This article is about the entertainment company and record label. For other uses see Springtime (disambiguation)

Springtime! is a boutique entertainment company established in the UK in 1977 and based in the United States since 1983. The company's activities encompass film, TV, radio, record and stage show production, entertainment marketing & publicity and talent management. The company has produced and marketed audio recordings, films, TV specials and music videos. It is periodically active as a record company releasing its own audio productions and acquisitions.http://s.dsimg.com/label/Springtime+Records

Record company

The record division of Springtime! was launched in 1981 as a label distributed in the UK by 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...

 and in the US/Canada by Island/Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records

Warner 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...

.

The label is primarily focused on both newly-recorded and historic comedy material. It has distributed recordings by the Portsmouth Sinfonia

Portsmouth Sinfonia

The Portsmouth Sinfonia was an orchestra founded by a group of students at the Portsmouth School of Art in Portsmouth, England, in 1970. The Sinfonia had an unusual entrance requirement, in that players had to either be non-musicians, or if a musician, play an instrument that was entirely new to...

, http://www.45cat.com/record/wip6736 http://michaelcooper.org.uk/C/recordings.htm alternative comedians such as Alexei Sayle

Alexei Sayle

Alexei David Sayle is a British stand-up comedian, actor and author. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-ups in 2007...

, http://www.45cat.com/record/is162 Rik Mayall

Rik Mayall

Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...

, Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer

Nigel Planer

Nigel George Planer is an English actor, comedian, novelist and playwright.Planer is perhaps best known for his role as Neil Pye in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked and Hairspray...

, Peter Richardson

Peter Richardson

Peter Richardson is an English actor, comedian, director, and writer, best known for The Comic Strip Presents... television series. He is also a long time comedy partner with Nigel Planer.-Early career:...

 and French and Saunders

French and Saunders

French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show written by and starring comic duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act....

 of The Comic Strip

The Comic Strip

The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents.... The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane and...

, http://s.dsimg.com/Comic-Strip-The-Comic-Strip/release/2495369 the historic Private Eye recordings. http://s.dsimg.com/Private-Eye-Private-Eye-Presents-Golden-Satiricals-The-Top-Ten-Flexi-Discs/release/2215688 Springtime recorded and released Alexei Sayle's first album Cak! in 1982. http://www.discogs.com/Alexei-Sayle-Cak-/release/1749790 'The label's most successful humor release has been the comedy album of Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

's, 1981 benefit show The Secret Policeman's Other Ball

The Secret Policeman's Other Ball

The Secret Policeman's Other Ball was the fourth of the benefit shows staged by the British Section of Amnesty International to raise funds for its research and campaign work in the human rights field...

which featured John Cleese

John Cleese

John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...

 and Graham Chapman

Graham Chapman

Graham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...

 of Monty Python

Monty Python

Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...

, Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...

, Barry Humphries

Barry Humphries

John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...

, Billy Connolly

Billy Connolly

William "Billy" Connolly, Jr., CBE is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is sometimes known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname The Big Yin...

, Jasper Carrott

Jasper Carrott

Jasper Carrott OBE is a British comedian, actor, television presenter and personality.-Early life:...

, John Bird

John Bird

John Bird may refer to:* John Bird , British actor and comedian* John Bird , founder of The Big Issue* John Bird , British astronomer and instrument designer...

, John Fortune

John Fortune

John Fortune is a British satirist, comedian writer and actor, best known for his work with John Bird and Rory Bremner on the TV series Bremner, Bird and Fortune. He was educated at Bristol Cathedral School and King's College, Cambridge, where he was to meet and form a lasting friendship with John...

, Tim Brooke-Taylor

Tim Brooke-Taylor

Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964...

, Griff Rhys Jones

Griff Rhys Jones

Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...

, Alexei Sayle and Neil Innes

Neil Innes

Neil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...

.http://www.iankitching.me.uk/music/bonzos/collabs.html http://www.cyberonic.net/~atrain/comedy/humph.htm http://www.btinternet.com/~c.tomlinson/bonzo/music/innes/ball.htm

In addition to the release of the comedy album of Amnesty's 1981 show, the label also released the music album of that show which became a major chart success in the UK and the US. The album featured Sting, Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

, Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

, Phil Collins

Phil Collins

Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....

, Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof

Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...

 and Donovan

Donovan

Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...

. http://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Secret-Policemans-Other-Ball-The-Music/release/1606385

The Comic Strip album achieved some attention owing to the strong language used by the performers, which prompted the label to place a parental advisory sticker on the front cover. It also attracted attention because of its long duration - with a total running time of over 69 minutes on a single 12" disc - considerably longer than the customary 40 minutes per album. http://www.skfn.net/rss/t1974633.html

The label was dormant for several years and then in the early 1990s released a series of albums distributed in the UK by Castle Communications

Castle Communications

Castle Communications was a British independent record label founded in 1983 by Terry Shand, Cliff Dane and Jon Beecher. The company was acquired by the American music distributor Alliance Entertainment in 1994 and in 2000 it was absorbed into Sanctuary Records Group...

 which included reissues of previous successes such as The Comic Strip Album and the first-ever releases of extended two-volume editions of two of Amnesty's comedy galas 1976's A Poke In The Eye (With A Sharp Stick)

A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick)

A Poke In The Eye is the title of the first show in what became the iconic Secret Policeman's Ball series of benefit shows for human rights organization Amnesty International...

and 1981's The Secret Policeman's Other Ball. In the USA, Springtime produced and distributed with Rhino Records a British comedy compilation titled Dead Parrot Society. http://www.indyworld.com/comics/atkinson/

In the late 1990s, Springtime albums were distributed by Music Collection International and releases included three volumes of Private Eye recordings including the first-ever release of Private Eye's notorious album Ho-Ho Very Satirical! recorded in 1971 but refused release at the time by all major record companies because of its controversial content.

Music videos

Springtime produced music videos for comedy records such as Alexei Sayle's Ullo John! Gotta New Motor? (1982), the Comic Strip's Pop-Up Toasters (1981) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x3Vm_vwK-U&feature=related and the Portsmouth Sinfonia's Classical Muddly (1981). In 1984/1985 the company's Martin Lewis produced four music videos featuring Julian Lennon

Julian Lennon

John Charles Julian Lennon is an English musician, songwriter, actor, and photographer. He is the son of John Lennon and Lennon's first wife, Cynthia Powell. Beatles manager Brian Epstein was his godfather. He has a younger half-brother, Sean Lennon. Lennon was named after his paternal...

: Too Late For Goodbyes http://www.avclub.com/articles/when-is-a-julian-lennon-video-also-a-sam-peckinpah,39785/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmJ0AkzvdN8 and Valotte (both directed by Sam Peckinpah

Sam Peckinpah

David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...

); http://books.google.com/books?id=uyQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT129&dq=%22valotte%22+%22too+late+for+goodbyes%22+%22sam+peckinpah%22&hl=en&ei=s06yTYK6NY6osQPP0IH7Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-preview-link&resnum=5&ved=0CEwQuwUwBA#v=onepage&q=%22valotte%22%20%22too%20late%20for%20goodbyes%22%20%22sam%20peckinpah%22&f=false Jesse and Stand By Me. In 1985 Springtime co-produced the music video for Wham!

WHAM!

Wham! were a short-lived British musical duo formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in the early 1980s. They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK due to a naming conflict with an American band....

's Freedom single, co-directed by Lindsay Anderson

Lindsay Anderson

Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...

 and culled from footage of George Michael

George Michael

George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...

 and Andrew Ridgely shot by Anderson during the pop duo's April 1985 tour of China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 which was filmed by Springtime for George Michael and CBS Records.

The company has also produced or co-produced music videos related to movies. These included Eric Burdon

Eric Burdon

Eric Victor Burdon is an English singer-songwriter best known as a founding member and vocalist of rock band The Animals, and the funk rock band War and for his aggressive stage performance...

's version of Sixteen Tons

Sixteen Tons

"Sixteen Tons" is a song about the life of a coal miner, first recorded in 1946 by American country singer Merle Travis and released on his box set album Folk Songs of the Hills the following year...

from the 1990 Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks

Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...

/Meg Ryan

Meg Ryan

Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...

 film Joe Versus the Volcano

Joe Versus the Volcano

Joe Versus the Volcano is a 1990 comedy film written and directed by John Patrick Shanley and starring Tom Hanks and—in three roles—Meg Ryan. The film is writer Shanley's directorial debut and the first of three films pairing Hanks and Ryan....

, Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...

's Kiss and Tell from the 1988 Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P...

 film Bright Lights, Big City

Bright Lights, Big City

Bright Lights, Big City may refer to: *""Bright Lights, Big City" ", a 1961 song by Jimmy Reed*Bright Lights, Big City , a 1984 novel by Jay McInerney*Bright Lights, Big City , a 1988 film based on McInerney's novel...

, The Pretenders

The Pretenders

The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...

' If There Was a Man from the 1987 James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 film The Living Daylights

The Living Daylights

The Living Daylights is the fifteenth entry in the James Bond series and the first to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent 007. The film's title is taken from Ian Fleming's short story, "The Living Daylights"...

, The Turtles

The Turtles

The Turtles are an American rock group led by vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. The band became notable for several Top 40 hits beginning with its cover version of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" in 1965...

 Happy Together

Happy Together

Happy Together may refer to:In music:* "Happy Together" , a 1967 song by The Turtles that has been covered several times* Happy Together * Happy Together * Happy Together...

from the 1986 John Malkovich

John Malkovich

John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...

/Ann Magnuson

Ann Magnuson

Ann Magnuson is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer who first gained prominence in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan...

 comedy Making Mr. Right

Making Mr. Right

Making Mr. Right is a science fiction/comedy film, directed by Susan Seidelman and starring John Malkovich as Jeff Peters/Ulysses and Ann Magnuson as Frankie Stone.This film is primarily about an android and a woman's misadventures.-Plot:...

, a full-length version of Dooley Wilson

Dooley Wilson

Arthur "Dooley" Wilson was an American actor and singer. He was born in Tyler, Texas, and is remembered as piano-player "Sam" who sings "As Time Goes By" at the request of Ilsa Lund in the 1942 film, Casablanca - the Sam in the famously misremembered line "Play it again, Sam" -- a phrase which...

's version of As Time Goes By

As Time Goes By

As Time Goes By is a British sitcom that aired on BBC One from 1992 to 2005. Starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, it follows the relationship between two former lovers who meet unexpectedly after not having been in contact for 38 years....

for a reissue of Casablanca

Casablanca

Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...

in 1998. http://www.martinlewis.com/film.html In 2010, Springtime's Lewis produced the music video of Aaron Johnson

Aaron Johnson

Aaron Johnson is a professional ice hockey defenceman currently playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League .-Playing career:...

 performing one of the first songs recorded by John Lennon

John Lennon

John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

, Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

 and George Harrison

George Harrison

George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

 - In Spite of All the Danger

In Spite of All the Danger

"In Spite of All the Danger" is one of the first songs recorded by The Quarrymen, then composed of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, pianist John Lowe and drummer Colin Hanton....

- for the 2010 film Nowhere Boy

Nowhere Boy

Nowhere Boy is a 2009 British biopic about John Lennon's adolescence, his relationships with his guardian aunt and his birth mother, the creation of his first band, the Quarrymen, and its evolution into the Beatles. The film is based on a biography written by Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird...

. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpSw2MYOnLc

Films, TV and home-video

Springtime produced and released Alexei Sayle's first home-video show The Alexei Sayle Pirate Video in 1983. http://www.pre-cert.co.uk/cgi-bin/cms/Film/75678

Springtime produced or co-produced music documentaries such as Stand By Me: A Portrait Of Julian Lennon

Julian Lennon

John Charles Julian Lennon is an English musician, songwriter, actor, and photographer. He is the son of John Lennon and Lennon's first wife, Cynthia Powell. Beatles manager Brian Epstein was his godfather. He has a younger half-brother, Sean Lennon. Lennon was named after his paternal...

released in 1985 in the USA by MCA Home Video and in the UK by Virgin Vision and Foreign Skies: Wham!

WHAM!

Wham! were a short-lived British musical duo formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in the early 1980s. They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK due to a naming conflict with an American band....

 In China directed by Lindsay Anderson

Lindsay Anderson

Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...

 released worldwide in 1986 by CBS Records Video. http://books.google.com/books?id=eSQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT25&dq=%22lindsay+anderson%22+wham+china&hl=en&ei=ZU-yTcXlGorEsAOYmOHZCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22lindsay%20anderson%22%20wham%20china&f=false

Springtime co-produced multiple theatrical, TV and home-video compilations for the U.S. market drawn from Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

's The Secret Policeman's Balls

The Secret Policeman's Balls

The Secret Policeman's Balls is the collective name informally used to describe the long-running series of benefit shows staged in England to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International...

series of films. These include the 1982 US theatrical version of The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, the 1983 TV special The Secret Policeman's Private Parts, the 1984 special The Secret Policeman's Rock Concert, the 1985 special The Secret Policeman's Private Party, the 2009 DVD The Secret Policeman Rocks! and the 2010 DVD The Secret Policeman's Private Party (30th Anniversary Edition) - both released by Shout Factory. http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/40265/secret-policemans-ball-the-secret-policeman-rocks/