Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with
Festival Records
Festival Records (later known as Festival Mushroom Records) was an Australian recording and publishing company founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1952 and operated until 2005.
Festival was a wholly owned subsidiary of News Limited from 1961 to ...
in 1998. Festival Mushroom Records was later acquired by
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
, which operated the label from 2005 to 2010 until it folded to Warner Bros. Records. Founder
Michael Gudinski
Michael Solomon Gudinski AM (22 August 1952 – 2 March 2021) was an Australian record executive and promoter who was a leading figure in the Australian music industry. Born and raised in Melbourne to Jewish Russian immigrants, Gudinski form ...
went on to become the leader of the
Mushroom Group
Mushroom Group is the largest independent music and entertainment company in Australia. It comprises more than two dozen companies. It has offices in Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland with over 200 employees.
History
The Mushroom Group was found ...
, the largest independent music and entertainment company in Australia, with divisions such as
Frontier Touring.
History
Mushroom Records was an Australian
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
formed by
Michael Gudinski
Michael Solomon Gudinski AM (22 August 1952 – 2 March 2021) was an Australian record executive and promoter who was a leading figure in the Australian music industry. Born and raised in Melbourne to Jewish Russian immigrants, Gudinski form ...
and Ray Evans in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
in 1972. After its sale in 1998 along with Mushroom Distribution Services, they merged into
Festival Mushroom Records
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival con ...
. From 2005 to 2009, it was operated by
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
. Gudinski subsequently expanded a pre-existing label,
Liberation Music
Liberation Music is an Australian record company and label, started in 1999 by Michael Gudinski and Warren Costello, based in Melbourne. Its stated aim is to find, nurture and then to develop new talent for a world market while remaining inde ...
, to release material by former Mushroom artists.
[McFarlane]
'Independent record labels'
entry. Archived fro
the original
on 28 August 2004. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
Its inaugural release was an ambitious triple
live album of the 1973
Sunbury Pop Festival
Sunbury Pop Festival or Sunbury Rock Festival was an annual Australian rock music festival held on a private farm between Sunbury and Diggers Rest, Victoria, which was staged on the Australia Day (26 January) long weekend from 1972 to 1975. It ...
, and over the first few years of its existence Mushroom signed a number of important Australian acts including
Madder Lake
Alizarin (also known as 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, Mordant Red 11, C.I. 58000, and Turkey Red) is an organic compound with formula that has been used throughout history as a prominent red dye, principally for dyeing textile fabrics. Historic ...
,
Ayers Rock
Uluru (; pjt, Uluṟu ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone formation in the centre of Australia. It is in the southern part of the Northern Territory, southwest of Alice Springs.
...
, and
MacKenzie Theory. In December 1974, Gudinski flew to the US to promote his recording artists, with Ayers Rock securing a recording contract, and an advance from
A&M Records
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 distr ...
.
Ayers Rock were the first Mushroom artist to sign an international recording contract.
Mushroom struggled to survive for its first two years and reportedly came close to folding on several occasions. However, the label was dramatically pushed to the forefront of the Australian music scene in early 1975 following the massive success of
Skyhooks
Skyhook, sky hook or skyhooks may refer to:
Fiction
* 'Skyhooks' or 'Skyhooks II', parts 1 and 8 respectively of the Adventure Time Elements (miniseries), Elements miniseries.
* ''Sky Hook'', a Hugo-award nominated science fiction fanzine
* Sk ...
, whose debut album, ''
Living in the 70's
''Living in the 70's'' is the debut album by Melbourne band Skyhooks. Released in October 1974 on the Mushroom Records label, the album achieved relatively little success until early 1975. It spent 16 weeks at the top of the Australian album cha ...
'', became the biggest-selling Australian LP ever released up to that time.
Around the same time, Gudinski was convinced to sign expatriate
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
band
Split Enz
Split Enz were a New Zealand rock band formed in Auckland in 1972 by Tim Finn and Phil Judd and had a variety of other members during its existence. Originally started as a folk-oriented group with quirky art rock stylings, the band built ...
, who had recently relocated to Australia. Although they had only moderate success for the first few years, Split Enz scored huge success in 1980 with the release of their album ''
True Colours'' and the hit single "
I Got You", which marked the emergence of
Neil Finn
Neil Mullane Finn (born 27 May 1958) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and musician who is known for being a member of Crowded House, Split Enz (which he co-fronted with brother Tim), and Fleetwood Mac. Finn rose to prominence in the late ...
.
In 1978, Gudinski started Suicide Records, an alternative Mushroom label, to release Punk music. Its first release was "These Boots Are Made For Walking" (cover version), by The Boys Next Door.
In 1981, Gudinski started White Label Records, an alternative Mushroom label, to release innovative music, with signings such as
Hunters & Collectors,
Machinations,
Painters and Dockers
Painters and Dockers are a rock band formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1982.
Paul Stewart, singer-songwriter and trumpet player, Dave Pace (vocals and trumpet) and Mick Morris (vocals and sax) are all original members in the band which was nam ...
,
Kids in the Kitchen
Kids in the Kitchen are an Australian pop, funk and new wave band which formed in 1983. They enjoyed chart success with four top-20 hits on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, "Change in Mood" (1983), "Bitter Desire" (1984), "Someth ...
and
The Stems
The Stems are a garage punk band formed in Perth, Western Australia in late 1983. They were founded by Dom Mariani in late 1983. The Stems are heavily influenced by 1960s garage rock and 1970s power pop. The band initially broke up in August 1 ...
.
In the 1990s, remixer
Gavin Campbell's Razor Records became a subsidiary of Mushroom.
Mushroom entered the international scene by setting up an International division in London headed by Gary Ashley (deceased 2017). The Australian label had some international success before then by signing
The Saints,
Dannii Minogue,
Kylie Minogue and
Jason Donovan in the eighties. However the last two were released internationally through
PWL. In the 1990s, Mushroom was reportedly in the front-running to sign rising new Australian band
Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Newcastle, New South Wales, with Ben Gillies on drums, Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars, and Chris Joannou on bass guitar. The group got their big bre ...
, but the group opted to sign with
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...
instead.
After selling 49% of the company to
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...
in 1993,
Garbage signed to the label via
Koda Marshall's
UK operation, followed by
Pop Will Eat Itself
Pop Will Eat Itself are an English alternative rock band formed in 1986 in Stourbridge in the West Midlands of England with members from Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. Initially known as a grebo act, they changed style to incorp ...
,
Ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
,
The Paradise Motel
The Paradise Motel are an independent Australian rock band that formed in Hobart, Tasmania in 1994. They relocated to Melbourne and issued two albums on Mushroom Records, ''Still Life'' (1996) and '' Flight Paths'' (1998) before moving to the Un ...
and
Peter André
Peter Andre (born Peter James Andrea, 27 February 1973) is an English-Australian singer and television personality of Australian descent.
Andre gained popularity as a singer, best known for his singles " Mysterious Girl" and " Flava". He is al ...
.
Gudinski sold the remaining 51% share of the label to News Corporation in 1998 for a sum reported to have been around A$40 million. However, the sale of Australia's last major independent label to a multinational engendered some adverse publicity, with Gudinski controversially claiming that he had sold the label as a protest at the federal government's changes to the regulations governing the parallel importation of recordings.
Gudinski maintained control of most other Mushroom Group companies (including interests in
music publishing
A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellect ...
, film production, band booking, national touring and venue management) and the name Mushroom Records. When Mushroom was merged with News Corporation's record label
Festival Records
Festival Records (later known as Festival Mushroom Records) was an Australian recording and publishing company founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1952 and operated until 2005.
Festival was a wholly owned subsidiary of News Limited from 1961 to ...
to form Festival Mushroom Records in 1998, Gudinski relaunched
Liberation Music
Liberation Music is an Australian record company and label, started in 1999 by Michael Gudinski and Warren Costello, based in Melbourne. Its stated aim is to find, nurture and then to develop new talent for a world market while remaining inde ...
.
In October 2005, Festival Mushroom Records was wound up and its trademarks and assets (including its large archive of master recordings) were sold to the Australian division of the
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
in a deal reported to be worth around A$10 million.
The company's other major asset, Festival Music Publishing, was sold to Gudinski's Mushroom Music a month later for an undisclosed sum.
In December 2009, Gudinski announced that he bought the remaining 50% he did not own from Warner Bros. In 2010, it became fully independent again.
In 2021, Gudinski died in Melbourne at the age of 68.
A&E Records
With the reorganisation into
Festival Mushroom Records
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival con ...
, a number of international operations and joint ventures were either shut down or sold. In the United Kingdom, the British arm of the company (including
Infectious
An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dis ...
and
Perfecto Records
Perfecto Records is a British trance record label, founded by Paul Oakenfold in 1989. Perfecto was also a remix team consisting of Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne and in its later years, Osborne was replaced by Andy Gray. Perfecto Records h ...
) was reorganised as
A&E Records
A&E Records is a United Kingdom-based record label imprint, owned by Warner Music Group (WMG). It operates under the WEA International group of labels at WMG.
A&E Records was formalised in May 2003, when the NewsCorp Music Group of independ ...
and sold on to the
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
when
Korda Marshall
Infectious Music is an independent record label owned by BMG, whose bands have included Alt-J, Ash and The Subways.
History
Infectious Music was established in 1993 as Infectious Records by former Zerra One drummer Korda Marshall after lea ...
took a position within that company.
Mushroom Records artists
Below are all the artists that were on the now non-existent label.
See also
*
List of record labels
File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg
File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg
File:Bingola1011b.jpg
Lists of record labels cover record labels, brands or trademarks associated with marketing of music recordings and music videos. The lists are organized alphabetically, b ...
*
Festival Mushroom Records
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival con ...
*
List of Festival Mushroom Records artists
This is a list of artists who recorded for Festival Mushroom Records.
During their existence, Festival Mushroom had also distributed for several independent Australian labels and international licensors, many of which will be noted.{{Cite web, ur ...
**
Festival Records
Festival Records (later known as Festival Mushroom Records) was an Australian recording and publishing company founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1952 and operated until 2005.
Festival was a wholly owned subsidiary of News Limited from 1961 to ...
**
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
*
Liberation Records*
A&E Records
A&E Records is a United Kingdom-based record label imprint, owned by Warner Music Group (WMG). It operates under the WEA International group of labels at WMG.
A&E Records was formalised in May 2003, when the NewsCorp Music Group of independ ...
/
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
**
Infectious Records
An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...
**
Perfecto Records
Perfecto Records is a British trance record label, founded by Paul Oakenfold in 1989. Perfecto was also a remix team consisting of Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne and in its later years, Osborne was replaced by Andy Gray. Perfecto Records h ...
**
Taste Media
Taste Media is a record label and production company that has released records for bands such as Muse and Shed Seven. The company was formed by Safta Jaffery (former executive of Decca and Magnet Records A&R) and Dennis Smith, who owned the S ...
*
Mushroom 25 Live
References
External links
Infectious MusicMushroom RecordsMushroom Music Publishers*
{{Authority control
APRA Award winners
Record labels established in 1972
1972 establishments in Australia
Record labels disestablished in 2009
2009 disestablishments in Australia
Australian record labels
Pop record labels
Rock record labels
Record labels based in Melbourne