PLANET
Important Australian independent label formed by Bob Crawford (aka Robert “King” Crawford) and Marcus Herman – sound engineer and technician. It existed from 1951 to 1961.
The label began when Bob Crawford borrowed 90 Australian pounds from his Aunt Ethel (a needlework designer in the Block Arcade, Melbourne) while still in his teens and was registered on 14th March 1951.
Initially the label was established to release some 78rpm records while Bob Crawford was lead singer/crooner with Alan Rhodes & The Jump Men.
The label folded in about 1961 caused by debts from a scam artist masquerading as a band manager and an ill-fated “merger” with a company called “Telefil (Aust.) Co. Pty. Ltd.” (headed by Philip Opas Q.C.) – which turned out to be nothing but a debt-laden shell and resulted in the deliberate erasing of all Planet master tapes (by the firm secretary Mrs. Kinnon who bulk erased them to then sell on as blank re-usable tape). Much of the artwork was also lost at this time.
Source: kingcrawford.com.au
jazzart
Melbourne’s music store owner Bob Clemens established his own record label, Jazzart, in 1948 and, over 4 years, issued a large selection of Australian Dixieland (or traditional jazz) and progressive (or modern) jazz.
Source: Australian Jazz Museum
Ampersand
Jazz label from William Miller (Melbourne) started in September 1943.
The 10″ series ran to 36, there was a 12″ from 1201-1206 and some 10″ re-issues from US sources R101 to R105. All but 26/27 issued on vinyl rather than shellac.
Production of 78s ended in 1955.
Source: 78rpm.net.nz
Tasman
New Zealand’s Tasman label was the sister label to TANZA (Tasman did foreign releases, mostly Australian, TANZA did NZ acts) and the label was owned by Recording Corporation Of New Zealand.
In the late 1950s this and Columbus Radio Centre were merged into Radio Corporation Of New Zealand Ltd. which was later part of Pye Ltd. (the New Zealand licensee of the UK company), controlled by George Wooller of G.A. Wooller & Co. Ltd..
In 1975 Pye NZ was sold to Polygram Records (NZ) Ltd..
Source: Discogs
Swaggie
Swaggie Records was a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Graeme Bell in Australia.
The early years of the label were defined by recordings by Australian jazz musicians. In the 1960s, it made licensing deals with American companies for vintage jazz reissues on 7-inch LPs. Similar programs followed in the 1970s (12-inch LPs) though the 1990s (CDs).
More on Wikipedia
W&G
W&G Records was an Australian recording company that operated from the early 1950s to the 1970s. It was a subsidiary of the Melbourne precision engineering company White & Gillespie.
W&G released many significant recordings by Australian popular artists of the 1960s and also issued recordings of popular American artists, notably releases from the ABC-Paramount (Ampar) label, which W&G distributed from 1955 until 1960, when the Australian distribution was taken over by Festival Records. Recording engineer and producer Bill Armstrong worked at W&G from 1956-1961, prior to opening his own studio in 1965.
W&G also established a special subsidiary label, In Records, which released the classic mid-1960s recordings by the Loved Ones.
Carinia
Carinia Co. Pty. Ltd. was a Sydney-based recording company, specializing in re-issues of European music, first of all Polish.
Founded in 1952 by Michael (Mieczyslaw) and Nathalie Kulakowski, Polish refugees. The company was named after an aboriginal word meaning ‘home’. Carinia was issuing both 78 rpm records and EPs/LPs.
As for 1977, it was the largest privately owned record company of Australia. Operated at least until 1988.
Source: Russian Records
More: abc.net.au
AUSTRAL
The Austral Record was produced by World Record (Australia) Pty Ltd (also known as Wocord) which was established in Melbourne, Australia in 1924. The label was produced during 1925. They used American Masters, mainly Emerson, and omitted the original artists from the label.
This company was owned by the eccentric inventor Noel Pemberton-Billing, who had previously set up the World Record Company in the UK during 1922 to exploit his “long-playing” record patents. When World Record failed Pemberton-Billing came to Australia in late 1923 and set up another record company. This time the records were not “long-playing” but were of conventional size and duration. However, they did use another of Pemberton-Billings inventions in that they were standard shellac pressings and instead a thin layer of shellac was placed on a thick cardboard base. This meant that the records were an early yype of “unbreakable” disc, but the disadvantage was that the heavy tone arms and steel needles used at this time soon wore through the thin veneer of shellac and began to tear into the cardboard layer underneath. As a result the records quickly became unplayable, and very few examples can be found today without at least some minor groove damage of this type.
Inevitably, this new Pemberton-Billing venture did not survive very long and seems to have collapsed in early 1926.
Source: Discogs
