Festival Records (Australia)
Encyclopedia
Festival Records was an Australia
n music recording and publishing company which was founded in Sydney
in 1952 and operated until 2005.
Festival was a wholly owned subsidiary of News Limited
from 1961 to 2005, and the company was very successful for most of its fifty-year life, despite the fact that as much as 90% of its annual profit was regularly siphoned off by Rupert Murdoch
to subsidise his other media ventures.
The origin of Festival was Mainguard's purchase and merging of two small Sydney businesses—a record pressing company, Microgroove Australia, one of the first Australian companies to produce discs in the new vinyl microgroove record format, and Casper Precision Engineering. After buying the two companies Cullen re-incorporated them as Festival Records on 21 October 1952; soon after he appointed popular Sydney bandleader Les Welch as the label's first artists and repertoire (A&R) manager. Another early staff member was Bruce Gyngell
, who was later hired to help found Australia's first commercial TV station, TCN-9
in Sydney and was the first person to appear on TV in Australia in 1956. The connection between Nine and Festival would reap great benefits for the label in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Festival was able to gain a foothold in the Australian music market mainly thanks to Welch, who cannily acquired the Australian rights to the epoch-making Bill Haley
record "Rock Around The Clock". The single had originally been turned down by the Australian division of EMI
in 1954, when it was first released in the USA, but Welch was able to trump EMI and secure the Australian rights to the recording for Festival in 1955, after the song became a smash hit in America and Britain thanks to its inclusion in the film Blackboard Jungle
. "Rock Around The Clock" went on to become the biggest-selling record ever released in Australia up to that time, and it established Festival as a significant emerging player in the popular music market.
When Mainguard began diverting Festival's profits into its other businesses, Welch resigned. He was replaced by disc jockey
and former record store clerk Ken Taylor. Like Welch, Taylor did not like rock 'n' roll, but he was an astute spotter and marketer of new talent. Thanks to Taylor, Festival was the first local label to sign Australian rock 'n' roll acts, including Australia's "Big Three" acts of the 1950s -- Johnny O'Keefe
and the Dee Jays, Col Joye
and the Joy Boys and Dig Richards and the R'Jays. Festival's sales trebled, but by this time Mainguard was in serious financial straits and in 1957 Cullen sold Festival to property magnate L.J. Hooker
.
Hooker was an avid music fan and reportedly took a keen personal interest in the company, even establishing his own boutique imprint label, Rex, named after the Sydney hotel that he owned. During this time, Festival had its first home-grown hit with Johnny O'Keefe's "Wild One
" (aka "Real Wild Child"), a song covered in the US by Jerry Allison of The Crickets (as Ivan) in 1958 and also recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis for Sun Records. Both artists had heard O'Keefe perform the song during their 1958 Aussie tour and rush recorded the song on their return to the US. This Festival success was followed by four #1 hits in 1959 for another local act, Col Joye & the Joy Boys. But despite the chart success, Festival continued to lose money due to poor management and a lack of international acts on its roster, and Hooker eventually sold it on to Rupert Murdoch
's News Limited
in 1961, shortly after Murdoch's attempt to acquire the Australian division of the American Ampar label.
As with the Bill Haley single, Festival was again saved by a then-unknown American act, — in this case, Herb Alpert
& the Tijuana Brass, who had been recommended to Festival in 1962 by top Sydney DJ Bob Rogers
. The Tijuana Brass' breakthrough record, "The Lonely Bull" became a worldwide hit and its success in Australia enabled Festival to sign a crucial distribution deal with Alpert's label A&M Records
, who went on to supply Festival with a stream of top-selling U.S. acts such as The Carpenters
.
Under the astute direction of long-serving company chairman Alan Hely, Festival quickly rose to become one of the top pop labels in Australasia, although the New Zealand operation was a standalone company with differing ownership and management, and through the late 1960s and early 1970s it rivalled and often surpassed the local market leader EMI
. Hely built up a strong roster by cultivating Australian talent and establishing distribution deals with important local independent labels like Spin Records
and Clarion Records in the Sixties and Mushroom Records
in the Seventies. He also signed crucial distribution deals with major overseas labels like Island Records
, Chrysalis Records
, Arista Records
and A&M Records
which gave Festival exclusive Australian rights to a steady stream of international hit albums and singles.
Festival played a major role in the Australian pop scene of the mid-to-late 1960s, and it competed strongly with its overseas-owned rivals EMI
, CBS
and RCA
. Festival recorded or distributed some of the most popular Australian acts of the decade, including Warren Williams
, Billy Thorpe
, The Bee Gees, Ray Brown & The Whispers
, Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays, Jimmy Little
, Noelene Batley, Mike Furber, Olivia Newton-John
, The Dave Miller Set, Johnny Young
, Jamie Redfern
, Wild Cherries
and Jeff St John.
An important factor in the company's success during the pop boom of the 1960s was the pressing and distribution deals it made with the many small independent pop labels that emerged in this period. Notable among these were the Sunshine Records
and Kommotion Records labels established by Ivan Dayman
in 1964, Martin Clarke's Perth-based Clarion Records and the Sydney-based pop label Spin Records
, a partnership between publisher Clyde Packer
and promoter Harry M. Miller
.
A large proportion of the recordings released on Sunshine, Kommmotion and Spin were overseen by producer Pat Aulton
, who became one of Festival's house producers from 1966 until the early 1970s. Aulton was probably responsible for more Australian-made hits than any other record producer of his era. Aulton began his career as a singer in the Adelaide band The Clefs
, then became an A&R manager for the Sunshine label, where he produced many of that label's releases, including hits by Normie Rowe
. When Dayman's mini-empire collapsed in 1966, Aulton discovered that he had unwittingly been named as a partner in the record label and this made him liable for its debts. As a result, he had most of his assets seized by creditors. Fortunately he was rescued by Festival MD Fred Marks, who offered him a job as a house producer for Festival, overseeing all the pop side of the company's business. Aulton supervised the installation of Festival's new 4-track studio at Pyrmont later that year and he oversaw most of the company's pop/rock output between 1967 and 1970, including producing an album and an Australian hit single for American singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka
.
.) Early Infinity releases included Kahvas Jute, the "new" Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs
and Blackfeather. Infinity's biggest successes were Sydney band Sherbet
, who became the most popular and successful local band of the early Seventies and one of the most successful Australian groups of all time, and singer-songwriter Richard Clapton
; both acts were produced by Richard Batchens
, who succeeded Pat Aulton
as Festival's main house producer.
Another notable success for Festival in this period was Sister Janet Mead
. The Adelaide-based nun was an experienced music teacher who had been using pop music in religious ceremonies to involve young people and had provided music for "rock Mass" events. In 1973 Mead came to Sydney to record with Festival house producer Martin Erdman and one of the tracks from that session, a rock arrangement of "The Lord's Prayer", was released as the B-side of her first single. After being picked up by radio it became one of the surprise hits of the year, reaching #3 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) in 1974. It was also a huge success in America, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100
, becoming the first Australian recording to sell over one million copies in the U.S.A., earning a Gold Award for Sister Janet Mead
and Martin Erdman. It also earned a Grammy Award
nomination and Golden Gospel Award in 2004.
Although the American-owned companies Warner Music and CBS
considerably expanded their local presence and market share during this period, Festival enjoyed continuing success during the late 1970s and mid to late 1980s under the helm of managing director Jim White, and also thanks in part to its alliance with the Melbourne-based Mushroom Records
label and the Sydney-based Regular Records label, whose roster included top selling bands such as Icehouse (band)
, Mental As Anything
and The Cockroaches
(which later evolved into the hugely successful children's act The Wiggles
). Both Mushroom and Regular recorded much of the best new Australian music of the time.
In the late Eighties change swept through the music industry, and vinyl was rapidly supplanted by the new compact disc
format which Festival embraced, but started to lose manufacturing revenue because of its predominant vinyl and cassette pressing business and its lack of CD manufacturing facilities. Festival's revenue was also dented by the loss of many of the successful independent overseas labels it had formerly distributed, notably Island Records
, A&M
and Chrysalis; some deals ended due to overseas labels opening local branches, while others were lost when these former independents (e.g. Virgin, Charisma) were taken over by major labels like PolyGram
, BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group) and EMI
. The loss of these overseas labels took a sizeable chunk out of Festival's profits, a problem compounded by Murdoch's persistent siphoning-off of Festival's profits, leaving it without the cash reserves it needed to invest in new plant, new acts and new labels.
In 1995, Alan Hely was nearing retirement, but he agreed to stay on to tutor Rupert Murdoch's younger son James
who, to the surprise of many in the industry, was appointed as Festival's Chairman, despite the fact that he was then only 23 and had no significant business experience. James had a reputation as the Murdoch family rebel; he bleached his hair and for some time sported an eyebrow stud, and to his family's dismay he had just dropped out of Harvard University
to set up a hip-hop label, Rawkus Records
, which for a time was the US's premier hip hop label, boasting Mos Def
, Company Flow
, and others.
Hely stayed on for some time after the appointment, but he resigned earlier than he had planned after disagreements with Murdoch; MD Bill Eeg took the reins for a short period before but resigned after the appointment of Roger Grierson
, a one-time member of Sydney '80s new wave band The Thought Criminals and a former manager of Nick Cave
.
In 1998 Grierson set about rebuilding Festival's profile, negotiating new licencing/distribution/promotion deals with a group of prestige Australian independent labels including W.Minc, Half A Cow
, Reliant Records, Global Records and Psy Harmonics as well as international licences including Disney / Hollywood Records
, Chris Blackwell's
Palm Pictures
, Richard Branson's
V2 Records
and later on prestigious Australian label Albert Productions
, the home of AC/DC
.
Under Grierson and Murdoch's management, Festival bought out Michael Gudinski's controlling 51% share of Mushroom Records
in 1999. The two companies were then merged and renamed Festival Mushroom Records (FMR).
Several notable industry figures were hired as executives, including Jeremy Fabinyi (former artist manager and ex-head of AMCOS), Paul Dickson, former head of Polygram Australia, respected musician Mark Callaghan (ex-Riptides
, GANGgajang
) and industry veteran and former Larrikin Records
boss Warren Fahey
. The company also established an online music site, Whammo, which offered online CD sales as well as hosting an online version of Ian McFarlane's Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop
. The company had #1 records with Motorace, 28 Days, George, Amiel
, Kylie Minogue
and others under licence and distribution arrangements including Moby
, Madonna
, Britney Spears
and Michael Crawford
. They also had the highest selling album of 2002 with the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann
's Moulin Rouge
. "Addicted to Bass" went to #2 in the UK charts and the band had top ten records in Japan through a licence arrangement with Sony Music Japan
. In 2002, FMR had more #1 singles and more #1 albums than any other company.
In 2000, James Murdoch was appointed to head Star TV
and relocated to Hong Kong
.
Festival celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2002 with a major museum exhibition and a series of commemorative CDs. News Ltd poured millions into Festival in the decade between 1995 and 2005; James Murdoch reportedly spent A$10 million on artists and repertoire. The company won both the Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year ARIA
award
in 2004 with Powderfinger
and Amiel
.
Despite these successes, revenues continued to fall and by 2006 the company was in dire financial straits. In October, FMR announced that its recorded music assets had been sold to Warner Music Australia. The terms of the sale were not disclosed although sources at other labels estimated that the deal was worth between A$5 million and A$10 million. Festival Mushroom's offices in five cities were closed and 43 of the company's 54 remaining staff were retrenched, with eleven senior management, promotions and marketing staff moved into positions at Warner.
The combined Festival Mushroom Records-Warner Bros. Records recording archive contains a large proportion of the most important Australian pop and rock music of the late 20th century, and the collection is said to contain more than 20,000 master tapes, including music by Johnny O'Keefe
, The Bee Gees, Peter Allen
, Sherbet
, Olivia Newton-John
, Timbaland
, Nelly Furtado
, Madonna
, Mika
and Kylie Minogue
.
FMR's other major asset, Festival Music Publishing, was acquired in November 2005 by Michael Gudinksi's Mushroom Publishing, for an undisclosed sum.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n music recording and publishing company which was founded in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in 1952 and operated until 2005.
Festival was a wholly owned subsidiary of News Limited
News Limited
News Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The publicly listed company's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, Pay TV, National Rugby League, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets.News Limited...
from 1961 to 2005, and the company was very successful for most of its fifty-year life, despite the fact that as much as 90% of its annual profit was regularly siphoned off by Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
to subsidise his other media ventures.
Early years
Festival was established by one of Australia's first merchant banking companies, Mainguard, founded by entrepreneur and former Australian army officer Paul Cullen. Mainguard had a wide range of investments including one of Australia's first supermarket companies, and a whaling business and also backed famed Australian filmmaker Charles Chauvel.The origin of Festival was Mainguard's purchase and merging of two small Sydney businesses—a record pressing company, Microgroove Australia, one of the first Australian companies to produce discs in the new vinyl microgroove record format, and Casper Precision Engineering. After buying the two companies Cullen re-incorporated them as Festival Records on 21 October 1952; soon after he appointed popular Sydney bandleader Les Welch as the label's first artists and repertoire (A&R) manager. Another early staff member was Bruce Gyngell
Bruce Gyngell
Bruce Gyngell was a hugely influential Australian television executive, prominent for 50 years in both Australian and U.K. television. Although Gyngell began his career in radio, in the 1950s he stepped into the arena of early television broadcasting, helping to set up Channel 9, the first...
, who was later hired to help found Australia's first commercial TV station, TCN-9
TCN-9
TCN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Nine Network in Australia and is located at Willoughby. The licence, issued to a company named Television Corporation Ltd headed by Frank Packer, was one of the first four licences to be issued for commercial television stations in...
in Sydney and was the first person to appear on TV in Australia in 1956. The connection between Nine and Festival would reap great benefits for the label in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Festival was able to gain a foothold in the Australian music market mainly thanks to Welch, who cannily acquired the Australian rights to the epoch-making Bill Haley
Bill Haley
Bill Haley was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".-Early life and career:...
record "Rock Around The Clock". The single had originally been turned down by the Australian division of EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
in 1954, when it was first released in the USA, but Welch was able to trump EMI and secure the Australian rights to the recording for Festival in 1955, after the song became a smash hit in America and Britain thanks to its inclusion in the film Blackboard Jungle
Blackboard Jungle
Blackboard Jungle is a 1955 social commentary film about teachers in an inner-city school. It is based on the novel of the same name by Evan Hunter.-Plot:...
. "Rock Around The Clock" went on to become the biggest-selling record ever released in Australia up to that time, and it established Festival as a significant emerging player in the popular music market.
When Mainguard began diverting Festival's profits into its other businesses, Welch resigned. He was replaced by disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
and former record store clerk Ken Taylor. Like Welch, Taylor did not like rock 'n' roll, but he was an astute spotter and marketer of new talent. Thanks to Taylor, Festival was the first local label to sign Australian rock 'n' roll acts, including Australia's "Big Three" acts of the 1950s -- Johnny O'Keefe
Johnny O'Keefe
John Michael O'Keefe, known as Johnny O'Keefe was an Australian rock and roll singer whose career began in the 1950s. Some of his hits include "Wild One" , "Shout!" and "She's My Baby"...
and the Dee Jays, Col Joye
Col Joye
Colin Frederick Jacobsen AM , better known by his stage name Col Joye, is an Australian popular entertainer and entrepreneur...
and the Joy Boys and Dig Richards and the R'Jays. Festival's sales trebled, but by this time Mainguard was in serious financial straits and in 1957 Cullen sold Festival to property magnate L.J. Hooker
L.J. Hooker
LJ Hooker is an Australian real estate franchise, founded in 1928, currently owned by Janusz Hooker, the grandson of founder Sir Leslie Hooker and was established in 1928.-History:...
.
Hooker was an avid music fan and reportedly took a keen personal interest in the company, even establishing his own boutique imprint label, Rex, named after the Sydney hotel that he owned. During this time, Festival had its first home-grown hit with Johnny O'Keefe's "Wild One
Wild One (Johnny O'Keefe song)
"Wild One" or "Real Wild Child" is an Australian rock and roll song written by Johnny Greenan, Johnny O'Keefe, and Dave Owens. Sydney disc jockey Tony Withers was credited with helping to get radio airplay for the song but writer credits on subsequent versions often omit Withers, who later worked...
" (aka "Real Wild Child"), a song covered in the US by Jerry Allison of The Crickets (as Ivan) in 1958 and also recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis for Sun Records. Both artists had heard O'Keefe perform the song during their 1958 Aussie tour and rush recorded the song on their return to the US. This Festival success was followed by four #1 hits in 1959 for another local act, Col Joye & the Joy Boys. But despite the chart success, Festival continued to lose money due to poor management and a lack of international acts on its roster, and Hooker eventually sold it on to Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
's News Limited
News Limited
News Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The publicly listed company's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, Pay TV, National Rugby League, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets.News Limited...
in 1961, shortly after Murdoch's attempt to acquire the Australian division of the American Ampar label.
As with the Bill Haley single, Festival was again saved by a then-unknown American act, — in this case, Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert
Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
& the Tijuana Brass, who had been recommended to Festival in 1962 by top Sydney DJ Bob Rogers
Bob Rogers (disc jockey)
Bob Rogers OAM is an Australian disc jockey and radio broadcaster. He currently presents the Bob Rogers Show, Monday to Friday between 9am-12 noon and the 6-hour Saturday evening Reminiscing program on Sydney radio station 2CH....
. The Tijuana Brass' breakthrough record, "The Lonely Bull" became a worldwide hit and its success in Australia enabled Festival to sign a crucial distribution deal with Alpert's label A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
, who went on to supply Festival with a stream of top-selling U.S. acts such as The Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...
.
Under the astute direction of long-serving company chairman Alan Hely, Festival quickly rose to become one of the top pop labels in Australasia, although the New Zealand operation was a standalone company with differing ownership and management, and through the late 1960s and early 1970s it rivalled and often surpassed the local market leader EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
. Hely built up a strong roster by cultivating Australian talent and establishing distribution deals with important local independent labels like Spin Records
Spin Records
Spin Records was an Australian popular music label of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was established in late 1966 by Clyde Packer and a group of partners including entrepreneur Harry M. Miller. The label's first A&R manager was Nat Kipner who produced several early Spin releases...
and Clarion Records in the Sixties and Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros...
in the Seventies. He also signed crucial distribution deals with major overseas labels like Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
, Chrysalis Records
Chrysalis Records
Chrysalis Records was a British record label that was created in 1969. The name was both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis...
, Arista Records
Arista Records
Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...
and A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
which gave Festival exclusive Australian rights to a steady stream of international hit albums and singles.
Festival played a major role in the Australian pop scene of the mid-to-late 1960s, and it competed strongly with its overseas-owned rivals EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
. Festival recorded or distributed some of the most popular Australian acts of the decade, including Warren Williams
Warren Williams (rock musician)
Warren Williams is a rock musician from Australia. In the 1950s, he was a pioneer of Australian rock music, forming the group Warren Williams and the Squares.Williams was a prolific songwriter.- The Squares :...
, Billy Thorpe
Billy Thorpe
William Richard "Billy" Thorpe, AM was a renowned English-born Australian pop / rock singer-songwriter and musician...
, The Bee Gees, Ray Brown & The Whispers
Ray Brown & The Whispers
. For other uses of Whispers, see Whispers page.Ray Brown & The Whispers were a highly successful Australian rock band from 1964 to 1967...
, Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays, Jimmy Little
Jimmy Little
Jimmy Little AO , is an Australian Aboriginal musician, singer, songwriter and guitarist, whose career has spanned six decades. For many years he was the only Aboriginal star on the Australian music scene...
, Noelene Batley, Mike Furber, Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
, The Dave Miller Set, Johnny Young
Johnny Young
Johnny Young is an Australian singer, composer, record producer, disc jockey, television producer and host. Originally from Netherlands, his family settled in Perth, Western Australia in the early 1950s...
, Jamie Redfern
Jamie Redfern
Jamie Redfern born 9 April 1957, is an Australian television presenter and pop singer. Redfern was a founding member of the Australian show Young Talent Time and currently presents Jamie Redfern's Rascals, which can be viewed on Aurora TV. He is also the director of the Australian Showbusiness...
, Wild Cherries
Wild Cherries
The Wild Cherries was an Australian rock group, which started in late 1964 playing R&B and became "the most relentlessly experimental psychedelic band on the Melbourne discotheque / dance scene" according to commentator, Glenn A...
and Jeff St John.
An important factor in the company's success during the pop boom of the 1960s was the pressing and distribution deals it made with the many small independent pop labels that emerged in this period. Notable among these were the Sunshine Records
Sunshine Records (Australia)
Sunshine Records was an Australian independent pop music record label of the mid-1960s. It was established in late 1964 by promoter Ivan Dayman in collaboration with musician-producer-arranger-songwriter Pat Aulton and entrepreneur, producer and songwriter Nat Kipner .Most of its releases were in...
and Kommotion Records labels established by Ivan Dayman
Ivan Dayman
Ivan Dayman was an Australian record producer and band manager of the 1960s and 1970s, based first in Adelaide, and then in Brisbane.In 1963, musician-producer-arranger-songwriter Pat Aulton began working for rising Adelaide entrepreneur Ivan Dayman and his Sunshine group...
in 1964, Martin Clarke's Perth-based Clarion Records and the Sydney-based pop label Spin Records
Spin Records
Spin Records was an Australian popular music label of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was established in late 1966 by Clyde Packer and a group of partners including entrepreneur Harry M. Miller. The label's first A&R manager was Nat Kipner who produced several early Spin releases...
, a partnership between publisher Clyde Packer
Clyde Packer
Robert Clyde Packer , usually known as "Clyde", was the son of Australian newspaper magnate Frank Packer and the elder brother of media baron Kerry Packer...
and promoter Harry M. Miller
Harry M. Miller
-Early career:Born in New Zealand, Miller grew up in Grey Lynn, Auckland, and moved to Australia in 1963, where he established a company called Pan Pacific Productions with Keith and Dennis Wong, owners of the noted Sydney nightclub "Chequers"...
.
A large proportion of the recordings released on Sunshine, Kommmotion and Spin were overseen by producer Pat Aulton
Pat Aulton
Pat Aulton was a noted Australian record producer, musician, arranger and songwriter.He is best known for the successful pop and rock singles and albums he produced for Australian and New Zealand artists in the 1960s and early 1970s on the Sunshine and Spin Records labels...
, who became one of Festival's house producers from 1966 until the early 1970s. Aulton was probably responsible for more Australian-made hits than any other record producer of his era. Aulton began his career as a singer in the Adelaide band The Clefs
The Clefs
The Clefs was an Australian pop-rock group that formed in Adelaide in the early 1960s. Under the leadership of keyboardist Tweed Harris the band performed as The Clefs from 1963 to 1967. Vocalist Barrie "The Bear" McAskill took over the group from Harris in 1967 and renamed it Levi Smith's Clefs...
, then became an A&R manager for the Sunshine label, where he produced many of that label's releases, including hits by Normie Rowe
Normie Rowe
Norman John "Normie" Rowe AM was a major male solo performer of Australian pop music in the 1960s. Known for his bright and edgy tenor voice and dynamic stage presence, many of Rowe's most successful recordings were produced by Pat Aulton, house producer for the Sunshine Records, Spin Records and...
. When Dayman's mini-empire collapsed in 1966, Aulton discovered that he had unwittingly been named as a partner in the record label and this made him liable for its debts. As a result, he had most of his assets seized by creditors. Fortunately he was rescued by Festival MD Fred Marks, who offered him a job as a house producer for Festival, overseeing all the pop side of the company's business. Aulton supervised the installation of Festival's new 4-track studio at Pyrmont later that year and he oversaw most of the company's pop/rock output between 1967 and 1970, including producing an album and an Australian hit single for American singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...
.
1970s-1990s: growth and consolidation
In 1970, Festival established a new progressive music label, Infinity Records (not related to the U.S. MCA affiliated label of the same name, see Infinity RecordsInfinity Records
Infinity Records was a short-lived subsidiary of MCA Records established in New York City in 1977. The label was conceived by MCA president Sidney Sheinberg as a way for the Los Angeles-based entertainment conglomerate to improve its presence on the East Coast...
.) Early Infinity releases included Kahvas Jute, the "new" Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs
Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were an Australian pop and rock group dating from the mid-sixties. The group enjoyed huge success in the mid-1960s, but split in 1967. They re-emerged in the early seventies to become one of the most popular Australian hard-rock bands of the period...
and Blackfeather. Infinity's biggest successes were Sydney band Sherbet
Sherbet (band)
Sherbet was one of the most prominent and successful Australian rock bands of the 1970s. Their biggest singles were "Summer Love" and "Howzat" , both reaching number one in Australia. "Howzat" was also a top 5 hit in the UK. Though the band's success in the U.S...
, who became the most popular and successful local band of the early Seventies and one of the most successful Australian groups of all time, and singer-songwriter Richard Clapton
Richard Clapton
Richard Clapton is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist from Sydney, New South Wales. His solo top 20 hits on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart are "Girls on the Avenue" and "I Am an Island"...
; both acts were produced by Richard Batchens
Richard Batchens
Richard Batchens is an Australian record producer and recording engineer. He was the main in-house producer for the Australian recording company Festival Records in the early-mid 1970s and was one of the most prominent and successful producers of the era....
, who succeeded Pat Aulton
Pat Aulton
Pat Aulton was a noted Australian record producer, musician, arranger and songwriter.He is best known for the successful pop and rock singles and albums he produced for Australian and New Zealand artists in the 1960s and early 1970s on the Sunshine and Spin Records labels...
as Festival's main house producer.
Another notable success for Festival in this period was Sister Janet Mead
Sister Janet Mead
Sister Janet Mead is a Roman Catholic nun and is best known for recording a rock version of The Lord's Prayer. The surprise hit reached #3 on the Australian Singles Chart in 1974 and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in that same year. The single earned her a Grammy Award nomination and Golden Gospel...
. The Adelaide-based nun was an experienced music teacher who had been using pop music in religious ceremonies to involve young people and had provided music for "rock Mass" events. In 1973 Mead came to Sydney to record with Festival house producer Martin Erdman and one of the tracks from that session, a rock arrangement of "The Lord's Prayer", was released as the B-side of her first single. After being picked up by radio it became one of the surprise hits of the year, reaching #3 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) in 1974. It was also a huge success in America, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, becoming the first Australian recording to sell over one million copies in the U.S.A., earning a Gold Award for Sister Janet Mead
Sister Janet Mead
Sister Janet Mead is a Roman Catholic nun and is best known for recording a rock version of The Lord's Prayer. The surprise hit reached #3 on the Australian Singles Chart in 1974 and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in that same year. The single earned her a Grammy Award nomination and Golden Gospel...
and Martin Erdman. It also earned a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination and Golden Gospel Award in 2004.
Although the American-owned companies Warner Music and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
considerably expanded their local presence and market share during this period, Festival enjoyed continuing success during the late 1970s and mid to late 1980s under the helm of managing director Jim White, and also thanks in part to its alliance with the Melbourne-based Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros...
label and the Sydney-based Regular Records label, whose roster included top selling bands such as Icehouse (band)
Icehouse (band)
Icehouse is an Australian rock band, formed as Flowers in 1977 in Sydney. Initially known in Australia for their pub rock style, they later achieved mainstream success playing new wave and synthpop style music and attained Top Ten singles chart success in both Europe and the U.S...
, Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything are an Australian New Wave–rock music band formed at an art school in Sydney in 1976. Their most popular line-up was Martin Plaza on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne "Bird"...
and The Cockroaches
The Cockroaches
The Cockroaches was an Australian pop rock band which achieved reasonable success in the 1980s and 1990s. The band took its name from an obscure nom de plume favoured by The Rolling Stones during the 1960s....
(which later evolved into the hugely successful children's act The Wiggles
The Wiggles
The Wiggles are a children's group formed in Sydney, Australia in 1991. Their original members were Anthony Field, Phillip Wilcher, Murray Cook, Greg Page, and Jeff Fatt. Wilcher left the group after their first album...
). Both Mushroom and Regular recorded much of the best new Australian music of the time.
In the late Eighties change swept through the music industry, and vinyl was rapidly supplanted by the new compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
format which Festival embraced, but started to lose manufacturing revenue because of its predominant vinyl and cassette pressing business and its lack of CD manufacturing facilities. Festival's revenue was also dented by the loss of many of the successful independent overseas labels it had formerly distributed, notably Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
, A&M
A&M
-College and universities:*An "Agricultural and Mechanical" university is one that includes a college of agriculture and a college of engineering, provided for by the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act of 1862. -College and universities:*An "Agricultural and Mechanical" university is one that...
and Chrysalis; some deals ended due to overseas labels opening local branches, while others were lost when these former independents (e.g. Virgin, Charisma) were taken over by major labels like PolyGram
PolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
, BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group) and EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
. The loss of these overseas labels took a sizeable chunk out of Festival's profits, a problem compounded by Murdoch's persistent siphoning-off of Festival's profits, leaving it without the cash reserves it needed to invest in new plant, new acts and new labels.
In 1995, Alan Hely was nearing retirement, but he agreed to stay on to tutor Rupert Murdoch's younger son James
James Murdoch (media executive)
James Rupert Jacob Murdoch is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and currently serves as chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, Europe, and Asia, overseeing assets such as News International , SKY Italia , Sky Deutschland, and STAR TV .He sits on the News...
who, to the surprise of many in the industry, was appointed as Festival's Chairman, despite the fact that he was then only 23 and had no significant business experience. James had a reputation as the Murdoch family rebel; he bleached his hair and for some time sported an eyebrow stud, and to his family's dismay he had just dropped out of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
to set up a hip-hop label, Rawkus Records
Rawkus Records
Rawkus Records is an American hip-hop record label known for jump-starting the careers of both Mos Def and Talib Kweli. Rawkus started in 1996 with initial releases ranging from hip-hop to drum and bass...
, which for a time was the US's premier hip hop label, boasting Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
, Company Flow
Company Flow
Company Flow is an American underground hip hop group from Brooklyn, New York City at one time associated with the independent record label Rawkus Records. Rapper/producer El-P and DJ/producer Mr...
, and others.
Hely stayed on for some time after the appointment, but he resigned earlier than he had planned after disagreements with Murdoch; MD Bill Eeg took the reins for a short period before but resigned after the appointment of Roger Grierson
Roger Grierson
Roger Grierson is a New Zealand musician and music industry executive.-Career:In 1975 Grierson headed to London and Egypt to live but found himself lured back to Sydney in 1976 to work at White Light Records...
, a one-time member of Sydney '80s new wave band The Thought Criminals and a former manager of Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
.
In 1998 Grierson set about rebuilding Festival's profile, negotiating new licencing/distribution/promotion deals with a group of prestige Australian independent labels including W.Minc, Half A Cow
Half A Cow
Half a Cow is an independent record label from Australia, established in 1990 by Sydney musician and music identity Nic Dalton.- History :In 1987 - 1989 Dalton ran a bookshop in the Sydney suburb of Glebe called Dalton's Books...
, Reliant Records, Global Records and Psy Harmonics as well as international licences including Disney / Hollywood Records
Hollywood Records
Hollywood Records is an American record label owned by Disney Music Group, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.-History:Hollywood Records was founded in 1989 by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner with the idea of expanding the music operations of the company and to develop and promote...
, Chris Blackwell's
Chris Blackwell
Christopher Percy Gordon "Chris" Blackwell is a British record producer and businessman, who was the founder of Island Records, acknowledged as the most successful and groundbreaking independent record company in history. Blackwell has been a music industry mogul for over fifty years...
Palm Pictures
Palm Pictures
Palm Pictures is a US-based entertainment company owned and run by Chris Blackwell. Palm Pictures produces, acquires and distributes innovative music and film projects with a particular focus on the DVD format...
, Richard Branson's
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
V2 Records
V2 Records
V2 Records is a record label that is owned by Universal Music Group as of October 2007. The label was founded in 1996 by Richard Branson, five years after he sold Virgin Records to EMI....
and later on prestigious Australian label Albert Productions
Albert Productions
Albert Productions, a division of music publishing and recording company Albert Music, is one of Australia's longest established independent Australian record label to specialise in rock and roll music. The label was founded in 1964 by Ted Albert, whose family owned and operated the Australian...
, the home of AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
.
Under Grierson and Murdoch's management, Festival bought out Michael Gudinski's controlling 51% share of Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros...
in 1999. The two companies were then merged and renamed Festival Mushroom Records (FMR).
Several notable industry figures were hired as executives, including Jeremy Fabinyi (former artist manager and ex-head of AMCOS), Paul Dickson, former head of Polygram Australia, respected musician Mark Callaghan (ex-Riptides
Riptides
The Riptides were a band from Brisbane Australia and worked largely as a vehicle for the song-writing talents of Mark "Cal" Callaghan. Over a career spanning 6 years from 1979 to 1983 the band also featured a number of notable musicians.-History:...
, GANGgajang
GANGgajang
Gang Gajang are an Australian rock band who formed in 1984. The three principal figures in the original lineup were former Riptides frontman Mark "Cal" Callaghan and two former members of popular Australian hard rock band The Angels, bassist Chris Bailey and drummer Graham "Buzz"...
) and industry veteran and former Larrikin Records
Larrikin Records
Larrikin Records is a record company founded in 1974 by Warren Fahey. Larrikin started as an independent label and was sold in 1995 to Festival Records....
boss Warren Fahey
Warren Fahey
Warren Fahey AM is a social historian, author, record producer, broadcaster and singer.Fahey is the founder of Larrikin Records and the folk band The Larrikins...
. The company also established an online music site, Whammo, which offered online CD sales as well as hosting an online version of Ian McFarlane's Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop
Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop
The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop or Rock and Pop by Australian music journalist Ian McFarlane is a guide to Australian popular music from the 1950s to the late 1990s...
. The company had #1 records with Motorace, 28 Days, George, Amiel
Amiel Daemion
Amiel Muki Daemion born on in New York, is an Australian pop singer, songwriter and actress. She moved to Australia with her family at the age of two and starred in films in the 1990s, including The Silver Brumby which also starred Russell Crowe and Caroline Goodall. Her music career shot to fame...
, Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
and others under licence and distribution arrangements including Moby
Moby
Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
, Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
and Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford OBE is an English actor and singer. He has garnered great critical acclaim and won numerous awards during his career, which covers radio, television, film, and stagework on both London's West End and on Broadway in New York City...
. They also had the highest selling album of 2002 with the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann
Baz Luhrmann
Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for The Red Curtain Trilogy, which includes his films Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...
's Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 romantic jukebox musical film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. Following the Red Curtain Cinema principles, the film is based on the Orphean myth, La Traviata, and La Bohème...
. "Addicted to Bass" went to #2 in the UK charts and the band had top ten records in Japan through a licence arrangement with Sony Music Japan
Sony Music Entertainment Japan
is Sony's music arm in Japan. SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Corporation and independent from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry....
. In 2002, FMR had more #1 singles and more #1 albums than any other company.
In 2000, James Murdoch was appointed to head Star TV
STAR TV (Asia)
Satellite Television Asian Region is an Asian TV service owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.In 2009, News Corporation restructured STAR Asia into four units – STAR India, STAR Greater China, STAR Select and Fox International Channels....
and relocated to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
.
Festival celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2002 with a major museum exhibition and a series of commemorative CDs. News Ltd poured millions into Festival in the decade between 1995 and 2005; James Murdoch reportedly spent A$10 million on artists and repertoire. The company won both the Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year ARIA
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
award
ARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association...
in 2004 with Powderfinger
Powderfinger
Powderfinger was an Australian rock band that formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their breakup the band lineup consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bassist John Collins, and drummer Jon Coghill....
and Amiel
Amiel Daemion
Amiel Muki Daemion born on in New York, is an Australian pop singer, songwriter and actress. She moved to Australia with her family at the age of two and starred in films in the 1990s, including The Silver Brumby which also starred Russell Crowe and Caroline Goodall. Her music career shot to fame...
.
Despite these successes, revenues continued to fall and by 2006 the company was in dire financial straits. In October, FMR announced that its recorded music assets had been sold to Warner Music Australia. The terms of the sale were not disclosed although sources at other labels estimated that the deal was worth between A$5 million and A$10 million. Festival Mushroom's offices in five cities were closed and 43 of the company's 54 remaining staff were retrenched, with eleven senior management, promotions and marketing staff moved into positions at Warner.
The combined Festival Mushroom Records-Warner Bros. Records recording archive contains a large proportion of the most important Australian pop and rock music of the late 20th century, and the collection is said to contain more than 20,000 master tapes, including music by Johnny O'Keefe
Johnny O'Keefe
John Michael O'Keefe, known as Johnny O'Keefe was an Australian rock and roll singer whose career began in the 1950s. Some of his hits include "Wild One" , "Shout!" and "She's My Baby"...
, The Bee Gees, Peter Allen
Peter Allen
Peter Allen was an Australian songwriter and entertainer. His songs were made popular by many recording artists, including Elkie Brooks, Melissa Manchester and Olivia Newton-John, with one, Arthur's Theme, winning an Academy Award in 1981...
, Sherbet
Sherbet (band)
Sherbet was one of the most prominent and successful Australian rock bands of the 1970s. Their biggest singles were "Summer Love" and "Howzat" , both reaching number one in Australia. "Howzat" was also a top 5 hit in the UK. Though the band's success in the U.S...
, Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
, Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
, Nelly Furtado
Nelly Furtado
Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Furtado grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, and its single "I'm Like a Bird", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy...
, Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Mika
Mika (singer)
Mika is a British singer-songwriter.After recording his first extended play, Dodgy Holiday EP, Mika released his first full-length studio album, Life in Cartoon Motion, on Island Records in 2007. Life in Cartoon Motion sold more than 5.6 million copies worldwide and helped Mika win a Brit...
and Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
.
FMR's other major asset, Festival Music Publishing, was acquired in November 2005 by Michael Gudinksi's Mushroom Publishing, for an undisclosed sum.
See also
- List of record labels
- Leedon RecordsLeedon RecordsLeedon Records was an Australian record label active from 1958 to 1969. It was founded by American entrepreneur Lee Gordon in early 1958.-Establishment and early releases:...
- Sunshine RecordsSunshine RecordsSunshine Records was a small California based record label of the early 1920s, producing 6 double-sided gramophone records of early jazz and blues....
- Spin RecordsSpin RecordsSpin Records was an Australian popular music label of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was established in late 1966 by Clyde Packer and a group of partners including entrepreneur Harry M. Miller. The label's first A&R manager was Nat Kipner who produced several early Spin releases...
- Mushroom RecordsMushroom RecordsMushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros...
- Warner Bros. RecordsWarner Bros. RecordsWarner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
Australia