Very often the best way of making it is to do it yourself on your own terms. Recording and pressing your own records can be an integral part of independent success.

Trying to land that elusive recording contract remains the greatest single obstacle to the dreams and ambitions of most acts. For while the charts seem to reflect an ever-increasing turnover of new faces, the facts of the matter are that right now it is harder than ever to secure a deal.

Although record companies need a constant injection of new blood, A&R departments report that deciding precisely which youngbloods to sign is becoming an increasingly laborious process. The main reason for this is the number of demo tapes with which they are inundated.

So how is a new group going to attract attention to itself? Sure they can march up and down Oxford Street on elephants or dress up as prehistoric matadors but that's not to say anyone will take them seriously. Setting up a showcase gig isn't necessarily the best idea either since firstly, there are very few suitable venues in London and secondly, A&R men are not renowned for their enthusiasm when it comes to travelling too far out of town.

At this rate one could hardly blame the average band for abandoning all idea of major deals and setting up a label of their own. Indeed the punk and post-punk eras have seen much evidence of this with independent labels proliferating all over the country. However even then major distribution is required to get the records into the shops if they are to sell in any appreciable quantity and this again means having to rely on the big companies. Even UB40's DEP International label, probably the most successful 'indie' ever, now have a distribution arrangement (with Virgin) while many names like Bronski Beat's Forbidden Fruit are to all intents and purposes just that — names on a sleeve and label all of whose work is done by the parent company.

But fear not, brave hearts, a solution to the trials and tribulations of being unsigned could be at hand. Quite simply it involves amalgamating the two processes of distributing a demo to A&R depts and cutting a record. In other words press up a limited number of discs purely for the purpose of enticing the A&R brigade.

Whatever Mr Bennett's backlog, a well-dressed record might just queue jump ahead of shoals of clattering cassette boxes if only because of its comparative individuality. Well that's our theory and we're sticking to it. And putting our printing equipment where our mouths are, we've contacted a number of record pressing plants in order to ascertain the economic viability of taking such a plunge.

In recent years many pressing plants have closed down, forced out of business by the monopoly assumed by the biggest record companies following the brief period of cottage industry co-existence during the late Seventies. So it came to pass that no pressing plants could be found in cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield, notwithstanding their vital contribution to popular music of late. If, however, they are alive and producing but keep such a low profile that they managed to escape the IM dragnet, we'll let you know just as soon as they contact us.

Meanwhile Scotland, Wales and the Midlands boast a few each while London has more than 50. Throughout it was found that it was only cost-effective to have pressings of 1,000 or more. Since there are nowhere near this number of record companies, other useful industry folk can also be issued with a copy: publishers, DJs, record producers and even music journalists. The rest could be sold at your local friendly record store or at gigs, if you're lucky enough to get them. So even if the whole enterprise draws a blank, you won't have lost too much money. But without any further ado here are your nearest cutting centres, with a couple of suggestions for sleeves to round off the whole package...

LONDON

Goughsound, (Contact Details)

Here 1000 12" singles work out at 38 pence per record. Assuming you are simply arriving with demo-tapes, there are extra charges for turning the tape into a record. This is done in a cutting room and costs a total of £190. For the benefit of the technically obsessed two processes are involved: firstly the processing of the lacquers and then the metal work, almost the record in reverse as it were, from which the actual pressing is made. The making of the lacquer costs £115 and the subsequent electro-plating £75.

The printing of the record labels, including the manufacture of the plate with which to do this, costs another £35.

Goughsound also does a sleeve manufacturing service, with several options offered. A one, two, three or four-colour cover can make a difference of almost £400 on a pressing of 1000 since the initial printing plate charge is £100 per colour.

A basic black and white sleeve costs 17.5 pence. This means a pressing of 1000 12" singles in monochrome sleeve costs a total of £1035 including VAT. 1000 in full (four) colour covers costs £1420, also including VAT. Needless to say larger pressings work out cheaper per unit as there are no more initiation (lacquer processing, colour plate making etc) costs. It all depends on how confident you are of selling extra copies at gigs and so forth.

Immediate Sound Services Ltd., (Contact Details)

This pressing plant works out considerably cheaper with initiation costs coming to only £75 per 1000 and discs costing 40p each. 7" singles are even less, coming to £65 and 25p respectively, though we do recommend 12" records are more likely to catch the attention of record company and media people. Prices remain the same regardless of the number of tracks being pressed.

Immediate regret that they do not provide a lacquer cutting service but recommend Utopia Studios, (Contact Details) who charge around £100 plus VAT.

SCOTLAND

Grampian Records, (Contact Details)

Just 17 miles from Carlisle, Grampian is centrally situated between the north of England and the rest of Scotland. 1000 12" singles work out at £340 with cutting and processing costing £180 and with VAT to be added to both totals.

MIDLANDS

Statetune Ltd., (Contact Details)

Overheads inevitably get higher in the South with initiation charges creeping up to £199 and 1000 12" singles coming to £399. Nevertheless, each single still only works out at around 75p each and 7" 49p including VAT.

WALES

Nimbus Records, (Contact Details)

Here the quality of pressing is greater than usual and the owner regrets this is reflected in the price which works out at 68 pence each, even though the initiation charges are a little higher than usual.

SLEEVE PRINTING

Strange but true, selecting a style of sleeve is more complicated than finding a pressing plant. All 12" singles come complete with inner sleeve but a good eye-catching outer job is also a necessity. Once the art-work has been agonised over there are such brain-damaging decisions to make as what quality of paper or card to use, whether it should be varnished, matt, laminated or clear, how many colours and so on. Delga, (Contact Details) are one of the best known record sleeve manufacturers in the business, as your record collection could well indicate. Since they are associated with litho reproduction, platemaking and related art-houses, Delga are also competitively priced. 1000 monochrome cartridge (ie stiff) paper sleeves in monochrome works out at 8.02 pence for a 7" sleeve. 12" sleeves are always in card and start at 11.2 pence for black and white and go up to 18 pence if fully-coloured and varnished.

Lamination costs quite a bit more which explains why so few album sleeves are laminated these days, regardless of the artist. As such, no set rate is fixed and few printers even bother with the process any more.

In the same way as the list of record pressing plants is not intended to be definitive, neither is the sleeve manufacturers listing. Any companies who feel they are more competitively priced or can provide a better service than any of those named are welcome to write in for inclusion at a later date.