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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 was founded in 1982 by Sean O'Brien and Neil Palmer with a government loan of £120,000.Telstar Records [1] 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. [2] 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Duncan/Ant & Dec's early records came out XSRhythm, Telstar's dance music label, though by the mid 1990s this had been superseded by Multiply Records.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, [3] [4] before becoming home to acts such as The Cheeky Girls. [5]
Acts signed in the late 1990s period included Conner Reeves, Phats & Small and a Tony Mortimer-free version of East 17, [6] 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. [7] [8]
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. [9] 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, [10] whilst Ant & Dec's hits ended up being sub-licensed to BBC Studios' Crimson Productions/DMG TV in the early 2010s [11] (which resulted in a number one hit for DMG TV's Edsel label in 2013 when "Let's Get Ready to Rhumble" charted again). [12] In February 2017, the remains of Wildstar was bought by Sony Music Entertainment UK, [7] a company who signed Craig David in 2016 (in a deal which was part of another joint venture called Insanity Records), [13] [14] whilst Ian McAndrew runs management company Wildlife, home to Miles Kane, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and Royal Blood. [15]
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. [16]
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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 ]
Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical music label in 1953, but later expanded its scope to include a more diverse range of genres, including pop, R&B, rock, and hip hop.
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.
Craig Ashley David is a British singer and songwriter who rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single "Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, Born to Do It, was released in 2000, after which he has released a further five studio albums and worked with a variety of artists such as Sting, Tinchy Stryder, Big Narstie, Kano and Jay Sean. David has 20 UK top 40 singles, and seven UK top 40 albums, selling over 15 million records worldwide as a solo artist.
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.
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".
Sony S2 Records, formerly named as S2 Records and Sony Soho Square, was a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (SME), which operated as a record label in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Demon Music Group (DMG) 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.
The Official Albums Chart, previously the UK Albums Chart, is a list of albums ranked by sales and audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on Fridays. It is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and found on the OCC website as a Top 100 or on UKChartsPlus as a Top 200, with positions continuing until all sales have been tracked in data only available to industry insiders. However, even though number 100 was classed as a hit album in the 1980s until January 1989, since the compilations were removed, this definition was changed to Top 75 with follow-up books such as The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums book only including this data. As of 2021, the OCC still only tracks how many UK Top 75s album hits and how many weeks in Top 75 albums chart each artist has achieved.
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.
Universal Music On Demand (UMOD) is a London-based record label owned by Universal Music Group, formed in 1998 as Universal Music TV (UMTV). UMOD specialises in producing compilation albums and occasional single releases. It was founded when Seagram acquired PolyGram and merged the company's record labels under the same umbrella, replacing the PolyGram TV label.
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 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.
Colin Lester is a British artist manager of R&B, pop and rock music acts.
BMG Rights Management GmbH is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label.
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, and was later certified Silver by the BPI.
"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).
De Nada were a UK garage act active in the early 2000s, fronted by singer Nadia, from Brixton, London. They were signed to Telstar's Wildstar Records, and their two singles, "Love You Anyway" and "Bring It on to My Love", both became top 30 hits in the UK, with the former also reaching No. 7 on the UK Dance Singles Chart.
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