Illegal Records | |
---|---|
Founded | 1977 |
Founder | Miles Copeland III, Stewart Copeland, Paul Mulligan |
Defunct | 1988 |
Status | Defunct |
Genre | Alternative rock, punk rock |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Illegal Records was an independent record label, founded in 1977 by Miles Copeland III with his younger brother Stewart Copeland and the manager of The Police, Paul Mulligan. [1] The label released The Police's debut single, "Fall Out". [2]
Copeland went on to sign more artists and started several other indie sublabels including: Deptford Fun City Records, Step-Forward Records and Total Noise Records. He also launched the foreign divisions, France & Netherlands, that released some of the same titles with different catalogue numbers, and some exclusive titles as well.
In 1979, after Copeland started I.R.S. Records, Illegal became its distributor in UK and Europe. It continued its operations until 1988, when it merged its operations with I.R.S.
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Within a few months of their first gig, the line-up settled as Sting, Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland, and this remained unchanged for the rest of the band's history. The Police became globally popular from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Emerging in the British new wave scene, they played a style of rock influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz.
Squeeze are an English rock band that came to prominence in the United Kingdom during the new wave period of the late 1970s, and continued recording in the 1980s, 1990s and 2010s. In the UK, their singles "Cool for Cats", "Up the Junction", and "Labelled with Love" were top-ten chart hits. Though not as commercially successful in the United States, Squeeze had American hits with "Tempted", "Black Coffee in Bed", and "Hourglass", and were considered a part of the Second British Invasion.
Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Dockyards. This was a major shipbuilding dock and attracted Peter the Great to come and study shipbuilding. Deptford and the docks are associated with the knighting of Sir Francis Drake by Queen Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind, the legend of Sir Walter Raleigh laying down his cape for Elizabeth, Captain James Cook's third voyage aboard HMS Resolution, and the mysterious apparent murder of Christopher Marlowe in a house along Deptford Strand.
Brian James is an English punk rock guitarist, who is best known for being a founding member of The Damned as well as of The Lords of the New Church.
The Lords of the New Church were a British-American rock band. A supergroup, the line-up originally consisted of four musicians from 1970s punk bands. This line-up comprised vocalist Stiv Bators, guitarist Brian James, bassist Dave Tregunna and drummer Nick Turner. Launched in 1981, the band released three studio albums prior to their dissolution in 1989. During this time, they underwent several line-up changes.
I.R.S. Records was a major American record label founded by Miles Copeland III and Jay Boberg in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave and alternative rock artists, including R.E.M., The Go-Go's, Wall of Voodoo, and Fine Young Cannibals. Currently the label is distributed by parent company Universal Music Group.
Concrete Blonde was an American rock band from Hollywood, California. They were initially active from 1982 to 1994, and reunited twice: first from 2001 to 2004, and again from 2010 to 2012. They were best known for their album Bloodletting (1990), its top 20 single "Joey", and Johnette Napolitano's distinctive vocal style.
Live at the Witch Trials is the debut studio album by the Fall. It was released on 16 March 1979 through record label Step-Forward. It is not, despite its title, a live album and was recorded in a studio in a single day and mixed by producer Bob Sargeant.
HenryPadovani is a French musician noted for being the original guitarist of English rock band The Police. He was a member of the band from January 1977 to August 1977 and was replaced by Andy Summers, who had originally been part of the band as a second guitarist. Following his departure from the band, Padovani was handed the rhythm guitar spot with Wayne County & the Electric Chairs, before forming his own band, The Flying Padovanis.
Miles Axe Copeland III is an American music and entertainment executive and former manager of the Police. Copeland later managed Sting's musical and acting career. In 1979, Copeland founded the I.R.S. Records label, producing R.E.M., the Bangles, Berlin, the Cramps, Dead Kennedys, the Alarm, the Go-Go's, and others.
U.K. Subs are an English punk rock band, among the earliest in the first wave of British punk. Formed in 1976, the mainstay of the band has been vocalist Charlie Harper, originally a singer in Britain's R&B scene. One of the first hardcore punk bands, elements of rhythm and blues music - including harmonica - also remained an occasional element of their work.
Sven Olov Dennis Lyxzén is a Swedish singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist for influential Swedish hardcore punk band Refused, as well as the bands INVSN and Fake Names. He is also a former member of bands including AC4, Step Forward, Final Exit, and The (International) Noise Conspiracy, and co-founded the Swedish record labels Ny Våg and Desperate Fight Records.
Chelsea are an English punk rock band which formed in 1976. Three of the four original band members went on to found Generation X.
Gene October is a British singer and songwriter who was a formative figure in London's punk rock movement in the late 1970s, fronting the band Chelsea.
Nick Sheppard is an English guitarist. He played lead guitar for The Clash from 1983 until the band's breakup in 1986.
The Cortinas were a Bristol-based punk rock band, originally active between 1976 and 1978. Guitarist Nick Sheppard went on to play with the Clash. In 2001, the band's debut single, "Fascist Dictator", was included in a leading British music magazine's list of the best punk-rock singles of all-time.
"Fall Out" is a song by British rock band the Police. It was released as their first single in May 1977 with "Nothing Achieving" on its B-side. It was re-released in 1979. A non-album track, it has appeared on a number of compilation and live albums including Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings, The Police and Live!
Bad Music for Bad People is the second compilation album of previously released material by the American rock band the Cramps. It was released in 1984 on I.R.S. Records and was seen by most fans as a cynical cash-in by the record label, following the departure of the band. Sounds, the now defunct UK music paper, gave the album a 5-star review but said, "Miles Copeland's IRS label pick the carrion of their former label mates even cleaner by releasing a watered down version of the ...Off the Bone singles collection that was released in the UK...The music's still great even if the scheming behind Bad Music for Bad People stinks of decay and corruption".
Henry Badowski is a British multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer, who was a member of several punk rock bands in the 1970s before embarking on a solo career.
The Pigs are an English, Bristol-based punk rock band formed in 1977. They recorded an EP, Youthanasia, for independent label New Bristol Records in August of that year. Following renewed interest in the band after their original recordings were re-released by Bristol Archive Records in 2009, the Pigs reformed and are currently recording again.