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 (who subsequently founded the Spin Records label). Although his enterprise was short-lived, Dayman was arguably the first Australian popular music entrepreneur to create a fully integrated pop music company that included artist management and bookings, record production, record labels, venue management and concert promotion.
51-498: Sunshine Records may refer to: Sunshine Records (Australia) , independent pop music record label in the mid-1960s. Sunshine Records (Philippines) , 1977-1994 recording company of Vicor Music Corporation. Sunshine Records (United States) , early 1920s Jazz and Blues record label in California. Sunshine Records (South Africa) , Record label owned and run by Graeme Beggs, representing
102-536: A Brisbane-based four-piece instrumental group that had previously recorded two instrumental singles for EMI's Parlophone label, produced by Nat Kipner . The B-side of their second single was written by Nat's young son Steve Kipner , who went on to front Sydney-based beat band Steve & The Board and subsequently formed the British-based pop duo Tin Tin with fellow Australian Steve Groves . Sunshine's greatest success
153-423: A director of the company without his knowledge, and when Sunshine's creditors moved in to recover their debts, Aulton's unwitting liability cost him his car, furniture and other assets. Fortunately, he was by then well known to Festival managing director Fred Marks, who rescued Aulton with the offer of a position as a staff producer at Festival. It is not known whether Dayman retained any interest or played any role in
204-405: A gravel quarry in his hometown of Adelaide, South Australia before moving into pop management and promotion in the early 1960s. He was very successful for a few years and at its height in 1965-66 his Sunshine group included two record labels, a concert promotion and booking agency, artist management and a string of venues in capital cities and major towns from Adelaide to north Queensland, including
255-723: 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
306-515: 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 . Another major FMR asset, Festival Studios, was acquired by ex-Festival Studios engineer Tom Misner, who acquired Studios 301
357-556: 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
408-400: 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. 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
459-592: 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 United States' 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
510-623: 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 No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 , becoming the first Australian recording to sell over one million copies in
561-512: 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 then being only 23 and with no significant business experience. James Murdoch had
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#1732895102002612-610: 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
663-476: 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 country music star Reg Lindsay. Lindsay received citations and awards from Festival management and
714-432: A subsidiary of News Limited from 1961 to 2005. The company was successful for most of its 50-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. 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
765-464: 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
816-619: A worldwide hit and its success in Australia enabled Festival to sign a crucial distribution deal with Alpert's label A&M Records , who supplied 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
867-497: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Sunshine Records (Australia) Most of the label's releases were made in the period 1965–67. Its biggest act was solo singer Normie Rowe , Australia's top male pop star from 1965 to 1968, who scored a string of Australian hit singles including " It Ain't Necessarily So ", " I (Who Have Nothing) ", " Que Sera Sera " and " Shakin' All Over ". Label founder Ivan Dayman reportedly ran
918-577: The Melbourne based Mushroom Records label and the Sydney-based Regular Records label, whose roster included top selling bands such as Icehouse , 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 1980s change swept through
969-772: The Australian Record Industry in the 1960s and 1970s for outstanding record sales and his promotion of country music nationally and internationally] the Delltones , Warren Williams , Billy Thorpe , the Bee Gees , Ray Brown & the Whispers , Tony Worsley & the Fabulous Blue Jays, Jimmy Little , Noeleen Batley , Mike Furber , Olivia Newton-John , the Dave Miller Set , Johnny Young , Jamie Redfern , Wild Cherries and Jeff St John . An important factor in
1020-513: The Australian rights to the recording for Festival in 1955, after the song became a big hit in America and Britain thanks to its inclusion in the film Blackboard Jungle . "Rock Around the Clock" became 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
1071-499: 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. In 1979 Mark Moffatt replaced Batchens as house producer, bringing much of
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#17328951020021122-513: The Mushroom recording in house. 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,
1173-520: 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 LJ 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"),
1224-650: The Southern African interest of Abba, CLOUT, Circus, Pendulum, Mally and Billy Forest (William C. Boardman), through the 1970s and 1980s. Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Sunshine Records . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sunshine_Records&oldid=710826855 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
1275-683: The Sydney Bowl nightclub. During mid-1966 Kipner collaborated with independent producer Ossie Byrne on the short-lived Downunder Records . During this period he briefly took over the management of The Bee Gees and persuaded Festival's Leedon label to release the band from their contract and signed them to the newly established Spin Records , which he had just joined as A&R manager. Following Kipner's departure, Pat Aulton took over as Sunshine's main producer, but both he and Kipner also produced recordings on Sunshine's short-lived sister label Kommotion, which
1326-539: The United States, 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 Group 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
1377-507: The combined Festival-Mushroom Records recording archive was sold to the Australian division of the Warner Music Group for a reported A$ 10 million. Credits: Festival Records (Australia) Festival Records , later known as Festival Mushroom Records , was an Australian recording and publishing company founded in Sydney , Australia, in 1952 and operated until 2005. Festival was
1428-459: The company after 1967, although he continued to operate his promotions and management business in several cities. Sunshine's recording assets were acquired by its distributor, Festival Records during 1967. The label's releases declined rapidly from this point and it ceased operations after two final singles released during 1971. The Sunshine catalogue remained in the archive of Festival Records until that company went into liquidation in 2005, when
1479-405: 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 . In January 1971, Festival established a new progressive music label, Infinity Records (not related to the U.S. MCA affiliated label of the same name, see Infinity Records .) Early Infinity releases included Kahvas Jute , Billy Thorpe &
1530-649: 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
1581-437: The early Sixties while fronting The Clefs ; Dayman hired him to work as an MC and opening act for his concerts, and Aulton eventually became Sunshine's musical director and house producer. Sunshine established a manufacturing and distribution deal with by Festival Records , similar to those that Festival made with other contemporary independent labels including Clarion Records , Spin Records and Albert Productions . Sunshine
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1632-519: The famed Cloudland Ballroom in Brisbane. In late 1964 Dayman expanded his business by establishing the Sunshine label, to record and produce the pop artists he already had under contract and to launch new discoveries. The label's parent company, Sunshine Productions, was a partnership between Dayman, expatriate American entrepreneur Nat Kipner and musician Pat Aulton . Kipner had teamed up with Dayman when
1683-411: The financial strain of Normie Rowe's extended overseas stay was a contributing factor, but it seems likely that the main cause of the company's demise was Dayman's questionable business practices. The Kommotion label folded at the start of 1967, and Sunshine was taken over by Festival and become a wholly owned subsidiary label. After the collapse of Sunshine, Pat Aulton discovered that Dayman had made him
1734-595: 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 moved to Hong Kong . Festival celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2002 with
1785-968: 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
1836-421: 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 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 United States, but Welch was able to trump EMI and secure
1887-591: The latter expanded his pop promotions into Brisbane, where Nat was producing TV pop shows for Channel 7, among many other ventures; he also ran a record store, wrote comedy skits and songs for the George Wallace Jr TV variety show Theatre Royal , ran a small publishing company with Johnny Devlin , and wrote songs with Devlin, country musician Geoff Mack (author of " I've Been Everywhere ") and Nat's teenage son Steve Kipner . Pat Aulton had met Dayman in Adelaide in
1938-831: The music industry and vinyl was rapidly supplanted by the new compact disc format which Festival embraced. However it started to lose manufacturing revenue at this point because of how predominant its vinyl and cassette pressing business was and because of the lack of CD manufacturing facilities for Festival, whose 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 ), Sony Music , Warner Music Group (which would absorb Festival), and EMI . The loss of these overseas labels took
1989-502: The national pop scene. In November 1964 Sunshine issued the first single jointly credited to Tony Worsley and The Fabulous Blue Jays, "Sure Know A Lot About Love", which charted in Brisbane, and the band broke through in other capitals with a their powerful version of Rosco Gordon's "Just A Little Bit" in early 1965. Another notable early release was the Pat Aulton-produced single "Lost My Baby"/"Slowly But Surely" by The Pacifics ,
2040-477: The rapid growth in sale of LPs in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During Sunshine's peak period from 1964 to 1967, singles and EPs were by far the biggest selling vinyl formats in Australia while LPs—still something of a luxury at that time—formed only a small percentage of total record sales. In early 1964 Dayman took over the Saturday night lease on Melbourne Festival Hall and renamed it "Mersey City". On 2 May 1964
2091-687: 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
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2142-751: 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 1997, Grierson set about rebuilding Festival's profile, negotiating new licensing/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 TVT Records , Walt Disney Records / Hollywood Records / Mammoth Records , Chris Blackwell 's Palm Pictures , V2 Records and later on prestigious Australian label Albert Productions ,
2193-495: The two companies Cullen reincorporated 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 television in Australia in 1956. The connection between Nine and Festival would reap great benefits for
2244-583: The venue opened with Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays , attended by over 4500 teenagers. Dayman also used Worsley and the Blue Jays to open several other Queensland venues in Bundaberg, Toowoomba, Ipswich, Inala, Surfers Paradise and the city and by the end of the year, with the success of their first single, they were one of the hottest pop acts in the country. The first Sunshine single release, in October 1964,
2295-413: Was (in local terms) a relatively productive label, with over 100 singles, more than 30 EPs and at least dozen LPs released between 1964 and 1971. This is a similar volume of releases to its successor, Spin Records , and both labels existed for a similar time-span, but while Sunshine and Spin released almost identical numbers of singles and EPs, Spin issued many more LPs. This difference can be explained by
2346-604: 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 1960s and Mushroom Records in the 1970s. 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
2397-429: Was in dire financial straits. In October, FMR announced that its recorded music assets had been sold to Warner Music Australia . 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
2448-457: 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
2499-489: Was set up to promote the acts who appeared on the TV pop show of the same name. Aulton produced and engineered many later Sunshine singles and albums, as well as providing uncredited vocal and instrumental backing and contributing to arrangements. Sunshine Productions ran into serious financial problems around the end of 1966, but the full story behind the company's collapse is still not known. Pop historian Bill Casey has suggested that
2550-1348: Was solo singer Normie Rowe , who scored a string of major Australian hits between 1965 and 1968, and his double-A-sided 1965 single "Que Sera Sera" / "Shakin' All Over" became one of the biggest-selling local hits of the 1960s and is still one of the biggest selling Australian singles of all time. The Sunshine roster featured several male solo singers including Normie Rowe, Peter Doyle (who later joined The Virgil Brothers and The New Seekers ) and Mike Furber . Its more 'left field' signings included hardcore Brisbane blues-R&B band The Purple Hearts , highly rated NZ pop/R&B group The Librettos , Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays, Normie Rowe's backing band The Playboys, Marcie Jones & The Cookies, highly rated Sydney teen singer Toni McCann , renowned surf band The Atlantics , Ricky & Tammy, Melbourne's feedback kings Running Jumping Standing Still, NZ folk duo Bill & Boyd, Rev. Black & The Rockin' Vicars, popular Brisbane solo star Jonne Sands and Brisbane pop band Wickedy Wak, whose Sunshine single "Billie's Bikie Boys"—the recording debut of future star Rick Springfield —was produced by Ian "Molly" Meldrum . Many earlier Sunshine recordings, including most of Rowe's early singles and albums, were produced by Nat Kipner, but in late 1965 Kipner sold his share in Sunshine and
2601-400: Was the single "Jay Walker" by The Blue Jays, who were already well established in their home town of Melbourne and had released instrumental singles on the small Crest label. In early 1964 Dayman teamed the band with a young Brisbane singer, Tony Worsley. The Blue Jays continued to release records under their own name, but it was the teaming of The Blue Jays with Worsley that launched Sunshine on
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