Simply reading Disc, which was one of the prominent music mags of the 60s, shows how foolish Elektra were in 1967 when it came to The Doors.
One paltry advert for the LP in April of 1967 (above) which contains no information as to who or what The Doors were.
Contrast that with Hendrix or The Monkees who were all over a mag like Disc.
Even Love were doing better.
The 1967 tour was dropped and Elektra seemed to have already given up on Europe.
Touring was what made a band a hit not some tiny mention in the corner of a music paper.
Places like Manchester, Newcastle and Croydon where a band paid their dues.
They knew this from 1966 in the US.
England was the 2nd biggest record market for pop & rock.
WE were ripe for the picking if only Elektra had promoted the band here and toured The Doors in the UK.
Fuck Europe here was the place to be.
It beggars belief that they took until the end of 1968 to show their faces and then in a couple of London concerts.
3 snippets from Disc July 22nd/29th
The Doors #1 in the US.
The tour that never was. Bloody criminal.
The Doors could have blown us away with the debut LP.
Giving bands like Floyd or Procul Harum a run for their money.
Instead we got a tour in support of the much weaker WFTS LP.
This from August 5th 1967 says it all when it comes to Elektra's useless non existent promotion of The Doors in the UK.
Some nice praise by the US guy.
Then this bombshell.
Forget the review (which isn't even a proper one) isn't brimming with love & affection.
She says it was 2 weeks before she got a copy.
TWO fucking weeks.
In the pop/rock world of 1967 that was a lifetime.
Who was Elektra's man/woman in the UK as this was a disgrace.
It wasn't the reviewers job to go out and buy the bloody thing.
Someone from the record company should have been knocking on the doors of music papers/magazine and radio staions up and down the country with a couple of copies and some promo shit.
What a bloody farce and no wonder LMF did sod all here.
#1 in America but totally fuck all here.
The mind boggles how useless the record company were here.
I have an entire 12 month of Disc that I have been trawling through (August at present) and so far a couple of one line mentions and a couple of small photos.
Not ONE feature or article and nothing in the way of an interview with a Door.
The #1 single in the USA and LMF gets THIS as a review in one of the biggest music papers in Britain.
Elektra should have been ensuring that LMF got a proper review, the week of its release, by Disc's most sympathetic reviewer and pestering the shit out of radio stations around the country with free copies and profiles of the band.
How do I know they didn't? I don't but if they did they did a piss poor job of it.
