Virgin Records

Virgin Records
Parent company

Capitol Music Group (U.S.)

Virgin EMI (U.K.)
Founded
  • European company
    1972 (1972) (as Virgin Records and Tapes)
  • Virgin Records America 1986 (1986)
Founder
Defunct March 2013 (U.K. only)
Status
  • Active in the U.S.
  • Defunct in the U.K.
Distributor(s)
Genre Various
Country of origin
Location
Official website

Virgin Records is a major record label first founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell and musician Tom Newman in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide phenomenon over time with the success of its platinum performers such as Janet Jackson, Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, the Human League, Culture Club, Simple Minds, Lenny Kravitz, dc Talk, the Smashing Pumpkins, Mike Oldfield, Spice Girls and more on their list of artists.[1] It was later sold to Thorn EMI in 1992.

Currently wholly owned by Universal Music Group after its purchase of EMI in 2012, UMG absorbed Virgin's British operations, Virgin Records, Ltd., to create Virgin EMI Records in March 2013, which in turn absorbed Mercury Records' UK operations.[2]

Today, the operations of Virgin Records America, Inc. (a unit of Virgin Records, Ltd.) are still active and headquartered in Hollywood, California, as it operates exclusively under the Capitol Music Group since 2007.[3] A heavily minor amount of artists remain on Virgin Records America's roster, which today is mostly occupied with European artists such as Bastille, Circa Waves, Corinne Bailey Rae, Ella Eyre, Grizfolk, Walking on Cars, Seinabo Sey, and Prides. US artists include Knox Hamilton, L'Tric and Rise Against.

History

Virgin logo designed by Roger Dean for the fledgling Virgin Records label

Branson and Powell had initially run a small record shop called Virgin Records and Tapes on Notting Hill Gate, London, specialising particularly in "krautrock" imports, and offering bean bags and free vegetarian food for the benefit of customers listening to the music on offer.[4] In fact the first real store was above a shoe shop at the Tottenham Court Road end of Oxford Street. After making the shop into a success, they turned their business into a fully fledged record label. The name Virgin, according to Branson (in his autobiography), arose from Tessa Watts, a colleague of his, when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin – as they were all new to business – like "virgins".[5] The original Virgin logo (known to fans as the "Gemini" or "Twins" logo) was designed by English artist and illustrator Roger Dean: a young naked woman in mirror image with a large long-tailed serpent and the word "Virgin" in Dean's familiar script. A variation on the logo was used for the spin-off Caroline Records label.

The first release on the label was the progressive rock album Tubular Bells by multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, who was discovered by Tom Newman and brought to Simon Draper – who eventually persuaded Richard and Nik to present it as their first release in 1973, produced by Tom Newman, for which the fledgling label garnered unprecedented acclaim.[6] This was soon followed by some notable krautrock releases, including electronic breakthrough album Phaedra by Tangerine Dream (which went Top 20), and The Faust Tapes and Faust IV by Faust. The Faust Tapes album retailed for 49p (the price of a 7" single) and as a result allowed this relatively unknown band to reach number 12 in the album charts. Other early albums include Gong's Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible, Pt. 1), which Daevid Allen has been quoted as having never been paid for.

Rebranding

Although Virgin was initially one of the key labels of English and European progressive rock, the 1977 signing of the Sex Pistols (who had already been signed and then dropped by both EMI and A&M) reinvented the label as a new-wave outpost, a move that plunged the record company into the mainstream of the punk rock era.[6] Under the guidance of Tessa Watts, Virgin's Head of Publicity (and later, also Director of Production), the Pistols rocketed the label to success.[7] Shortly afterwards, the Notting Hill record shop (above which the label's office was located) was raided by police for having a window display of the Sex Pistols' album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols in the window. Afterwards they signed other new wave groups: Boxer, Culture Club, Fingerprintz, Gillan, Holly and the Italians, Human League (whose "Don't You Want Me" was the label's first chart-topping single, in 1981), Magazine, Skids, the Motors, Penetration, the Ruts, Shooting Star, Simple Minds, and XTC.

After modified versions of the twins label came the red, white and blue design introduced in 1975, which coincided with the height of punk and new wave.[8] The current Virgin logo (known informally as "the scrawl") was created in 1978, commissioned by Simon Draper, then managing director of Virgin Records Limited. Brian Cooke of Cooke Key Associates commissioned a graphic designer to produce a stylised signature. The logo was first used on Mike Oldfield's Incantations album in 1978 and by the Virgin Records label exclusively until gradually other parts of the Virgin Group adopted it, including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Mobile and Virgin Money.

Subsidiary labels

Current

Former

American editions

The Virgin label was distributed in the USA by Atlantic from 1973 to 1975. During this period, 14 albums were issued. All had been previously issued in the UK on Virgin, although one album, Marjory Razorblade by Kevin Coyne, was truncated from a 20-song double album to an 11-song single album.

Beginning with Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn album in 1975, American distribution switched to Columbia Records. Columbia was unwilling to release all Virgin artists, and so many were licensed to other labels: Epic (the sister company of Columbia) (Mike Oldfield (in the 1980s), Culture Club, Holly and the Italians, some XTC (1982), and Shooting Star), Atlantic (Julian Lennon), A&M (UB40, Human League, Simple Minds, Breathe), Warner Bros. (Sex Pistols, Scritti Politti, DEVO), Geffen (XTC - 1983 on), and MCA (Tangerine Dream, Belinda Carlisle). Some of these records had a small Virgin logo added to the regular company design on the label. One of Virgin's and Epic's biggest acts of the 1980s was Culture Club.

In 1978, Virgin set up US operations first in New York on Perry Street under Atlantic distribution, and then moved operations to New Jersey along with a short-lived subdivision called Virgin International, handled by independent New Jersey-based distributor Jem Records. Virgin International used mainly for progressive rock artists with a smaller following in the USA, including reissues of earlier Virgin / Atlantic albums such as Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Fish Rising by Steve Hillage, which Columbia chose not to reissue. Virgin International also issued albums by some of Virgin's reggae artists, including Gregory Isaacs. At the same time, Virgin releases distributed by Columbia continued, distribution returning to Atlantic (later WEA) in 1980, at which time Virgin International ceased operations.

In 1986, Virgin Records opened up another American division, Virgin Records America. Its first release was the debut album by Cutting Crew which included the hit single "(I Just) Died in Your Arms". Other Virgin America signings included Camper Van Beethoven, Bob Mould, Warren Zevon, Paula Abdul, T'pau, Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers, Redhead Kingpin & The F.B.I., Neneh Cherry, Steve Winwood and Hindsight. Virgin Records America's releases were distributed through WEA again by Atlantic Records until 1992. Virgin Records America was founded by the executive team of Jordan Harris, Jeff Ayeroff and Phil Quartararo.

Another American company called Caroline Records co-existed during this time. Caroline records rarely mentioned a connection with Virgin, and some UK and European Virgin albums that were distributed internationally (instead of being manufactured in each country) named Caroline as their American distributor. Some Caroline records bore the label name Caroline Blue Plate.

Canadian editions

The first Canadian editions were distributed by WEA, and were parallel issues of the same early 14 albums issued in the USA by Virgin/Atlantic.

In 1975, distribution transferred to Columbia (as it had in the USA), but the following year distribution was transferred again to Polydor Records (which changed its name to PolyGram by 1980), and issued a different and larger selection of records from what was being issued in the USA. Canadian editions of the Dindisc label were issued as Dindisc/Virgin. Virgin's Canadian division arranged to have Canadian artists Martha and the Muffins and Nash the Slash signed to Dindisc in the UK as well; both artists had releases in Canada and the UK on Dindisc.

In 1983, an independent Virgin Records Canada Inc. company was created, three years before a similar move occurred in the USA. From this time onward, Virgin Canada used unique label designs not seen in other countries: a red label with five horizontal bars across the top and an extra-large "scrawl" logo from 1983 to 1985, followed by a purple label with round logo up to 1992 when Virgin was acquired internationally.

Purchase by Thorn EMI

Virgin Records was sold by Branson to Thorn EMI in June 1992 for a reported US$1 billion (around £560 million),[9][10] with a special non-competition clause that would prevent Branson from founding another recording company during the five years following the agreement (see the final paragraph in E.U. Merger Decision IV/M202 of 27.04.1992). It now faces competition from Branson's new label: V2 Records. Branson sold Virgin Records to fund Virgin Atlantic Airways which at that time was coming under intense anti-competitive pressure from British Airways. (In 1993 BA settled a libel action brought by Branson, giving him £500,000 and a further £110,000 to his airline).

After being acquired by Thorn EMI, Virgin launched several subsidiaries like Realworld Records, Innocent Records, blues speciality label Point Blank Records, and Hut Records, and continued signing new and established artists like Korn, A Fine Frenzy, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Tina Turner, Depeche Mode, Beenie Man, The Rolling Stones, Spice Girls, The Smashing Pumpkins, We Are Scientists, Darren Hayes, The Kooks, Lenny Kravitz, dcTalk (mainstream releases, contract ended in 2000), Captain Beefheart, Meat Loaf, Placebo, Janet Jackson (contract ended in 2006), Daft Punk, My Favorite Highway, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Massive Attack, The Future Sound of London, Blur (US), The Chemical Brothers, Gorillaz, Paula Abdul (contract ended in 1999), Brooke Allison, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Almost, Mariah Carey (contract ended in 2001), N.E.R.D., Laura Marling, Swami, RBD, Thalía and Priscilla Renea.

In 1997, Virgin absorbed EMI Records USA (distinct from EMI America Records which was absorbed by Manhattan Records) and in 1998, opened a country music division called Virgin Records Nashville, of which record producer Scott Hendricks was president.[11] The label's signees comprised Julie Reeves, Jerry Kilgore, Roy D. Mercer, Tom Mabe, Chris Cagle, Clay Davidson, and River Road. In 2001, Virgin Nashville closed and its roster was folded into Capitol Records' Nashville division.[12]

Merger

Main article: Capitol Music Group

Capitol Records and Virgin Records America were merged in 2007 to create Capitol Music Group after a massive restructuring of EMI Group Ltd.[13] Stepping down as chief executive of Capitol Records was Andy Slater, with Jason Flom, former executive of Virgin, taking the reins as chairman and CEO of the newly created company.

Virgin Music international companies

See also

References

  1. ↑ Virgin: A History of Virgin Records by Terry Southern, URL accessed 6 July 2011.
  2. ↑ EMI Music | Universal Music UK launches Virgin EMI Records
  3. ↑ https://twitter.com/virginrecords
  4. ↑ Lott, Tim (26 March 2004). "The day my music died". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2007.
  5. ↑ Then Came Branson by Erik Larson at Inc Magazine Online, 1 Nov 1986, URL accessed 7 July 2011
  6. 1 2 "Simon Draper: Virgin Records – timeline". Google.com. 12 August 1978. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  7. ↑ Nathan Joseph – Renaissance Man by Transatlantic Records at Transatlantic Records Online, URL accessed 2 June 2010.
  8. ↑ http://www.45cat.com/label/virgin/2
  9. ↑ "About Us – About The Virgin Group". Virgin.com. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  10. ↑ "EUROPA – Competition – Cases from 200 to 249". Ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  11. ↑ Frank Hoffman (ed.). Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound. p. 973.
  12. ↑ "Virgin Nashville to be folded into Capitol". Billboard. 3 February 2001. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "Capitol Records Merges With Virgin". Rapbasement.com. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  14. ↑ EMI Music | Universal Music UK launches Virgin EMI Records
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