This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2015) |
Food Records | |
---|---|
Parent company | EMI (1994-2000) |
Founded | 1984 |
Founder | David Balfe, Andy Ross |
Defunct | 2000 |
Distributor(s) | Rough Trade |
Genre | |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Food Records was a British rock record label set up in 1984 by David Balfe (formerly of Zoo Records), who later took on Andy Ross as his partner. Originally formed as an independent record label with distribution going through Rough Trade Distribution, Food also licensed acts through WEA Records, before becoming closely associated with the EMI group's Parlophone label. EMI invested in the label and then in 1994 EMI gained complete control and folded it into Parlophone in 2000. Ross died in 2022 aged 66. [1] [2] [3]
Food was sold to EMI by David Balfe in 1994. Andy Ross continued running Food as a sub-label of EMI, where it was the record label of Blur, Strangelove, Idlewild, Jesus Jones, Dubstar, The Supernaturals, Octopus and Grass Show and Fungus from Sweden.
The Food Christmas EP | |
---|---|
EP by Various | |
Released | December 1989 |
Recorded | 1989 |
Genre | Indie-rock |
Length | 11:27 |
Label | Food |
Producer | Mike Edwards, Rick Wilson, John Butler |
In December 1989, Food Records released The Food Christmas EP (FOOD 23) that featured Food artists covering each other's songs. Crazyhead covered Diesel Park West's "Like Princes Do", Jesus Jones covered Crazyhead's "I Don't Want That Kind Of Love" and Diesel Park West covered Jesus Jones' "Info-Freako". The EP was released on CD, 7" vinyl, 12" and a limited gatefold sleeve 12" vinyl.
The EP charted at #63 on the UK Singles Chart. [4]
Parlophone Records Limited is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parlophone Company Limited, which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone's business, name, logo, and release library, and merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries Limited (EMI). George Martin joined Parlophone in 1950 as assistant to Oscar Preuss, the label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of recordings, including by comedian Peter Sellers, pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith.
Doubt is the second album by British rock band Jesus Jones, released on 21 January 1991 through Food Records. The label witnessed the success of their debut album Liquidizer (1989) and wanted more hit-sounding music from the band. Frontman Mike Edwards wrote new material on their tour bus and in hotel rooms; they recorded some of it in early 1990, before touring resumed. After the conclusion of a tour of the United Kingdom, the band spent a week in May 1990 recording the bulk of their next album at Matrix Studios in London. Edwards produced the majority of the tracks, with Food Records co-founder Andy Ross and Martyn Phillips producing one song each.
"Country House" is a song by English alternative rock band Blur. It was released as the lead single from the band's fourth studio album, The Great Escape (1995), on 14 August 1995 by Food and Parlophone. Released on the same day as the Oasis single "Roll with It" – in a chart battle dubbed the "Battle of Britpop" – "Country House" reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. The song is the band's best-selling single, with over 540,000 copies sold as of May 2014. Its music video was directed by Damien Hirst and nominated for Best Video in the 1996 BRIT Awards.
"Song 2" is a song by English rock band Blur. The song is the second song on their eponymous fifth studio album. Released physically on 7 April 1997, "Song 2" peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, number four on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, and number six on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
"Creep" is the debut single by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 21 September 1992. It was included on Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey (1993). It features "blasts" of guitar noise by Jonny Greenwood and lyrics describing an obsessive unrequited attraction.
"Tender" is a song by English rock band Blur from their sixth studio album, 13 (1999). Written by the four band members about Blur frontman Damon Albarn's breakup with musician turned painter Justine Frischmann, the song was released in Japan on 17 February 1999 and in the United Kingdom on 22 February as the album's lead single. "Tender" became Blur's 11th top-10 hit on the UK Singles Chart, debuting and peaking at number two the week after its release. It also reached the top 20 in Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, and Spain.
David Balfe is a musician and record company executive, most notable for playing keyboards with the Teardrop Explodes, founding the Zoo and Food independent record labels, signing Blur and for being the subject of their first number one hit, "Country House".
"Girls & Boys" is a song by English rock band Blur, released in March 1994 by Food Records as the lead single from the group's third studio album, Parklife (1994). The frontman of Blur, Damon Albarn wrote the song's lyrics with bandmembers Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree, while Stephen Street produced it.
Tower Records was an American record label active from 1964 to 1970. A subsidiary of Capitol Records, Tower often released music by artists who were relatively low-profile in compared to those released on the parent label, including artists—such as The Standells and The Chocolate Watchband—later recognized as "garage bands". For this reason Tower is often associated with the garage rock phenomenon of the 1960s.
"On Your Own" is a song by English rock band Blur. It was released as a single on 16 June 1997 from the band's fifth studio album, Blur (1997). It charted at number five on the UK Singles Chart. Although it was not released under the Gorillaz name, Damon Albarn, frontman of both musical projects, has since referred the song as 'one of the first ever Gorillaz tunes'.
Crazyhead are an English garage punk band from Leicester, England. Though lumped in with the largely media-created grebo scene, they were more influenced by the garage rock of the late 1960s, as well as bands like the Ramones, The Stooges and Captain Beefheart. They have often described themselves as an "urban bastard blues band", and their songs range in theme from trenchant social commentary to the surreal, but always with an underlying vein of black humour.
Stay with the Hollies, also known by its American release title Here I Go Again, is the debut album by the British rock band the Hollies and was released in January 1964 on Parlophone Records. In Canada, it was released on Capitol in July 1964, with a different track listing. In the US, Imperial Records issued the album under the title Here I Go Again in June 1964 to capitalize on the moderate success of the singles "Here I Go Again" and "Just One Look". It also features covers of well-known R&B songs, not unusual for Beat groups of the day.
"End of a Century" is a song by English alternative rock band Blur. Released in November 1994 by Food Records, it was the last single to be released from their third album, Parklife (1994). The song reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart, considered a disappointment by Andy Ross of Food. Damon Albarn later stated that "End of a Century" may not have been the best choice for the album's fourth single, and that "This Is a Low" would have been a better alternative.
Diesel Park West are an English alternative rock band from Leicester, England. Formed in 1980, they have released nine official albums, plus six singles that have appeared in the UK Singles Chart.
Reputation is the thirteenth studio album by British singer Dusty Springfield, and twelfth released. Issued on the Parlophone Records label in the UK and the rest of Europe in June 1990, Reputation was not only Springfield's first studio album in eight years at the time but also her first album to be released in her native UK since 1979's Living Without Your Love. After a string of commercially overlooked albums through the late 1970s and early 1980s Reputation finally managed to resurrect Springfield's career and belatedly resulted in her being re-evaluated and recognised by both music critics and the general public as the UK's foremost 'blue-eyed soul' singer. Mainly produced by Pet Shop Boys and Julian Mendelsohn and recorded in the UK over a period of some eighteen months, Reputation became her highest charting and best-selling album in the UK since 1970's From Dusty with Love, peaking at No. 18 and selling 60,000 copies within two weeks of its release.
The Number Ones is a compilation album of hits by The Beatles released in 1983 by EMI on the Parlophone Records label in Australia. It is a localised version of the 1982 compilation album 20 Greatest Hits.
Liquidizer is the debut album by British rock band Jesus Jones, released in October 1989 through Food Records. After various line-up changes, the members of the band moved to London, where frontman Mike Edwards would diversify his musical tastes. Guitarist Jerry de Borg joined soon after; in May 1988, Edwards acquired a sampler which would further his songwriting. With the addition of keyboardist Iain Baker, the band signed to Food Records by the end of the year. Initially enthusiastic about working with producer David Motion, recording sessions with him were fruitless. Craig Leon then produced Liquidizer in mid-1989, helping to give the album its signature tone, though the members would later be disappointed by the mixing.
Already is the fourth album by the British rock band Jesus Jones, first released in 1997.
Never Enough: The Best of Jesus Jones is a compilation album/greatest hits album by British alternative rock/dance band Jesus Jones, released by the band's former record label EMI on 27 May 2002.
Andrew Ian Ross was a British music executive, influential in the history of Britpop in the mid-1990s.