WEA Records Pressing Plant, West Drayton

WEA's UK record pressing plant, located in West Drayton. Operating between January 1978 and February 1983. Identifiers in the runouts: The matrix numbers are handwritten and usually at six o'clock. Side denominations can be with or without hyphens. There are other marks too, such as combinations of the letter 'W' and a number. Another number can be found either at three o'clock or at nine o'clock. Identifiers are: - WEA / TP or - W-L, often in combination with F/1 W x or FI W-x or F/1 W-x yD - W-x - S-x (or back-to-front' Ƨ) where x stands for 1 to (at least) 54 and y stands for K (KD) or R (RD). The 7" singles have no anti-slip ring and no 'D' (usually at 12 o'clock). Note: When there is a 'D' at 12 o'clock and the 7" has a slip ring, the record was pressed by Damont. Bought in December 1977 from Island Records (previous name: Island Records Manufacturing Ltd). Operated 15 semi-automatic 7" presses and 16 semi-automatic 12" presses. The factory had a work force of 120, working on a five-day week shift. No cassettes were manufactured there, but it had a total annual disk capacity of 7.7 million 7" records and 5.8 million 12-inch disks. Notice of closure was announced in November 1982, The company blamed the shutdown mainly on the adverse effect of home taping. After the close down in February 1983, all pressing activities were transferred to the pressing plant in Alsdorf, Germany.