SPIN RECORDS

Category: Australian independent label Location: Sydney, NSW Operation: 1966-1974; reactivated by Festival Mushroom Records ca. 2000-2002 Distribution: Festival Records Ownership: Spin Productions Pty Ltd  Company directors / staff: Clyde Packer - major shareholder and director Harry M. Miller - shareholder and director Nat Kipner  - shareholder and director, A&R manager 1966-67 Robin Brampton - sharholder and director, 1966-74 Tom Miller - general manager late 1966-1974 John Egginton - A&R manager 1968-69 Gus McNeil - A&R manager 1970-72 Main producers: Ossie Byrne (1966), Nat Kipner (1966-67), Pat Aulton (1966-70) Company liquidated 1974, catalogue purchased by Festival Records. Acquired by Warner Music Australia, October 2005, following the liquidation of Festival Mushroom Records.

History

Spin Records was one of the most important and successful Australian record labels of the 1960s, and it recorded and released some of the most vibrant and enduring pop artefacts of the period. Historian Bill Casey has recently published a comprehensive history and discography of the label and in particular its relationship with The Bee Gees, and we are indebted to Bill for his invaluable research into this important company.

The origin of the Spin label was the shortlived "Everybody's" imprint, which was set up in late 1965 by the Packer-owned Australian Consolidated Press as a cross-promotional vehicle for its teen magazine Everybody's. The founding company principals were Frank Packer's elder son Clyde and four directors of Everybody's. Around the time the label was being set up, the directors were approached by TV producer, songwriter and entrepreneur Nat Kipner. Kipner had until recently been a partner in Ivan Dayman's Sunshine label and had managed Dayman's Sydney venue, The Bowl, in Castlereagh St .

The Everybody's management appointed Nat as the label's A&R manager and he quickly signed up four local acts. One was his son Steve's new band, Steve & The Board, for whom Nat wrote a novelty song, "Giggle-eyed Goo". The other three were ex-Aztec guitarist Tony Barber, a young female singer called Toni McCann, who had recorded for Sunshine, for another single release, and big-voiced Sydney singer Big Norm Miller.

Everybody's released only four singles in its brief life. The first two releases were the Steve & The Board's "Giggle-Eyed Goo" b/w "Rosalyn" (produced by Nat Kipner) and Tony Barber's "Someday" b/w "Is It Raining?" (produced by Bill Shepherd) and simultaneously issued in either October or November 1965. They sold moderately well, and "Giggle-Eyed Goo" even made the charts in Sydney, but record buyers were apparently confused by Everybody's association with the label, with many thinking that the records came free with the magazine. According to Hank Facer, the singles also encountered resistance from radio stations problems because of the Consolidated Press connection and Bil Casey reports that Sydney DJs were unwilling to name the label on air because of the cross-promotion for the magazine.

The last two Everybody's singles, issued either in December 1965 or January 1966, were Big Norm Miller's version of the Everly Brothers' "All I have to do is dream" b/w "Blue Horizons For Me" and Toni McCann's scorching "Saturday Date" b/w "If You Don't Come Back". Two of the four Everybody's singles were re-issued in February 1966. McCann's "Saturday date" on Sunshine (which folded soon after) the other three on Spin. The four original Everybody's releases are now highly prized by collectors.

By January 1966 Everybody's had been renamed and re-launched as Spin Records and the parent company, Spin Records Production Pty Ltd now included two new partners -- Sydney entertainment entrepreneur, Harry M. Miller, and Nat Kipner, who was retained as A&R manager, but now had a financial interest in the label. After abortive negotiations with EMI, Spin Productions signed an exlusive ten-year distribution agreement with Festival Records and the first three Spin singles, released to coincide with the rebranding, were Ray Columbus' "We Want A Beat", Jeff St John & The Id's debut "Lindy Lou", and Marty Rhone's "Nature Boy".

Kipner produced or co-produced (with Ossie Byrne) many of the early Spin releases, as did noted producer-arranger Bill Shepherd (who subsequently accompanied the Bee Gees to the UK as their musical director). From 1967 onwards, after the collapse of Dayman's Sunshine label, its aquisition by Festival and his subsequent appointment as a Festival house producer, Pat Aulton played a central role in Spin and he produced a large proportion of the label's output in the late '60s and early '70s.

In 1966 Spin played a pivotal role in the Bee Gees story, issuing the group's final batch of Australian singles, including their first major Australian hit, "Spicks and Specks", released in September that year. It was one of Spin's most successful singles, spending 19 weeks in the Sydney charts, where it peaked at #3, and it went to #1 in other cities including Melbourne, made #1 on the newly-established national Top 40 in  Go-Set magazine, who also named it their 'Best Record of the Year'.

However this success had an ironic edge to it. The Bee Gees had originally signed to Leedon imprint, the former independent label established by Lee Gordon, which was acquired by Festival after Gordon's death. According to Bee Gees historian Joseph Brennan, Festival were on the verge of dropping the group after eleven successive chart failures. But the band and their manager father Hugh felt that much of the blame lay with Festival itself, and that the company evidently had little interest in promoting their career.

Hugh Gibb raised questions about the legality of the boys' contract -- presumably because they were all under 18 when they signed it -- but Festival managing director Fred Marks came up with a compromise deal, agreeing to release the boys from their Leedon contract on condition that they transfer to the Spin label. At this point Kipner took over from Hugh Gibb and managed the trio until they moved back to the UK at the start of 1967, where they signed with Robert Stigwood and the NEMS organisation.

Once signed to Spin, Nat Kipner's support and guidance proved invaluable to The Bee Gees' career, as were the production skills and tutelage of independent producer and studio owner Ossie Byrne. Over several months during 1966 Byrne gave the Gibb boys virtually unlimited time in his home-made St Clair Studio at Hurstville and they have acknowledged that Ossie's contributions were crucial in enabling them to come to find their feet as studio performers.

Despite Festival's earlier misgivings about the band, the Spin deal proved to be a lucrative one for both Spin and Festival. After they arrived in Britain, The Bee signed with Stigwood's RSO Records (distrbuted by Polydor) for the UK and Atlantic Records in the USA, but Spin (and therefore Festival) retained the exclusive rights to distribute The Bee Gees' recordings in Australia for the better part of a decade. The first Bee Gees single released under this arrangement was their international breakthrough hit "New York Mining Disaster 1941" (1967).

Spin released some of the best local and international singles of the late Sixties, including all of The Bee Gees late '60s UK recordings. Other prominent artists on the Spin roster included former Aztec Tony Barber, Steve & The Board, Toni McCann, Ray Columbus, Jeff St John, Marty Rhone, Tony Summers, Chris Hall & The Torquays, Ronnie Burns, The Sunsets (later renamed Tamam Shud), The Ram Jam Big Band, Janice Slater, The Dave Miller Set and expatriate Hungarian fusion group Syrius. Harry M. Miller's interest in the label also led to Spin releasing the highly successful Australian cast recording of Hair in 1970, which was the first Australian cast recording LP to be awarded a Gold Record.

The label was very productive, with 116 singles, 35 EPs and 38 albums issued over the eight years between May 1966 and May 1974. Spin typically released 2-3 singles per month during its peak years. All its recordings were manufactured and distributed by Festival Records. Up to 1973, all singles distributed by Festival were catalogued in a consecutive four-figure series, with the different labels identified by prefixes. Festival's own releases (and some of its licenced overseas recordings) were identified with a "FK" prefix (e.g. FK-1340). Spin singles were identified by the prefix "EK", an artefact of its original incarnation as "Everybody's". The final Spin single release, one of only two in Festaival's new "K" series (1973-74), was The Bee Gees' "Mr Natural". 

Spin's EP and LP releases were similarly catalogued; Festival catalogued all EPs in its consecutive '11000' series, prefixed with a two-letter ID prefix (Spin's was "EX"). Spin LPs were initially catalogued in Festival's '30000' series and identified with an "EL" prefix"; this series changed to Festival's '930000' series ca. 1967. Early Spin LPs were released in mono; Jeff St John & The Id's Big Time Operators was Spin's first stereo LP and one of the first stereo pop albums by an Australian group. The original Australian cast recording of The Boyfriend (Sep. 1968) was the last Spin LP in mono and all subsequent albums were issued in stereo. Spin's last two LPs -- The Bee Gees' Double Gold and Mr Natural (1974) were issued under Festival's new L series catalogue.

Spin Productions went into liquidation in mid-1974 and the catalogue was subsequently purchased by Festival. The Spin name was revived briefly ca. 2000 for Fesival's superb series of CD reissues, but this project was cancelled soon after the company's 50th anniversary as the company was subjected to cost-cutting 'restructures'. Regrettably Festival Mushroom went into liquidation in mid-2005 and the recording archive -- including the Spin catalogue -- was purchased by the Warner Music group for AU$10 million in October 2005.

Discography

Singles

EPs

Albums

References / Links

Bill Casey
Spin Dried: a complete annotated discography of Australia's Spin record label 1966-1974 (Moonlight Publishing, 2007)

Nat Kipner and The Bee Gees
http://203.8.119.121/beegees/nat_kipner.htm

Ossie Byrne and The Bee Gees
http://203.8.119.121/beegees/ossie_byrne.htm

Peter Cox
Spinning Around: the Festival Records story (Powerhouse Publishing, 2001)

Hank B. Facer
Spin label discography
MIRL Discography No. 24, February 1982 (Museum of Indigenous Recording Labels, 1982)

Harry M. Miller
My Story (Macmillan, 1983)