Eleven: A Music Company

Last updated

Eleven: A Music Company
Founded11 November 2000
FounderJohn Watson
Distributor(s) Universal Music, EMI
GenreVarious
Country of origin Australia
Location Sydney
Official website elevenmusic.com

Eleven: A Music Company is an Australian record label and management company known for its small but successful roster, currently including Birds of Tokyo, Cold Chisel, Dustin Tebbutt, Gotye, Midnight Oil, Missy Higgins, Paul Mac, Peter Garrett, The Presets, and Silverchair. The company was founded on 11 November 2000 by artist manager, John Watson.

Contents

History

John Watson grew up in Townsville, Queensland. He worked in independent record stores there while still in high school, then left Townsville for Sydney with local indie band The Spliffs in 1986. In the late 1980s Watson worked as a freelance music journalist while completing an honours degree in politics at the University of New South Wales. He also managed The Spliffs and The Whippersnappers. In 1990 he was hired by MDS (a division of Mushroom Records) to open their Sydney office. In 1991, he became the Sydney-based Artist and Repertoire manager for Sony Music Australia and later also became the company's Director of International Marketing. [1]

In 1994, the young rock trio Silverchair came to Watson's attention. After being jointly responsible for signing the band to the new Murmur imprint, he left Sony and became Silverchair's manager via the newly founded John Watson Management. Under Watson's guidance, Silverchair had immediate worldwide commercial success and have since gone on to sell more than 6 million records, and achieve five No. 1 albums in Australia.

When Silverchair's deal with Sony ended in 2000, Watson formed Eleven: A Music Company to release their works. [2] He also signed several other successful Australian artists to the label, including Missy Higgins, Paul Mac, Kisschasy, The Dissociatives and Little Birdy. John Watson Management represents all artists signed to Eleven: A Music Company.

John Watson Management also represents some Australian artists who are not signed to the Eleven label: Birds of Tokyo and Cold Chisel (who is co-managed with John O'Donnell). The company also managed Wolfmother from 2005 until standing down from that role six months before the release of that band's second album in 2009.

Eleven took its name from the amplifier in the cult comedy movie This Is Spinal Tap . Like that amplifier the label "seeks to go one step further in its efforts on behalf of its artists". [3]

Eleven's releases were originally distributed in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia (except Japan) by Virgin/EMI. In the rest of the world, however, the label is of independent status and some of its artists are signed to different labels in other territories.

In July 2008, Watson announced that Eleven would be leaving EMI and joining Universal on 11 September 2008. The new deal allows Eleven and its artists to have total control over marketing and promotion and to more closely link the marketing and promotion of recordings and tours. In a statement, Watson said "Instead of the traditional approach of having one group of people trying to sell CDs while others try to sell concert tickets, artists need to be in the broader business of building enduring relationships with their audiences in all the different forms that may take. Universal Music truly understands all this, so our new deal will allow us to integrate those processes much more seamlessly." [4]

In June 2015, iconic Australian dance duo The Presets signed a management deal with Eleven. Eleven also signed on to manage both Midnight Oil and Peter Garrett's solo career in 2015, and in 2017 re-launched the band's music career with The Great Circle World Tour - spanning over 70 dates and selling in excess of 400,000 tickets.

Artist roster

Inactive / Previous

See also

Related Research Articles

Little Birdy

Little Birdy were an Australian alternative rock band formed in Perth, Western Australia, in 2002 by singer and guitarist Katy Steele, drummer Matt Chequer, guitarist and keyboardist Simon Leach, and bass guitarist Scott O'Donoghue. They gained public attention when their single "Relapse" gained popularity on alternative radio stations such as Triple J, leading them to be signed by the record label Eleven: A Music Company. They released three studio albums, two EPs, and ten singles.

Modular Recordings

Modular Recordings is an Australian record label founded in 1998 by Steve Pavlovic that is currently owned by Universal Music Australia. It has released music from local artists such as Eskimo Joe, Ben Lee, The Avalanches, Wolfmother, Cut Copy, The Bumblebeez, Bag Raiders, Van She, Rocket Science, Ghostwood, The Presets, Pond, and Tame Impala, and local releases of international artists including Dom, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Chromeo, Colder, Klaxons, Ladyhawke, NYPC, MSTRKRFT, and Softlightes.

WaveAid

WaveAid was a fund raising concert held on Saturday, 29 January 2005, as a means for raising funds for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, known as the Boxing Day tsunami. It was held at the Sydney Cricket Ground and broadcast on television by Channel [V] and MTV, and on radio by Triple J, Triple M, NOVA and World Audio Radio 2. The event was organised by Michael Chugg, Joe Segreto of IMC/Homebake Festival and Mark Pope.

<i>The Sound of White</i> 2004 studio album by Missy Higgins

The Sound of White is the debut studio album by Australian pop singer-songwriter Missy Higgins, released 6 September 2004 by Eleven. It won the 2005 ARIA Music Award for Best Female Artist. Higgins had secured recording contracts with Eleven and Warner Bros. while still in high school, after winning a competition for unsigned artists run by radio station Triple J. Her winning song, "All For Believing", is included on this album. After a backpacking trip in 2002, Higgins toured and wrote songs during 2003. She wrote most tracks alone and collaborated on three songs, with Kevin Griffin, Jay Clifford and Clif Magness respectively. The Sound of White was recorded in 2004 with producer John Porter.

The 19th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 23 October 2005 at the Sydney Superdome at the Sydney Olympic Park complex, thus continuing the previous year's innovation of televising the awards on Sunday evening. A varied cast of presenters included Merrick and Rosso, stand-up comic Dave Hughes, Gretel Killeen and David Hasselhoff.

Robert Hambling is an Australian film director/editor, currently based in Sydney.

Triple J Hottest 100, 2005

The 2005 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on 26 January 2006. It was the thirteenth such countdown of the most popular songs of the year, according to listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J.

Murmur was a record label that started as an imprint of Sony Music Australia in mid-1994. Named after R.E.M.'s first album, Murmur signed a number of Australia's most successful rock bands, including Silverchair, Ammonia, Something for Kate and Jebediah. Notable alumni of Murmur include John O'Donnell, a former Rolling Stone journalist who became the head of EMI Australia, and John Watson, who runs a music management company and independent record label Eleven.

John O'Donnell is a long-standing member of the Australian music industry. Starting as a freelance writer, he eventually became the music editor of Rolling Stone Australia before leaving to co-found and edit Juice Magazine.

Like a Version is a weekly segment on Australian youth radio station Triple J. It involves Australian and international artists playing two songs live in the Triple J studio, one of their own songs and then a cover version, hence the name of the segment. The title is wordplay on "Like a Virgin".

Missy Higgins Australian singer-songwriter

Melissa Morrison Higgins is an Australian singer–songwriter. Her Australian number-one albums are The Sound of White (2004), On a Clear Night (2007) and The Ol' Razzle Dazzle (2012), and her singles include "Scar", "Steer" and "Where I Stood". Higgins was nominated for five ARIA Music Awards in 2004 and won 'Best Pop Release' for "Scar". In 2005, she was nominated for seven more awards and won five. Higgins won her seventh ARIA in 2007. Her third album, The Ol' Razzle Dazzle, was released in Australia in June 2012. As of August 2014, Higgins' first three studio albums had sold over one million units.

The 20th annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 29 October 2006 at the Acer Arena at the Sydney Olympic Park complex. Presenters on the night included James Mathison, Johnny Knoxville, Jesse McCartney and John Mayer.

The Jack Awards were a set of popularly voted Australian music awards, sponsored by Tennessee whiskey company Jack Daniel's. The awards were conceived by Damien Wilson, former creative director of Peer Group Media to create a national platform that rewarded all areas of Australian live music, from bands to venues, tour art to guitarists and drummers rather than recorded releases. The Jack Awards began in 2004, and were broadcast on pay TV channel Channel [V] Australia.

Southbound (festival)

Southbound was an arts, camping and music festival. A variety of Australian and international artists perform at this event. The festival occurred annually around New Years, at the Sir Stewart Bovell Park in Busselton, Western Australia.

The 21st Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 28 October 2007 at the Acer Arena at the Sydney Olympic Park complex. Rove McManus was the host of the event. The nominees for all categories were announced on 19 September, while the winners of the Artisan Awards were announced on that same day.

The 22nd Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards took place on 19 October 2008. The nominees for all categories were announced on 10 September, while the winners of the Artisan Awards were announced on the same day.

Valleyarm is a digital content distribution company that was founded in 2009. Initially the company focused on digital music delivery, working primarily with independent artists and record labels to distribute content to music streaming and download stores globally. Artists and labels have included Gotye, Silverchair, Missy Higgins, Devo, Shock Records, and Eleven Music.

<i>100 Best Australian Albums</i> 2010 book by John ODonnell

The 100 Best Australian Albums is a compendium of rock and pop albums of the past 50 years as compiled by music journalists Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell. The book was published on 25 October 2010 by Hardie Grant Books. Sony Music has released a five CD compilation to support the book.

The Channel V Oz Artist of the Year was an annual award Presented by Channel V Australia and is voted by the Australian public, and is awarded to the artist on the same day as the annual ARIA Music Awards presentation events. Since its inauguration in 1997, Silverchair has won the Artist of the Year award for six consecutive years, from 1997 to 2002.

The Spliffs were an Australian pop band which formed in Townsville in 1985. They broke up in 1988 after a van crash destroyed their equipment. Their single, "Sixteen" (1988), was nominated for Best Independent Release at the ARIA Music Awards of 1989. Bass guitarist and manager, John Watson, later formed Eleven: A Music Company, and managed acts such as silverchair, Missy Higgins, and Gotye.

References

  1. Mathieson, Craig. The Sell In. 2000, Allen & Unwin
  2. White, Dominic (18 June 2013). "For the record". Australasian Business Intelligence. ComTex News Network, Inc. ISSN   1320-6680.
  3. "About". elevenmusic.com. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  4. Cashmere, Paul (9 August 2008). "John Watson Takes Eleven To Universal". Undercover.com.au. Archived from the original on 22 October 2009. Retrieved 30 July 2008.