True Tone Records (Australian label)

Last updated
True Tone Records
Founded 1997
FounderMichael Crawley
Distributor(s) Polygram Records
GenreVarious
Country of origin Australia

True Tone Records was an Australian based record label. It was founded by Michael Crawley in the 1980s. [1] The label was distributed by Polygram Records.

Contents

History

True Tone signed Gang Gajang and released the band's first single "Gimme Some Lovin'" in 1984, as well as their first two albums, Gang Gajang (1985) and Gang Again (1987). In 1985 the label signed The Go-Betweens [1] but the band never recorded anything for True Tone and went on to sign with the UK label, Beggars Banquet Records. True Tone did however provide the Australian release of the Go-Between's fifth album, Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express (1986), as well as The Able Label Singles (1987).

True Tone also signed Rockmelons, releasing the band's first singles, "Time Out (For Serious Fun)" (1985), "Sweat It Out", and "Rhymes" (1987), as well as their debut album, Tales of the City (1988). When vocalist Peter Blakeley left the band he was signed by True Tone, which released his 1987 mini-album Vicious.

In 1986, the label signed Ed Kuepper (The Saints), releasing his second and third solo albums, Rooms Of The Magnificent (1986) and Everybody's Got To (1988).

Stephen Cummings then signed to the label in 1987, releasing the albums Lovetown (1988), A New Kind of Blue (1989), and Good Humour (1991).

After a three-year distribution arrangement with EMI, Crawley chose to take the label to another distributor, but EMI objected and took the label to court. Rather than see the label remain with EMI, Crawley sold off all its assets and left the industry.

Artist roster

The label was responsible for releases by:

See also

Related Research Articles

The Saints (Australian band) Australian rock band

The Saints were an Australian rock band, originating in Brisbane, Queensland in 1973. The band was founded by Chris Bailey, Ivor Hay (drummer), and Ed Kuepper (guitarist-songwriter). They were initially labeled a punk band because, like American punk rock band the Ramones, the Saints were employing the fast tempos, raucous vocals and "buzzsaw" guitar that characterised early punk rock – although this only reflects a portion of their overall sound. With their debut single "(I'm) Stranded" in September 1976, they became the first punk band outside the US to release a record, ahead of better-known acts the Damned, the Sex Pistols and the Clash. They are considered one of the first and most influential groups of the genre, particularly within Australia.

Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderman, Inspiral Carpets, Moby, New Order, Nitzer Ebb, Yann Tiersen, Wire, Yeasayer, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Yazoo, and M83.

Ed Kuepper Australian musician

Edmund "Ed" Kuepper is a German-born Australian guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He co-founded the punk band The Saints (1973–78), the experimental post-punk group Laughing Clowns (1979–85) and the grunge-like The Aints!. He has also recorded over a dozen albums as a solo artist using a variety of backing bands. His highest charting solo album, Honey Steel's Gold, appeared in November 1991 and reached No. 28 on the ARIA Albums Chart. His other top 50 albums are Black Ticket Day, Serene Machine and Character Assassination. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1993 he won Best Independent Release for Black Ticket Day and won the same category in 1994 for Serene Machine.

Wendy Joan Matthews is a Canadian-born Australian singer-songwriter who has been a member of Models and Absent Friends and is a solo artist. She released Top 20 hit singles in the 1990s including "Token Angels", "Let's Kiss ", "The Day You Went Away" and "Friday's Child" with Top 20 albums, You've Always Got The Blues, Émigré, Lily, The Witness Tree and her compilation, Stepping Stones. She has won six Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Awards. According to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane she provides "extraordinary, crystal-clear vocals [...] a soulfulness that was the mark of a truly gifted singer".

Deni Hines Australian singer

Dohnyale "Deni" Sharon Hines is an Australian singer who has been releasing music since the early 1990s, with chart success in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Europe. She is the daughter of American-Australian singer Marcia Hines.

The Reels was an Australian rock band which formed in Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976. It disbanded in 1991, and reformed in 2007. Its 1981 song "Quasimodo's Dream" was voted one of the top 10 Australian songs of all time by a 100-member panel from Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) in 2001. The Reels had top 10 Australian singles chart successes with covers of Herb Alpert's "This Guy's in Love with You" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising". Rock music historian Ian McFarlane described the group as "one of the most original and invigorating pop bands to emerge from the Australian new wave movement of the late 1970s."

Anne Clark (poet) British poet and musician

Anne Charlotte Clark is an English poet, singer and songwriter. Her first album, The Sitting Room, was released in 1982, and she has released over a dozen albums since then.

The Go-Betweens Australian rock band

The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1977. The band was co-founded and led by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who were its only constant members throughout its existence. Drummer Lindy Morrison joined the band in 1980, and its lineup would later expand to include bass guitarist Robert Vickers and multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown. Vickers was replaced by John Willsteed in 1987, and the quintet lineup remained in place until the band split two years later. Forster and McLennan reformed the band in 2000 with a new lineup that did not include any previous personnel aside from them. McLennan died on 6 May 2006 of a heart attack and the Go-Betweens disbanded again. In 2010, a toll bridge in their native Brisbane was renamed the Go Between Bridge after them.

Portrait Records American record label

Portrait Records was a sister label of Epic Records and later of Columbia Records. Notable artists Cyndi Lauper and Sade signed with Portrait, but their contracts were absorbed by Epic after that incarnation of the label was shuttered.

Laughing Clowns, sometimes written as The Laughing Clowns, were a post-punk band formed in Sydney in 1979. In five years, the band released three LPs, three EPs, and various singles and compilations. Laughing Clowns' sound is free jazz, bluegrass and krautrock influenced. The band formed to accommodate Ed Kuepper's growing interest in expanding brass-driven elements he had brought to The Saints' third album, Prehistoric Sounds, and by adopting flattened fifth notes in a rock and roll setting while using a modern jazz styled band line-up.

The Apartments

The Apartments are an Australian indie band formed in 1978 in Brisbane, Queensland. The band split up in 1979 but reformed in 1984 and continued until 1997, with a new version of the band forming in 2007. Based in Sydney, New South Wales, the band has continued to perform and record, with the ninth album and most recent release, In and Out of the Light released in September 2020. Peter Milton Walsh is the band's only constant member.

Ganggajang are an Australian pop rock band which formed in 1984. The four founders are frontman Mark 'Cal' Callaghan (ex-Riptides) on guitar and lead vocals, Chris Bailey on bass guitar, Graham 'Buzz' Bidstrup on drums and Kayellen Bee vocals and percussion. They were soon joined by Geoffrey Stapleton (ex-Aliens] on keyboards, guitar and vocals, and Robbie James on lead guitar. Their most popular song, "Sounds of Then", a.k.a. "This Is Australia", was issued in December 1985 and peaked in the top 40 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. It gained further exposure in Australia ten years later when it was used on TV in a Coca-Cola ad and then for the 1996 Nine Network station ID promotion. Their highest selling album was GANGgajang, which was released in November 1985. They have issued three other studio albums, Gang Again, Lingo and Oceans and Deserts.

<i>Gang Again</i> Album by Gang Gajang

Gang Again is the second studio album recorded by Australian band Gang Gajang. It was released in 1987 by True Tone Records and distributed by Polygram Records.

(Im) Stranded (song) 1976 song by The Saints

"(I'm) Stranded" is the debut single released by Australian punk rock band the Saints. Issued in September 1976, it has been cited as "one of the iconic singles of the era", and pre-dated vinyl debuts by contemporary punk acts such as the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Damned and The Clash. In 2001, it was voted among the Top 30 Australian Songs of all time by APRA.

Jacques Fred Petrus was a West Indian-born businessman and a pioneer of post-disco music. He spent much of his career in Italy and the United States.

Rockmelons, often referred to as the Rockies, were an Australian pop/dance/R&B group formed in 1983 in Sydney. Primary members are Bryon Jones, his brother Jonathon Jones and Raymond Medhurst. They had two Australian top five hit singles in the early 1990s with "Ain't No Sunshine" and "That Word (L.O.V.E.)", both sung by Deni Hines. The associated album, Form 1 Planet, peaked at number 3 on the ARIA albums chart in 1992, and was certified platinum in Australia.

Peter Blakeley Musical artist

Peter Blakeley is an Australian white soul/adult contemporary singer and songwriter.

A&M Records American record label

A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distributing releases from Polydor Ltd. from the UK. Throughout its operations, A&M housed well-known acts such as Alpert himself, Squeeze, Gin Blossoms, Dishwalla, Joe Cocker, Procol Harum, Captain & Tennille, Sting, Sergio Mendes, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Supertramp, Bryan Adams, Burt Bacharach, Liza Minnelli, The Carpenters, Paul Williams, Quincy Jones, Janet Jackson, Cat Stevens, Peter Frampton, Elkie Brooks, Carole King, Styx, Dennis DeYoung, Extreme, Amy Grant, Joan Baez, The Police, Jann Arden, CeCe Peniston, Shanice, Blues Traveler, Soundgarden, Duffy, Phil Ochs and Sheryl Crow.

<i>Tales of the City</i> (album) 1988 studio album by Rockmelons

Tales of the City is the debut studio album by Australian rock band Rockmelons. It was released in May 1988 on True Tone Records and peaked at number six on the Australian album charts. The band shared the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) Award for 'Best Debut Album' in 1988 with 1927's album ...ish.

For the Danish heavy metal band, see Geisha.

References

  1. 1 2 "L-Fresh The Lion Signs With Vienna People Recordings". themusic.com.au. Retrieved 2022-07-25.