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Telstar Records was a British record label that operated from 1982 to 2004.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2009) |
Telstar Records was a British record label that operated from 1982 to 2004.
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Telstar Records was founded in 1982 by Sean O'Brien and Neil Palmer with a government loan of £120,000. It was launched as a specialist compilation marketing label and had hits with a range of compilation franchises such as the Deep Heat, Kaos Theory and 100% ranges.[ citation needed ] As well as these brands, the company licensed a number of major artist recordings (for example ABBA and the Four Tops) to release telemarketed compilations.[ citation needed ]
In the mid-1990s, it diversified its output into the singles market and long-term artist development. Until then, Telstar normally only released singles that were telemarketed or associated with acts like The Chippendales or Byker Grove's PJ & Duncan. [1] Many of PJ & Duncan/Ant & Dec's early records came out XSRhythm, Telstar's dance music label, though by the mid-1990s this had been superseded by Multiply Records. This dance label was run by Mike Hall and originally featuring a large amount of acts licensed on a track-by-track basis from overseas companies, [2] [3] before becoming home to acts such as The Cheeky Girls. [4]
Acts signed in the late 1990s period included Conner Reeves, Phats & Small and a Tony Mortimer-free version of East 17, [5] while Craig David had two UK number one singles on the Wildstar label, a joint-venture between Telstar and the Capital Radio Group (now known as media company Global), which was run by music managers Ian McAndrew and Colin Lester. [6] [7]
Other artists included Victoria Beckham (in a £1.5 million deal arranged with Simon Fuller's 19 Recordings), Rosie Ribbons, Skream!, Danny Erskine and Mis-Teeq.[ citation needed ] In the late 1990s, Telstar became closely associated with BMG Records, especially with the Telstar TV compilation label.[ citation needed ]
Telstar Records went bankrupt in 2004, largely due to the company's habit of giving large advances to artists such as Claire Sweeney and Victoria Beckham who failed to make them any money. [8] In the media much of the blame for the label's failure was placed on their most high-profile signing, Victoria Beckham.[ citation needed ] However, as most of Telstar's artists were not directly signed to the label, instead being either sub-licensed or part of a number of joint ventures, BMG (soon to be merged with Sony) declined to buy the label's assets outright.[ citation needed ]
The majority of Telstar's back catalogue (the artists signed directly to the label not sub-licensed) ended up with Phoenix Music International alongside the rights to songs from Gut Records, Jet Star and Azuli, [9] whilst Ant & Dec's hits ended up being sub-licensed to BBC Studios' Crimson Productions/DMG TV in the early 2010s [10] (which resulted in a number one hit for DMG TV's Edsel label in 2013 when "Let's Get Ready to Rhumble" charted again). [11] In February 2017, the remains of Wildstar was bought by Sony Music Entertainment UK, [6] a company who signed Craig David in 2016 (in a deal which was part of another joint venture called Insanity Records), [12] [13] whilst Ian McAndrew runs management company Wildlife, home to Miles Kane, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and Royal Blood. [14]
Wildstar Records was a record label launched in 1993 by Colin Lester, Ian McAndrew and Capital Radio in a joint venture with Telstar.[ citation needed ] In February 2017, Sony Music acquired Wildstar from Global Radio and Telstar for £1.8m. [15]
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In the late 1990s, Telstar's successful dance music compilation series Euphoria and Breakdown (full name The Very Best of Euphoric Breakdown) were launched, both of which lasted into the days when BMG were co-credited on compilations, and transcended Telstar Records' closure when they were continued on the Ministry of Sound label.
Chart Attack was Telstar Records' first chart hit on the UK Top 75 album charts.[ citation needed ] It was released in autumn 1982 and reached number 7 in the main chart in the days before the exclusion of such various artist albums.[ citation needed ]
Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008.
The Cheeky Girls are a Romanian singing duo consisting of identical twin sisters Gabriela and Monica Irimia. After appearing as auditionees on Popstars: The Rivals, they achieved success in the UK charts with four top 10 hits between 2002 and 2004. They are best known for their debut single, "Cheeky Song ", which has sold more than 1.2 million units internationally. The Cheeky Girls released their debut studio album, PartyTime, in 2003 which reached number 14 in the UK Albums Chart.
Pete Waterman Entertainment (PWE) is the production company one-time pop and dance record label owned by British pop mogul Pete Waterman. The label, originally PWL, is most famous for being the home of hit record producers Stock Aitken Waterman.
Now That's What I Call Music! is a series of various artists compilation albums released in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Sony Music and Universal Music which began in 1983. Spinoff series began for other countries the following year, starting with South Africa, and many other countries worldwide soon followed, expanding into Asia in 1995, then the United States in 1998.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout of the remaining 50% held by Bertelsmann. BMG was instead rebuilt as BMG Rights Management on the basis of 200 remaining artists.
Deconstruction Records is a British record label founded in 1987 by Pete Hadfield and Keith Blackhurst, together with Mike Pickering of M People. According to DJ Magazine it is "best remembered for marrying underground credibility and diversity with an open-minded attitude towards pop".
Demon Music Group Limited is a record company owned by BBC Studios that is mainly concerned with back-catalogue rights and re-issuing recordings as compilations on physical media via supermarkets and specialist stores.
Hits - also commonly known as The Hits Album - is a long-running compilation album series containing contemporary chart music. It originally ran in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe for over twenty years from 1984 until 2006. It was compiled as a joint venture, variously between the compilation arms of the Sony Music, RCA/BMG, and Warner Music groups to rival the Now That's What I Call Music series that had launched a year earlier in 1983, compiled by rival companies EMI and Virgin. Initially, the Hits brand was arguably as popular as its main rival and all of the first eight volumes achieved at least a platinum BPI award, with several of the very early albums going multi-platinum.
Xploded Music is a British record label set up by Cris Nuttall and Matt Cadman. The label is a joint venture with Universal, and has developed from their previous partnership with the All Around the World dance music label. All Around the World originated in Blackburn and has had success with artists such as N-Trance, Cascada, Scooter, Dannii Minogue, Armin van Buuren, Lost Frequencies, N-Dubz, Loud Luxury, Skepta, Starley, Yolanda Be Cool, and many more. AATW also owned & operated four music TV channels; Clubland TV, and three Now Music-branded channels - Now 70s, Now 80s and Now 90s, all of which are now fully owned by Universal.
Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In 2004, under the Sony BMG joint venture, the label began to manage the archives of RCA Records, J Records, Windham Hill Records, Arista, LaFace, Jive, and Buddah Records. Legacy Recordings also distributes Philadelphia International Records and the catalog of recordings produced by Phil Spector. It is not related to the defunct British independent label Legacy Records.
PJ & Duncan, who were later rebranded as Ant & Dec, began their musical career in 1993 with the release of the single "Tonight I'm Free". This was followed in 1994 by their successful debut album Psyche, which included the single "Let's Get Ready to Rhumble". Their second album Top Katz (1995) was less commercially successful than Psyche although all its singles reached the UK Top 20. PJ & Duncan were rebranded as Ant & Dec after they first started moving into TV in 1996, resulting in 1997's The Cult of Ant & Dec, their final album, which reached 15 in the UK charts. Their label, Telstar Records, decided not to renew their recording contract in 1997, and their career in music ended there. They reunited for live performances in 2000 and 2013 and for a single, "We're on the Ball", in 2002.
Craig Logan is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and manager. He began his career as bassist in the pop band Bros.
The Hit Factory: Pete Waterman's Greatest Hits is a compilation album featuring music produced by Pete Waterman. It was released by Universal Music in 2000 and reached #3 in the UK compilation Top 20 chart, achieving a Gold BPI award.
Hits 93 Volume 1 is a compilation album released by Telstar Records and BMG in February 1993. The original Hits Album compilation series had effectively been retired in 1991 by the original partners in the series CBS and WEA, and this release saw BMG, who originally joined CBS and WEA in 1986, revive the Hits brand with specialist TV marketing company Telstar.
The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the relevance of the chart dwindled in the 1990s as major-label ownership blurred the boundary between independent and major labels.
Razor & Tie was an American entertainment company that consisted of a record label and a music publishing company. It was established in 1990 by Craig Balsam and Cliff Chenfeld. Based in New York City, Razor & Tie releases were distributed by Universal Music Group.
Colin Lester is a British artist manager of R&B, pop and rock music acts.
The Cult of Ant & Dec is the third and final studio album released by British duo Ant & Dec, previously known as PJ & Duncan. The album was recorded during 1996 and 1997, and included the single "When I Fall in Love". The album was released in May 1997 and peaked at number 15 on the UK Albums Chart.
"Let's Get Ready to Rhumble" is a 1994 song by PJ & Duncan AKA, the performing name used by British duo Ant & Dec at the time. The song was released in the United Kingdom on 11 July 1994 as the third single from their debut studio album Psyche. The song was written by Nicky Graham, Deni Lew and Mike Olton, and produced by Nicky Graham. It peaked at number 9 in the UK Singles Chart in 1994, and was later #1 almost two decades after its original chart appearance. The song includes a repeatedly-used sample of boxing and wrestling announcer Michael Buffer saying his trademark catchphrase. “Rumble” was deliberately spelled as "rhumble" to avoid copyright problems, since Buffer had trademarked the phrase, and the chosen additional “h” was a homage to the rhumba dance.
An independent record label is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented by trade associations in their country or region, which in turn are represented by the international trade body, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN).
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