAY with two artists and six tracks per side:

Three Dreamland acts - Spider, Holly Penfield, and Shandi - each had twelve-inch AOR Special three song samplers serviced to radio outlets. Spider's disc came out in 1981 in support of their second album on Dreamland while the other two were issued in 1980. Additional twelve-inch singles were shipped to AOR stations for Spider's "New Romance (Mystery To Me)" and Suzi Quatro's "Rock Hard", which appeared on her Dreamland album of the same name and on the RSO-released soundtrack to Times Square. 

One thing that immediately stands out looking at the two samplers and the list of singles above is the lack of any Nervus Rex 45s here in the States though the group's self-titled album (above) was the second album released here in the US on Dreamland. What follows is a list of the eleven Dreamland Records singles released in the UK. Please note Nervus Rex right there with the third single of the bunch.

	matrix	date		title	artist
	2090 441	5/30/80		New Romance (It's A Mystery)	Spider
				Crossfire
	DLSP 2	8/8/80		Nobody Loves You Better	Shandi
				Mine ( Mine, Mine, Mine)
	DLSP 3	8/15/80		There She Goes	Nervus Rex
				The Incredible Crawling Eye
	DLSP 4	8/29/80		Everything Is Alright	Spider
				Shady Lady
	DLSP 5	9/26/80		Only His Name	Holly Penfield
				Eyes Behind Your Eyes
	DLSP 6	10/3/80		Rock Hard	Suzi Quatro
				State Of Mind
	DLSP 7	1/16/81		I'm Only Human	Michael Des Barres
				Catch Phrase
	DLSP 8	1/30/81		Glad All Over	Suzi Quatro
				Ego In The Night
	DLSP 9	3/27/81		Someone, Somewhere In The Night	Michael Des Barres
				Five Hour Flight
	DLSP 10	5/81		Lipstick	Suzi Quatro
				Woman Cry
	DLSP 11	6/81		Better Be Good To Me	Spider
				I Love

Other notes from researching this post:

• Mike Chapman produced four Blondie albums, from 1978's Parallel Lines through 1982's The Hunter, as well as the first two albums from The Knack;
• Pete Coleman, Chapman's long-time engineer, the Admiral to Chapman's Commander, shared production duties on several albums with Chapman before flying solo with Spider's self-titled debut;
• Dreamland Records came to an end less than 24 months after launching when staff cuts at RSO triggered a lawsuit;
• The Chinnichap partnership was dissolved "amicably" late in 1981;
• Mike Chapman and Spider songwriter and keyboard player Holly Knight reportedly developed a certain chemistry and ran off to Los Angeles to write and record;
• The Knight-less Spider changed their name to Shanghai and recorded a self-titled album for Chrysalis in 1982 before splintering;
• Shandi went on to write and record "He's A Dream" for the Flashdance soundtrack in 1983;
• Just prior to recording his solo album I'm Only Human for Dreamland, Michael Des Barres was in the band Detective and appeared as Dog, lead singer of Scum of The Earth, in the fourth episode of WKRP In Cincinnati titled "Hoodlum Rock" in 1978;
• post-Dreamland, Des Barres was lead singer of Chequered Past, featuring former members of Sex Pistols and Blondie before filling in for Robert Palmer as Power Station vocalist in Summer of 1985, including their widely-viewed appearance at Live Aid;
• Consenting Adults, who only had the one 45 released on Dreamland, were formerly known as Thieves;
• Mike Chapman produced Suzi Quatro's first post-Dreamland album, Main Attraction, in 1982 though it failed to find a US label for distribution;
• Michael Des Barres & Holly Knight would write and record with Mike Chapman producing the original version of "Obsession" in 1983 for the soundtrack to A Night In Heaven. Animotion covered it the following year and scored a Top 10 hit;
• two songs from Spider's second album Between The Lines later became hits for other artists: "Change" for John Waite and "Better Be Good To Me" for Tina Turner