Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a
British recording label founded by British entrepreneur
Richard Branson, and
Nik Powell in
1972. It was later sold to
Thorn EMI.
Branson & Powell had initially run a small record shop called Virgin in
London, specialising particularly in "
krautrock" imports, before turning their business into a fully-fledged record label. The name
Virgin, according to Branson (in his autobiography), arose from a colleague of his when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin - as they were all new to business - like "virgins". The original Virgin logo (known to fans as the "Gemini" or "Twins" logo) was designed by British 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.
The first release on the label was the classic
progressive rock album
Tubular Bells by multi-instrumentalist
Mike Oldfield in
1973. This was soon followed by some notable krautrock releases, including electronic breakthrough album
Phaedra by
Tangerine Dream (which went Top 10), 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.
Although Virgin was initially one of the key labels of British progressive rock, the 1977 signing of the
Sex Pistols, who had already been asked to leave both EMI and A&M, reinvented the label as a new wave outpost. Afterwards they signed groups like
Human League,
Culture Club,
Simple Minds, and less successful bands like the Motors, Holly and the Italians and Fingerprintz. A short-lived subsidiary label, Dindisc, had
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and the Monochrome Set during its brief 1980-81 existence. Similarly, Virgin Front Line became one of the U.K.'s most successful reggae labels in the late '70s and early '80s.
The current Virgin logo (known informally as "The Scrawl") was created in 1982 as a hasty doodle on a cocktail napkin; rather than hiring the graphic designer, Branson simply paid him for the napkin.
The group
Genesis recorded various albums for this record company beginning with 1983's self-titled effort (Virgin reissued the group's prior albums, which had originally been released on the Charisma label in the UK).
After several false starts licensing its bands to American labels like
Epic (Culture Club, Holly and the Italians),
Atlantic (Genesis,
Julian Lennon) and
A&M (UB40, Human League, Breathe), Virgin Records opened up its American division,
Virgin Records America, in
1987. Virgin Records America's releases were distributed by
WEA with arrangement from Atlantic Records until
1992. Prior to the formation of Virgin Records America, its artists were licenced in the United States to labels such as
CBS,
A&M,
Warner Bros., and others.
Virgin Records was sold by Branson to
Thorn EMI in 1992 for a reported £550 million. 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 specialty label
Point Blank Records, and
Hut Records, and continued signing new and established artists like
Brooke Valentine,
Beenie Man,
Korn,
Geri Halliwell,
The Rolling Stones,
The Exies,
The Smashing Pumpkins,
We Are Scientists,
The Kooks,
Bubba Sparxxx,
Sharissa,
Bossman,
Zeitia Massiah,
Meat Loaf,
Purple Ribbon All-Stars,
Janet Jackson,
Daft Punk, the
Chemical Brothers,
Shape:UK,
Juliet, the
Spice Girls,
Gorillaz,
Paula Abdul,
The Haiter Fire,
The Blinders,
Brooke Allison and
Angela Via.
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List of record labels*
Virgin Schallplatten GmbH*
Virgin Group*
virginbrand.com Unofficial blog of the Virgin Group
