THE AUSTRALIAN RECORD COMPANY (A.R.C.)
|
Coronet, the main house label
of ARC. This "Western" (KW series) 78rpm disc features bluegrass
pioneers Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys.
Note the CBS logo immediately above the Coronet name at the top of the
label. Another interesting fearure is the upside-down serial number
below the artists' name. |
The Pacific label, home to Australian recording
artists like bandleader Les Welch and young country
singer Reg Lindsay
|
A New Zealand pressing on ARC's Rodeo label, manufactured by Radio Corporation of NZ. |
|
CATEGORY:
1936-1960: Australian-owned independent recording and distribution
company
1960-1975: Wholly owned subidiary of CBS Records USA (taken over by
Sony Music, 1988)
Ownership:
1936-53: Proprietry Limited company
1953-1960: publicly listed company
1960-1975: wholly-owned subsidary of CBS Records USA
LOCATION: Sydney, NSW
House labels: Rodeo (1950s); Pacific (1950s); Capitol (USA) until March 1956; Coronet (1956-1960); CBS Australia (1960-1970s)
DISTRIBUTOR FOR:
CBS USA, incl. Columbia USA (rebranded as Coronet in Australia) and Epic (after March 1956); Okeh;
Musicor; Stateside; Date; London (1951-?); Capitol (1951 to March 1956); Warner
Brothers Records (1960- 1972); United Artists; Chess; Hickory; Kapp
|
History
Although now virtually forgotten,
the Australian Record Company (ARC) was, alongside Festival Records,
Astor and EMI, one of the leading recording and distribution
companies in the Australian music industry from the 1950s to the 1970s.
The company's long history began in the golden era of radio and from
its inception in the late 1930s to the present day it played a
significant role in many aspects of the local industry, as a recorder
of local artists and a major distributor of local and international
recordings, as well as being a major producer of radio content from the
Forties to the Sixties. In 1960, ARC was taken over by the recording
division of the giant US media conglomerate CBS, and in the late 1970s
the company was renamed CBS Australia, which itself was
taken over by the Japanese media-electronics conglomerate Sony in 1988.
ARC: The Early Years
The Australian Record Company was formed in the late 1930s
thorugh the successive mergers of three Sydney-based radio production
companies. On 15 October 1936, a new company called Featuradio
Sound Productions (NSW) Pty Ltd purchased Featuradio Sound Productions
Pty Ltd and all its assets, and opened recording studios at 92 Pitt
Street, Sydney. Featuradio's main business was the recording, pressing
and distribution of 16-inch transcription discs of serials and
commercials for broadcast on radio stations around Australia, plus some
custom pressing operations for local clients -- usually small run
pressings of recordings which popular artists would commonly sell
themselves.
Another company also involved in the radio production business
was The Australian Record Company, based in studios at 29 Bligh Street,
Sydney. According to the ARC history on the Sony Music website, on the
19 September 1938, Featuradio Productions P/L and The Australian Record
Company P/L officially merged under the name of the Australian Record
Company Limited.
However, research by Australian record label historian Hank B.
Facer's uncovered the fact that on 14 December 1937 Featuradio had
notified the NSW Registrar that its trading address was also 29 Bligh
St, suggesting that the merger had begun some time earlier than was
officially notified, and Facer also notes that the Board of Directors
of both companies had four common members between 1937 and 1939.
The newly merged ARC continued with the production of radio
dramas and commercials, but in 1939 it also began to manufacture and
distribute commercial 78 rpm gramophone records, which it released on
its Macquarie label. Most of their releases were recordings of
classical music by German orchestras, pressed from masters made in
Germany, but this series of releases lasted for only a few months. In
September, with the declaration of war against Germany, the Australian
Government prohibited all German imports. When World War II began, ARC completely discontinued its
commercial recording activities and for the next decade it concentrated
entirely on its radio transcription services. It finally resumed
commercial record distribution in 1949 when it establishing two 'house'
labels, Rodeo and Pacific.
Pacific specialised in popular music and jazz and while Rodeo
produced country-and-western music or -- as it was known in those days
-- "hillbilly" music. Both labels proved popular with consumers and
both featured Australian artists. Orchestra leader Les Welch -- who
became Festival's first A&R manager and its recording artist in
1952 -- was one of Pacific's most successful performers, and Rodeo
featured pioneering Aussie country music performers such as Tex Morton,
Tim McNamara and the young Reg Lindsay. ARC's radio production work also flourished, and it employed
many famous actors including Rod Taylor, Peter Finch, Ruth Cracknell,
Bob Dyer and future Channel 7 (Sydney) new anchor Roger Climpson. All
their 78 rpm discs and 16" radio transcription discs were manufactured
at the pressing plant in Harrington Street, The Rocks.
In October 1951, ARC acquired the distribution rights to two
important American labels, London and Capitol.
Capitol had been founded in Los Angeles in 1942 by Glenn Wallichs,
Buddy DeSylva and songwriter Johnny Mercer. It became one of America's
most successful recording labels in the Fifties and
Sixties, with a local roster that over the years included Nat "King"
Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and Kay Starr. Capitol provided ARC with some of its most successful releases
in that period. The first Capitol 78 release in the USA (CP001) was
"How High The Moon" b/w "Walkin' and Whistlin' Blues", by the
celebrated husband-and-wife team of Les Paul and Mary Ford. It was
released in the USA in late 1951 and probably in mid-1952 in Australia.
ARC released several hundred Capitol recordings over the next four
years although its local releases did not follow the same order as Capitol in the USA.
Distribution for ARC was carried out by G.J. Aitken &
Co., located at 335 Dowling Street, East Sydney. Mr G.J. Aitken was
also General Manager of A.R.C., so there was clearly a direct corporate
link between the two firms. ARC's Managing Director was Mr Dudley M.
Fegan. In October 1953 ARC became a publicly-listed company on the
Australian Stock Exchange, under its new name The Australian Record
Company Limited, and at this time they also produced their first LP and
45 rpm 7" discs for the local market. The LPs were initially 10"
diameter and ran for 15 minutes per side, but these were subsequently
replaced by 12" LPs, which became the dominant record format until they
were eventually superseded by the Digital Compact Disc in the late 80s.
In 1953 ARC opened a new manufacturing plant located at 15 Waltham
Street, Artarmon and in 1954 the original Harrington Street plant at
was closed.
In March 1956, the British-based music and electronics company
EMI acquired Capitol
Records, ending ARC's licencing agreement. During the 1960s Capitol released and distributed EMI pop
acts including The Beatles and The Hollies in the USA, and this
in turn gave EMI the international rights to Capitol pop-rock acts
including The Beach
Boys and The Band. ARC was given a three month
sell-off period before handing over the distribution to EMI.
The loss
of the Capitol rights was undoubtedly a serious blow to ARC's revenue,
but they responded aggressively and in May 1956 they signed a pressing
and distribution agreement with CBS Records, which
up until then had been pressed and distributed by EMI in Australia and
New Zealand. However, EMI owned the Columbia
trademark in Australia, so ARC was obliged to create
a new imprint for its Columbia products: the Coronet
label. Coronet quickly became ARC's flagship imprint. Immediately
recogniseable by its famous octagonal label, it was apparently the only
label of this shape in the history of the industry worldwide. There
were four series, each indicated by a specific prefix -- Popular (KP
and KS), Western (KW) and Children's (KK).
Coronet's "Popular" series was divided into two groups -- the
"KP" series (issued on 78rpm) began around the middle of 1956; the
"KS" (45rpm) series began some time after, in
late 1956 or early 1957.
Coronet's Popular catalogue covered a very wide variety of styles, as
was typical of the period. Most of its releases were by popular CBS
artists like Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney,
Frankie Laine, Vic Damone, Marty Robbins, Guy Mitchell, Tony Bennett,
Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds, Andy Williams. CBS star Johnny
Ray thrilled audiences and broke box offices records on his
legendary Australian tours promoted by Lee Gordon, which exerted a
huge influence
on the young Johnny O'Keefe. Also of interest are a number of
recordings by
American rocker Crash Craddock, who scored several major hits in
Australia and made a hugely successful concert tour after being
'discovered' by Lee Gordon, although he remained little known in
his
homeland.
Coronet also released many "MOR" vocal, instrumental and light
orchestral recordings by popular American acts of the period
like The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Percy Faith & His Orchestra,
Ray Conniff & His Orchestra, Ferrante
& Teicher and The Mitch Miller Orchestra. A notable name
in this category was polka star and band-leader Frankie
Yankovic, the uncle of musical satirist and polka freak
"Weird" Al Yankovic. There were also jazz releases sourced from CBS-Columbia's famous jazz catalogue,
including recordings by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Errol Garner,
Carmen McRae and Dave Brubeck (including his groundbreaking 1961 hit
"Take Five").
Other notable US artists whose recordings came out on Coronet
in Australia include Les Paul & Mary Ford, Johnny Cash, film
star Sophia Loren, gospel legend Mahalia Jackson, and a very early
(1961) CBS jazz-vocal release by future Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin.
Coronet even released the theme song to the Z-grade '50s sci-fi fave The
Blob (Steve McQueen's first film), performed by a group
calling themselves "The Five Blobs". Coronet's other two series were Western (KW) -- pictured at
the top of the page -- and Children's (KK). Although the Coronet label
carried the CBS logo, and the bulk of Coronet's Popular releases were
American recordings sourced from CBS, music historian Hank Facer is
unequivocal in declaring Coronet to be a bona fide indigenous label.
The first Coronet Popular 78 rpm release (KP-001) was "The
Bible Tells Me So" by Mahalia Jackson; the exact date of release is
uncertain, but it was probably mid-1956, soon after the agreement with
CBS was signed. The first Coronet 45 rpm single was "Ninety Nine Years" by Guy
Mitchell. This was released on both 45rpm (KS-001) and 78rpm (KP-023)
disc and many subsequent Coronet releases
were issued on both formats over the next two years. The first Coronet 12" LP was Presenting Father
MacEwan. Coronet's biggest selling LP in Australia was the
soundtrack of My Fair Lady, featuring Rex Harrison
and Julie Andrews, produced Goddard Lieberson, who was also President
of Columbia Records and who was soon to play a major role in the ARC
story.
For about two years, from 1956 to 1958, ARC produced many of
its Coronet Popular releases on both
78rpm and 45rpm discs, but the KP 78rpm series was evidently
discontinued at the end of 1957, and from 1958 on all Popular releases
were issued only as 45rpm singles. In all there were just over 200
titles in the KP (78rpm series, many of which were issued concurrently
on 45 -- and around 550 titles in the KS (45rpm) series, which
continued
until 1963, when the new Australian CBS pop label was inaugurated.
Although overseas releases continued to provide the vast bulk
of Coronet's output, ARC also began recording and releasing material by
local artists, and according to Hank Facer ARC was second only to
Festival in terms of support for local artists in the Fifties. This was
at a time when, according to Facer, other companies were restricting
local releases to one every four to six weeks, and the popularity of
the Coronet local releases forced other companies to meet the growing
demand by increasing their local content. Most of these artists,
who were released on the KW "Western" series, performed what was
then called "hillbilly music" -- what we know today as Country
& Western. Although the Popular
catalogue was dominated by American acts, around 1960 a handful of
local names began to appear including Ray Price, Diana Trask, The
Delltones and Johnny Rebb.
On 16 September 1956 the first Australian television broadcasts took place in Sydney and Melbourne. Over the
next decade the local radio market was drastically reshaped, with TV
completely supplanting radio as the main family entertainment medium
and the main outlet for popular drama, serials and game, quiz and
variety shows. As demand for these genres on radio evaporated,
production contracts were cancelled or not renewed. Some companies, such
as ARC in Sydney and Crawfords in Melbourne, were able to move into
different areas of business. ARC was able to expand its record business, and Crawfords was one of the lucky few
independent radio producers that made a successful transition into TV
production. Most other radio production companies simply went out of business, and by 1964 drama, comedy
game shows and variety on commercial radio in Australia had almost
completely disappeared.
In place of its former staples, two major new programming
formats emerged. By the mid-Sixties almost all Australian commercial
radio stations had adopted either a Top 40 pop (or mixed-music) format,
or a news-talk-talkback format. These fundamental changes in the market
led ARC to abandon its radio production activities and close its radio
studios. Fortunately it was able to fall back on its record
production activities and it now concentrated its operations entirely on
the manufacture and distribution of commercial music recordings to meet
the growing demand from pop music radio, and it was able to utilise its
extensive distribution network to capitalise on the tremendous growth in the
record market over the next decade.
The CBS years: 1960-77
ARC's recording facilities were transferred from Bligh Street
to Artarmon sometime
in 1960, but the most important event in the comany's history took
place on 29 April of that year, when the entire board of directors
resigned. Some of the outgoing directors had been on the board since
the 1940s -- General Manager Dudley Fegan and board member Reginald Denison had
joined the board in 1940, and Leslie Denison had joined in 1944.
In their place, two Australians and four Americans were
installed to direct operations. According to Hank Facer, all four
American board members -- Goddard Lieberson, Richard Salant, Harvey
Schein and Herbert Greenspon -- were executives with CBS and/or
Columbia
Records. Lieberson (himself a former musician and critic and a noted
record producer) had been apppinted President of Columbia Records
in 1956; Salant went on to
become President of CBS News in the Sixties and Seventies, and in 1972
Schein was appointed the first American president of the Sony
Corporation's American division.
Although rarely discussed, the CBS acquisition of ARC was a
significant landmark for the local industry, since it came only
weeks after the January 1960 aquistion of Festival Records
by News
Limited, the newspaper and publishing company owned and controlled by
budding media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. These takeovers meant that, within
four months, the two largest Australian-owned independent recording
companies had both become wholly-owned subsidiaries of major media
organisations, and although News Ltd was still at that time an
Australian
company, ARC had now fallen under the control of the American-owned CBS
Records,
the record division of one of America's largest and most powerful media
conglomerates, with interests in film, TV, radio, recordings and much
other areas. Neither Hank Facer nor Sony histoprian Mel Mayer
describe this explicitly as a
"takeover" but it is clear that CBS-Columbia obtained a
controlling interest in ARC and that from then on ARC was the de facto Australian division of CBS, even though the company did not officially change its name until the late 1970s.
Later in 1960 (and no doubt facilitated by its new American
parent company) ARC acquired the manufaturing and distribution rights
to two more famous American labels -- Warner Brothers Records and
United Artists Records, both of which became strong sellers. ARC
retained the rights to the Warner
catalogue until 1972,about a year after Warners set
up their own local subsidiary. This was followed by the purchase of the
rights to the legendary Chicago blues label Chess, as well as the
Hickory and Kapp labels. With this expanded roster, ARC was soon challenging the well-established dominance of industry
leader EMI.
On 10 February, 1961, the registered office of ARC moved from
29 Bligh Street to 11-19 Hargrave Street, East Sydney. Meanwhile, G.J.
Aitken & Co. changed its name to Coronet Records, and also
transferred all its facilities to Hargrave Street. Not long after these
changes took place, a new company, The Australian Record Club, was
incorporated at Hargrave Street. It sold records direct to the public
by mail order, and was operated in line with Columbia Record Club of
USA.
ARC/CBS began to establish a local pop music roster around
1963, followiing
the appointment of Norwegian-born musician-compser Sven Libaek as
the company's new A&R manager / house producer, and they began
releasing pop-rock recordings on the new Australian CBS label. One of
the first local
groups signed was Sydney surf legends The Atlantics, who
released a string of superb surf-instrumental singles and LPs including
the international hit "Bombora", which is now recognised as one of
classics of the surf music
genre. There were more important local signings over the next few years
including leading Melbourne soul band The
Groop and top female singer Lynne Randell. Sven Libaek remained with CBS for four years and left the company ca. 1968 to become a freelance producer-composer-arranger.
In mid-1967 A.R.C. installed automatic pressing machinery in
its vinyl plant at Artarmon. All the 12" and 7" pressing equipment was
designed and manufactured by Columbia USA, although many components
(where possible) were made locally in Australia. The first LP pressed
on the "auto" line was Camelot for Warner Bros
Records.
In 1969 ARC became one of the original shareholders in the
Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Ltd (PPCA),
which was set up to represent record companies and music publishers,
administering broadcast and public performance rights and royalty
payments in sound recordings and (later) music videos. It was
established by a consortium of the Association of Australian Record
Manufacturers (the predecessor of ARIA), Actors' Equity and The
Musicians' Union, in the wake of the Copyright Act 1968 which
legislated broadcast and public performance rights in sound recordings.
The PPCA's other original shareholders were Electronic Industries (the
parent company of Astor Records),
PolyGram Records, RCA, EMI Records, Festival Records and W&G
Record Processing (later replaced by WEA Records).
There were more significant changes to ARC's company structure
and operations over the next decade. Between July and October 1970,
Warner Bros Records established its own local subsidiary, Warner Brothers Australia
(later renamed WEA and now known as Warner Music Australia) under the
management of Paul Turner. Warner Bros Aust. retained the existing
distribution arrangements with ARC for the first two years before
taking over its own distribution in 1972.
Also in 1970 A.R.C. established a printing plant at Artarmon,
on Sydney's north shore. Another new subsidiary company was created,
CBS Musical Instruments, also located at Artarmon. It was set up to
distribute Fender guitars and Rogers drums among many other hundreds of
musical instruments and accessories. This was a direct outcome of the
1965 acquisition of the Fender and Rogers companies by ARC's parent,
CBS (USA). ARC opened up a retail outlet in Oxford Street, Sydney, the
Fender Sound House, which sold musical instruments and electronic
equipment. ARC's central Record Warehouse relocated from Hargrave
Street to Artarmon, and on Easter Tuesday, 1973 a cassette
manufacturing facility was established, also located at Artarmon.
On 17 October 1977, CBS finally formalised its control over
ARC and changed the company's name to CBS Records Australia Limited.
Over the next few years CBS Australia expanded and reorganised the
company structure, and the local CBS label enjoyed tremendous success,
thanks in large measure to A&R manager and house producer Peter Dawkins, who signed
and produced one of the biggest and best Australasian rock bands of the
period, Dragon. Another major CBS success in the early 1980s was the
band Eurogliders.
In the late '70s CBS's Printing Division and Record Warehouse
moved from Artarmon to 10 Carter Street, Lidcombe, CBS Musical
Instruments and the Fender Sound House were both closed and the
Australian Record Club was sold to Record Clubs of Australia. The
Lidcombe warehouse closed and a new distributor called EDC -- a
joint-venture between CBS and EMI -- took over all
distribution for both companies. EDC was located at the old
EMI complex at Parramatta Road, Homebush. In the 1980s compact discs were introduced to the Australian
marketplace. Initially these were manufactured for CBS externally.
Cassette manufacturing was moved from Artarmon to Lidcombe and manual
compact disc assembly was introduced at Lidcombe.
On 5 January 1988 there was another dramatic change when the
Sony Corporation of Japan purchased CBS Records on a worldwide basis.
All manufacturing and administration of CBS affiliates was now under
the umbrella of the giant electronics and entertainment conglomerate.
Three years later, on 11 January 1991, CBS Records Australia became
Sony Music Australia Limited. It has since become the biggest record
company in Australia, under the guidance of Chairman and CEO Denis
Handlin.
By 1991, with the compact disc now firmly established as the
primary consumer music format, sales of vinyl had fallen to a tiny
fraction of their former level, so on the 28 June 1991 the Artarmon
Vinyl Plant finally closed its doors, although the Sales Division and
Mastering Services remained on the office level of the building.
Shortly after the closure of the vinyl plant, EDC vacated its Homebush
premises and set up operations at the new Huntingwood complex in
Victoria.
In 1990 Sony Corporation of Japan also negotiated an agreement with
EMI to gain exclusive worldwide use of the Columbia name.
This had long been a problem area for both companies. EMI had
bought the American Columbia label in the early 1930s but was
later forced to divest it because of anti-trust concerns, and it was
taken over by CBS in 1935; CBS owned the rights to the name and
operated the Columbia label in the Americas and Japan, but EMI had
retained its rights to the Columbia name in most other countries,
including
Australia and New Zealand. Several very prominent overseas
artists (e.g. Bob Dylan, The Byrds) were signed to Columbia USA but
for the reasons outlined above, this label could not
be marketed locally in Australia, so those releases locally in
Australia came out on the CBS label. Many people will still own
imported Columbia USA recordings from
that time on which the 'Columbia' name had to be obscured by marker-pen
or a
sticker.
In December of 1992, Denis Handlin opened the Hi-Tech CD
Manufacturing Plant at Huntingwood. At the end of March 1993 the
remaining Lidcombe operation was phased out. Printing and cassette
manufacturing moved to Huntingwood. Not long after, the CBS mastering
services moved from Artarmon to Huntingwood. On 23 February 1995 Sony Music Australia Limited became Sony
Music Entertainment (Australia) Limited. Since that time the company has been renamed CBS Sony (Australia).
In 2004, Bertelsmann
(currently one of the three largest media
conglomerates in the world) and the Sony Corporation merged
their music holdings into a joint venture called Sony BMG -- a move
which, ironically, united the former CBS labels with those of its
long-time competitor RCA, which had been acquired by Bertelsmann in the
late 1980s.
Discography
Rodeo Records discography - Globaldog Productions
http://www.globaldogproductions.info/r/rodeo-oz.html
Pacific Records discography - Globaldog Productions
http://www.globaldogproductions.info/p/pacific-oz.html
Coronet Records discography - Globaldog Productions
http://www.globaldogproductions.info/c/coronet-oz.html
For information on the CBS label please see our page on CBS Records (Australia)
References / Links
Milesago is indebted to the work of Hank B. Facer and Mal
Mayer for the information contained in this article, and
to Globaldog Productions for their efforts in
compiling catalogues of the Rodeo, Pacific and Coronet labels.
Hank Facer
"The Australian Record Company"
Logo, Vol. 3, No. 4, August 1981
Mel Mayer
Sony Music Company History
http://www.sonymusic.com.au/business/history/histtext.html
Columbia Records History
http://www.sonymusic.com.au/labels/columbia/historytext.html
ketupa.net media profiles
CBS chronology
http://www.ketupa.net/cbs2.htm
Caslon Analytics profile - copyright collecting
societies
http://www.caslon.com.au/colsocietiesprofile2.htm
chiprowe.com
History of Music Clubs
http://www.chiprowe.com/articles/cdclubs/cdclubs2.html
Globaldog
Productions
http://www.globaldogproductions.info/australian-labels.html
