SUNSHINE RECORDS

Category: Australian-owned independent record label Date: 1964 - ca. 1974 Location: Brisbane, Qld (?) Ownership: - Ivan Dayman, Nat Kipner, Pat Aulton, 1964-67 - subsidiary label taken over by Festival Records, 1967 - label closed 1974 - catalogue acquired by Warner Music Australia in 2005 following the liquidation of Festival Mushroom Records See also: Kommotion Records

History

Sunshine Records has an important place in the history of the Australian music industry, and it was especially significant to the business of its distributor Festival Records, providing a vital bridge between the peak years of the Leedon label in the late 1950s and early 1960s and that of the Spin label from 1966-71. The importance of this vibrant independent imprint has never been properly acknowledged, and a comprehensive history is long overdue.

The label's founder, the late Ivan Dayman, reportedly ran a gravel quarry in his hometown of Adelaide before moving into pop promotion in the early 1960s. He became extremely successful for a few years and at its height in 1965-66 his Sunshine empire included two record labels, a thriving concert promotion and booking agency, a star-studded artist management roster, and a string of venues in capital cities and major towns from Adelaide to north Queensland, including the famed Cloudland Ballroom in Brisbane. 

Sunshine's recordings were manufactured and distributed by Festival Records, presumably through a lease similar to those Festival made with other companies like Clarion Records and Albert Productions. It was a very productive label -- so far we have identified 113 singles, 33 EPs and 13 LP released between October 1964 and 1971, putting it on a par with its successor, Spin Records. Sunshine and Spin released almost identical numbers of singles and EPs; the notable difference is that, over roughly the same time span, Spin issued three times more LPs than Sunshine (thirty-eight to thirteen). However this difference can be be accounted for by the rapid growth in sale of LPs in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Singles and EPs were by far the biggest sellers in Australia during Sunshine's peak period from 1964 to 1967, while LPs (still something of a luxury at that time) formed only a small percentage of total record sales.

In early 1964 Dayman took over the Saturday night lease on Melbourne's Festival Hall and renamed it "Mersey City". On 2 May 1964 he opened with Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays, and over 4500 teenagers attended ("500 more than the Beatles", according to Tony). Dayman also used the group to open several other Queensland venues in Bundaberg, Toowoomba, Ipswich, Inala, Surfers Paradise and the city and by the end of the year, with the success of their first single, they were one of the hottest pop acts in the country.

Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays

By the early 1960s Dayman was promoting dances in Brisbane, where he spotted a handsome, feisty young Brisbane rock singer called Tony Worsley, whose outrageously long collar-length hair, wild stage presence and repertoire of Merseybeat tunes had earned him the nickname "Brisbane's Beatle". Dayman was soon on the lookout for a suitable backing band for his young discovery and he found it when he made a new addition to the Sunshine roster, popular Melbourne dance band The Blue Jays. 

Dayman's offer of £35 per week to sing with The Blue Jays was too good for the young singer to refuse -- it was sveral times more than what Tony was making in his day job -- and the teaming of Tony with this tight, professional and versatile outfit in early 1964 proved to be a huge success. The Blue Jays were already well established in Melbourne and one of the city's leading dance groups. When they became part of Dayman's Sunshine management stable, singer-guitarist Laurie Allen departed to begin his solo career, eventually teaming with another Dayman alumnus, Bobby Bright.

The band began working with Tony at the start of 1964, at which point their name was glamorised to "The Fabulous Blue Jays". Tony's strong voice, good looks and magnetic stage presence was backed up by one of the tightest and most competent bands in the country -- the Blue Jays' trademark "fat" sound blended sax and guitar in a potent instrumental assault, giving them a much heavier sonic attack than many of their contemporaries. From his new Brisbane base at the Cloudland Ballroom Dayman promoted the group on his popular "Bowl" dance circuit package extravaganzas and Tony & the Blue Jays soon earned a reputation for upstaging the main acts with their riotous delivery.

In mid-1964 Tony and The Blue Jays left for Melbourne. Dayman had taken up a Saturday night lease on Festival Hall, renaming it "Mersey City", and on 2 May 1964 he opened with Tony and the Fabulous Blue Jays. Over 4500 teenagers attended -- "That was 500 more than saw the Beatles" according to Tony -- and Dayman also used them to open several other venues in Bundaberg, Toowoomba, Ipswich, Inala, Surfers Paradise and Brisbane. 

Either with Tony, or under their own name, The Blue Jays were crucial to Sunshine's early success; Glenn Baker rightly says that in many respects they were Sunshineand Tony Worsely/Blue Jays releases accounted for seven of the label's first thirteen singles. Together they also rank as one of the most prolific recording units of "the scream years", churning out between them three full albums, eight EPs and seven singles in less then two years. Their Sunshine tracks including many original tracks by Clarke and Nicholls, which was fairly unusual for bands of the time. The Easybeats were one of the few other Australian outfits playing mainly original material, and most local beat groups relied on covers, typically covering blues or R&B songs by UK bands like The Beatles, The Stones, The Hollies or The Animals, which were themselves often covers of originals by American artists.

Sunshine's musical director Pat Aulton, was the former lead singer of Adelaide band The Clefs (which was, coincidentally, led by Tweed Harris, who went on to found The Groove with former Librettos and Playboys guitarist Rod Stone). In the liner notes for The Early Anthology, Pat recalled his introduction to Normie:

"Ivan said to me one day 'We've found this kid, comae and have a listen and tell me what you think'. So I saw Normie sing at Preston Town Hall and thought 'Well, he's pretty good'. The girls loved him, and he had great presence. He really worked hard. He'd get out there in front of the crowds and he really punched the sky, and I liked that. So I took Normie down to Armstrong Studios to record his debut single."

Normie's first single,"It Ain't Necessarily So" (April 1965) was huge debut success, making the Top Ten in most cities and peaking at #6 in Sydney, #1 in Melbourne, #3 in Brisbane and #5 in Adelaide. Its lower chart position in Sydney was reportedly due to the fact that Sydney pop station 2SM (then owned by the Catholic Church) banned it because of its supposedly 'sacrilegious' lyrics. Over the next twelve months Normie enjoyed a virtually unbroken run of hits around Australia inlcuding his double-sided smash hit "Que Sera Sera" / "Shakin' All Over", which became still one of the biggest-selling Australian singles of the 1960s.

By mid-1966 Normie was the biggest solo pop performer in Australia, and the next logical step was to try his luck in the UK. In preparation he revamped the Playboys lineup. Cartwright, Billings and McArthur wanted to stay in Australia for family reasons, so Normie replaced them with Brian Peacock (bass) and Rod Stone (guitar), both from the recently defunct New Zealand band The Librettos. Arriving in London in August 1966, ahead of his band, Normie took on Ritchie York as his London agent, and began to record with producers Trevor Kennedy and John Carter, using the cream of London's session musos, including Big Jim Sullivan, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, famed drummer Clem Cattini and vocal group The Breakaways. The London sessions produced a clutch of new songs -- "Ooh La La", "It's Not Easy", "Mary Mary", "Turn On The Love Light" and "Can't Do Without Your Love".

Despite Normie's absence in London, his run of chart success in Australia continued unabated. His next single, "Ooh La La" / "Ain't Nobody Home" (Nov. 1966) was another double-sided hit Top 5 hit in most capitals (#2 in Sydney, #1in Melbourne and Brisbane and #4 in Adelaide). Up to this point there had been no national pop chart in Australia, and most pop stations in the state capitals and major cities published their own competing charts. However, on 5 October 1966 Go-Set magazine began publishing its own weekly national Top 40, compiled by Ed Nimmervol. "Ooh La La" / "Mary, Mary" debuted at #6 on the new chart on 7 December 1966, and it hit the top spot in the 21 December chart, giving Normie his first official national #1 hit. It stayed at #1 for two weeks before being briefly supplanted by The Easybeats' "Friday On My Mind" on 4 January, but returned to the top for the next two weeks. "Ooh La La" reportedly also made it into the lower end of the British Top 40. While "Ooh La La" was riding at the top in Australia, Normie's next single "It's Not Easy" was also shooting up the chart. It debuted at #17 in the Go-Set chart in the last week of December 1966, and reached in the Top Ten by the second week of January; through the end of January and into February, Normie enjoyed his greatest chart success to date and achieved an Australian 'first' by having two singles simultaneously in the national Top 3 for three consecutive weeks. The new Playboys lineup arrived in London in December and Normie briefly flew home for Christmas, which no doubt assisted the chart ascent of "It's Not Easy". Capping a year of extraordinary success, Normie was voted Australia's top male singer in the first annual Go-Set Pop Poll.

Normie worked in England for ten months and toured with the likes of Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity, The Spencer Davis Group, Kiki Dee, Gene Pitney and The Troggs. There were high hopes of a British breakthrough, and there's no doubt that Normie had the talent, ambition and work ethic to see it through. In the early months of 1967 the pages of Go-Set were filled with breathless predictions of imminent UK stardom, but it never materialised. Meanwhile, back home, Normie's British stay was proving a heavy drain on Sunshine's finances, and sometime in late 1966 or early 1967 Sunshine Records went into liquidation and was evidently taken over by Festival, which was presumably Sunshine's major creditor.

Much has been written about the reasons why Aussie talents like Normie, The Easybeats, The Twilights and the Masters Apprentices weren't able to break through in the UK. Some have pointed the finger at the so-called "Pink Mafia" who allegedly controlled by British pop industry, but this explanation seems far too simplistic. In retrospect, the biggest obstacles was the sheer difficultly of making any impression against the overwhelming volume of talent on offer in the UK without top-line management, full support from record labels and a virtually bottomless bucket of money. 

Another factor which had a significant impact on the exposure given to Australian artists on British radio was the emergence of pirate radio. Transmitting from ships and sea-towers just outside the UK territorial limit, pirate stations Radio Caroline, Radio London and Radio Atlanta shook up the hidebound British music scene, giving Britons their first taste of the weird and wonderful world of commerical pop radio. Although it's not well known, many Australians were prominently involved in these pirate stations -- Radio Atlanta was in fact founded by expat Austyraslians Alan Crawford and Ken Evans, and many Australian DJs worked on the 'pirates' in this period, including former 2SM 'Good Guy' Tony Withers (by then calling himself Tony Windsor), future 2SM breakfast star Ian McRae, and future Sounds producer Graeme "Spider" Webb. Many Australian acts including The Easybeats and Johnny Young were given solid support by patriotic Aussie pirate DJs and this seems to have had a major effect on the eventual success of "Friday On My Mind" in particular. However, by early 1967 the British government was becoming deeply concerned about the massive popularity of the pirate stations and on 1 June 1967 the declaration of the Marine Broadcasting Act 1967 closed the loophole that allowed the pirates to operate, effectively put them out of business overnight.

In June, Normie and The Playboys travelled to North America, supporting Roy Orbison on a US tour, and along with The Seekers they represented their country in a special "Australia Day" performance at Expo '67 in Montreal. Normie returned to Australia in July, where he appeared as a special guest at the Hoadleys Battle Of The Sounds final in Melbourne. Graeme Trottman also returned to Australia but the rest of the band remained in the UK, drafting in former Librettos drummer Craig Collinge to replace Trottman. The Playboys secured a one-off single deal with Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label, and they recorded and released one single "Sad" / "Black Sheep RIP" in August. Meanwhile, Normie scored another Top Ten hit in late 1967 with "Going Home" / "I Don't Care". It debuted at #22 in the Go-Set chart in late April and stayed in the national Top Ten until the end of May, peaking at #7. His next two singles, produced in the UK by Giogio Gomelsky were "Sunshine Secret" / "But I Know" (June 1967) followed by "Turn Down Day" / "Stop To Think It Over" (October), which charted in Melbourne. But in September 1967 Normie received his call-up notice for national service. In October Normie and The Playboys parted ways. The group remained in the UK, changed direction and re-emerged in December as one of Australia's first progressive rock bands, Procession.

Dave Miller
New Zealand singer Dave Miller, who subsequently formed The Dave Miller Set, was able to establish himself in Sydney in 1966 thanks to Dayman's organisation. Dave and bandmate Al Dunster came to Australia in early 1966 and because Dunster knew the then manager of The Bowl, this enabled Dave to get a job at The Bowl in Castlereagh St. Graham Dent, a fellow New Zealander, was also managing Max Merritt & The Meteors at that time. Dave worked at The Bowl and other venues for several months as an MC, compereing for Sunshine acts like Normie Rowe and Peter Doyle, and performing as a DJ and solo singer. This period proved important for Dave in making connections on the Sydney music scene, particularly Spin Records A&R manager Nat Kipner.

By late 1966 Dave was considering moving into to the lucrative club circuit, but he was drawn back into the pop scene in late 1966 by Dayman and Dent's decision to revamp The Bowl as a discotheque and rename it the Op-Pop Disco. Dave was asked to put together a house band, so he contacted an old friend from New Zealand, drummer Ray Mulholland, (ex- The Rayders) who was keen to come over and work in Sydney. Dave then recruited a talented young bass player, Harry Brus (ex-Amazons) who went on to become a longtime backing player for Renee Geyer and one of Australia's most respected musicians. The lineup was completed by guitarist Mick Gibbons (ex-The Bluebeats) and keyboard player Greg Hook (who later worked with Respect, Odyssey, Stevie Wright and Lindsay Bjerre), thus creating the first lineup of The Dave Miller Set. However, by the time Dave had put the group together, Dayman and Dent had changed their mind about the house band and the DMS were forced to find work elsewhere.

Financial crisis and takeover by Festival
1966 was the turning point for the label. It appears that Dayman overextended his businesses -- supporting Normie Rowe and The Playboys in the UK was reportedly a heavy drain on company finances, but Dayman may simply have over-extended -- in early 1966 he set up a second label, Kommotion,  owned or managed a chain of venues in several capital cities, as well as his management and agency operations. 

Tony Worsley parted ways with The Blue Jays, who then split up. He put together a "New" Blue Jays, which included such future OzRock luminaries as Vince Maloney (Aztecs, Bee Gees, Fanny Adams), John A. Bird (Country Radio) and Phil Manning (Chain). In December 1966, Tony and the 'new' Blue Jays played at a major Dayman-promoted package event, "The Johnny Young Show", at Brisbane Festival Hall, which featured most of the Sunshine roster -- Ronnie Burns, Peter Doyle, Mike Furber, Ross D. Wylie, Thursday's Children, Graham Chpaman, Greg Anderson, The Escorts, Marcie & The Cookies, The Pleazers, and Julien Jones & The Breed. Tony Worsley managed to steal the show with his version of James Brown's famous fainting routine, in which he pretended to collapse and have to be led off-stage, only to only to be doused with water, revive and return for encore after encore.

This all-star Brisbane concert proved to be a de facto memorial for the Sunshine label. By the end of 1966, in spite of his continued run of Australian hits, Sunshine was heavily in debt and the receivers were called in, most likely by its distributor Festival Records, which was presumably its major creditor. According to Spin Records historian Bill Casey, Dayman was also forced to close his Bowl venues in Sydney, Brisbane and Toowoomba. Founding partner Nat Kipner had already sold his share and moved on to work for Clyde Packer's new Spin label, but Pat Aulton was still a director, and as a result of his liability, Pat had his car and furniture repossessed by Sunshine's creditors. Fortunately, his salvation came in the form of a job offer from Festival MD Fred Marks, who hired him as a staff A&R manager and house producer. From 1967 on, Sunshine became a subsidiary of Festival, who continued to operate the label until 1974. 

Sunshine released 28 singles during 1967, only four fewer than its peak year of 1966, but its output dropped sharply in 1968 (11 singles) and only eight singles came out  during 1969, during which time Normie Rowe's contract with the label expired. By 1970 Sunshine was virtually inactive, with only one single released; two more singles were issued during 1971, after which the label was retired.

In July 1967, The Master Apprentices made a tour of NSW, including shows at the the famed Sydney Stadium, at Rushcutter's Bay (July 30th) and The Trocadero. Heading to Queensland, they toured extensively for Dayman and while in Brisbane lead singer Jim Keays had a memorable meeting with Johnny O'Keefe, who praised the Masters as the most "Australian" new band in the country. A press report (probably in Go-Set) dated April 1968 claimed that The Valentines were to join Sunshine; it's not known whether this meant the label or the agency, but the deal never eventuated.

Dayman went on to manage Sydney bands Rev. Black & The Rockin' Vicars (early 1968) and The Affair. The latter band won the 1969 Battle of the Sounds, defeating 1863 Establishment; the guitarist in the latter group, Jimmy Cerezo, has claimed that Dayman subsequently admitted to him that he had bribed the judges to give the prize to The Affair, even though most people (including the band) felt that 1863 Establishment had given the better performance.

Discography

Discographical notes

Sunshine's recordings were catalogued in Festival's standard popular release series. 45rpm singles were prefixed "QK", although there were several releases under the Sunshine International banner in 1966-67 (which were prefixed "QIK"). EPs were prefixed "QX", plus a few Sunshine International releases, prefixed "QIX". LPs were catalogued in Festival's "L-30000" series with the addition of a "Q" prefix, an exception being Bill & Boyd's Talent Plus album, which appears to have been one of the last Sunshine LP releases and was catalogued under Festival's new "L-900000" series and given a "SQ" prefix, presumably indicating 'stereo'.

Because they were pressed and distributed by Festival -- who numbered other labels in the same sequence as their own singles -- Sunshine's catalogue numbers do not run in strict numerical order. However, the relatively close spacing of catalogue numbers on Sunshine releases indicatea that its singles and EPs comprised a significant portion of Festival's new releases between 1965 and 1967.

The QK series continued until late 1971; the latest confirmed Sunshine single we have located was a 1971 single by the Jelly Roll Big Band (QK-4412) and then the label appears to have gone into abeyance until 1974. Over that year Festival released eight singles (with its new "K" prefix), inlcuding one single (catalogue number unknown) by Sydney soul-funk group Hot City Bump Band. The last two Sunshine singles were released in December 1974, after which the label was evidently closed down for good. Festival did not revive the imprint for its 50th anniversary in 2002, although it did reactivate the Spin label for several CD reissues and its anniverary anthology.

Singles

EPs

Albums

References / Links

Hank B. Facer
Downunder label discography: Discography#26 (Museum of Indigenous Recording Labels, Sydney, June 1982)

Bill Casey
Spin Dried: A complete and annotated discography of Australia's Spin record label 1966-1974 (Moonight Publications, 2007)

Ian McFarlane
Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop (Allen & Unwin, 1999)

Noel McGrath
Australian Encyclopedia of Rock (Outback Press, 1978)

Terry Stacey
Rev Black & The Rockin' Vicars
http://www.freewebs.com/rockinvicars/index.htm

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