Go! Discs was a London-based record label, launched in 1983 from offices in Wendell Road, Shepherd's Bush, by Andy Macdonald and Lesley Symons. The pair founded the label after Macdonald left his job as press officer at Stiff Records, and Symons provided the seed funding. The first signing to the label was Billy Bragg and early releases also came from Sheffield band The Box and Hull band The Housemartins. Records by the latter's spin-off group The Beautiful South were subsequently issued. Key staff contributors, following a move to

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

, included comedian Phill Jupitus and Cathal Smyth (Madness' Chas Smash). Go! Beat Records was launched as a subsidiary for artists like Beats International, Gabrielle and Portishead. In 1992, Paul Weller signed for the main Go! Discs label. In 1996, Macdonald resigned when PolyGram acquired a majority stake in the label, which folded not too long afterwards. However, Go! Discs' dance offshoot Go! Beat Records continued and became a unit in the PolyGram group. In 1999, Go! Discs was revived, but it is now in dormancy along with Go! Beat. The Go! Discs catalogue now operates under EMI Records, a division of the

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

. It was rebranded from Virgin EMI Records in June 2020.

Andy Macdonald and Independiente

After the purchase of Go! Discs by PolyGram, Andy Macdonald started Independiente Records and continued his involvement with the recording career of Paul Weller. Independiente is also the home of Travis, Roddy Frame, Embrace, So Solid Crew, Howling Bells and Malian desert blues band Tinariwen.

Artists

* Anna * Apollo Landing * The Bathers * The Bic * The Beautiful South * Billy Bragg * The Blue Ox Babes * Boothill Foot Tappers * The Butterfield 8 * David Holmes * Drugstore * Father Father * The Frank and Walters * The Housemartins * The La's * Madness * More Fire Crew ( Lethal Bizzle, Ozzie B & Neeko) * Paul Weller * Platinum 45 * Portishead * The Southernaires * The Stairs * Trashcan Sinatras

References

{{Authority control Go! Discs Record labels established in 1983 Record labels disestablished in 1996 1983 establishments in the United Kingdom Re-established companies Record labels based in London British independent record labels Pop record labels Rock record labels Electronic music record labels

Andy Macdonald and Independiente

Artists

See also

References