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Reproduced from Music Week 2 August, 1997
Love This Records faces UK closure
Mike Stock's Love This Records is facing liquidation after CD manufacturer Disctronics served a winding up petition against the company. A creditors meeting is due to take place on August 12 after which the label will close.
A spokesman for Love This, which Stock set up in April 1994 and which has scored a string of hits through John Alford and Nicki French, confirms the company is going into liquidation, but would not reveal the size of the claims. He emphasises the action only affects the UK operating company and not the company's overseas interests.
He blames its financial problems on work being done to the extension to the Jubilee tube line, which backs onto the label's studio complex in south London. This has damaged the studio and made it unusable, he says. Love This is currently pursuing litigation against London Underground for compensation.
David Mackie, chief executive officer of Disctronics, says, "[Love This] owed us money and like any responsible company we requested payment on a number of occasions. The amount was not forthcoming and we, therefore, took the action available to us under the law."
According to a Department of Trade and Industry spokesman, the official receiver is assessing the assets of Love This and will produce a report into the reasons behind the failure of the company. "The petition would have been made after a statutory demand of money had been made," says the spokesman. "And the company is now in the process of being wound up."
Love This has had a mixed history since it was launched by Stock, a former member of Stock Aitken & Waterman. Although he scored a massive hit with Nicki French's number one hit Total Eclipse Of The Heart, Love This became embroiled in a chart hyping dispute over its Santa Maria release.
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