Mushroom Records
:''For the Mushroom Records company from Canada, see
Mushroom Records (Canada), for the company that used to be Mushroom's operations in the United Kingdom see
A&E RecordsMushroom Records was an
Australian
record company formed by
Michael Gudinksi and Ray Evans in
1972. After its sale in
1998, it merged into
Festival Mushroom Records. As of 2006 it is a one of the record labels operated by the
Warner Music Group.
The label's inaugural release was an ambitious triple LP recording of the 1973
Sunbury Festival, and over the next few years they signed a number of important Australian acts of the period including
Madder Lake and
Mackenzie Theory. Mushroom struggled to survive for its first two years and reportedly came close to folding on several occasions, but the label was dramatically pushed to the forefront of the Australian music scene in early 1975 following the massive success of
Skyhooks, whose debut album became the biggest-selling Australian LP ever released up to that time. Around the same time, Gudinksi was convinced to sign expatriate
New Zealand band
Split Enz, 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.
Mushroom entered the international scene by setting up an International division in London headed by
Korda Marshall of
Infectious Records and formally
RCA. The Australian label had some international success before then by signing
The Saints,
Kylie Minogue and
Jason Donovan in the eighties. However the last two were released internationally through
PWL. In the 1990s, Mushroom missed out on what could have been one of its biggest signings, and although the label was reportedly in the front-running to sign rising new Australian band
Silverchair; the group opted to sign with the
Sony label instead.
After selling 49% of the company to
News Corporation in 1993,
Garbage signed to the label via Marshall's UK operation, followed by
Pop Will Eat Itself,
Ash and
Peter André.
Gudinski sold the remaining 51% share of the label to News Corporation in 1998 for a sum reported to have been around AU$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, film production, band booking, national touring and venue management) and the name Mushroom Records. When Mushroom was merged with News Corporations's record label
Festival Records to form
Festival Mushroom Records in
1998, Gudinksi relaunched
Liberation Records.
In October 2005
Festival Mushroom Records was sold to the Australian division of the
Warner Music Group for a mere $AU10 million. The company's other major asset, Festival Music Publishing, was sold to Michael Gudinksi a month later for an undisclosed sum.
With the reorganisation into
Festival Mushroom Records, 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 and
Perfecto Records) was reorganised as
A&E Records and sold on to the
Warner Music Group when
Korda Marshall took a position within that company.
*
Madder Lake*
Mackenzie Theory*
Skyhooks*
The Dingoes*
Split Enz*
Paul Kelly*
Models*
The Saints*
Kylie Minogue*
Garbage*
Jimmy Barnes*
Muse*
List of record labels*
Festival Mushroom Records**
Festival Records**
Liberation Records*
A&E Records/
Warner Music Group**
Infectious Records**
Perfecto Records**
Taste Media**
City Pavement*
Festival Mushroom Records*
Mushroom Music Publishers
