Red Rhino Records, also known as Red Rhino, was a British
independent record label
An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...
which was developed by the independent record shop and wholesaler of the same name, all formed and run by "Tony K" (Tony Kostrzewa) and his wife Gerri. It was part of
the Cartel
''The Cartel'' is a 2009 American documentary film by New Jersey-based television producer, reporter and news anchor Bob Bowdon, that covers the failures of public education in the United States by focusing on New Jersey, which has the highest ...
, a co-operative record distribution organisation in the United Kingdom, set up by a number of small independent record labels to handle their distribution to record shops.
History
Set up at the end of the 1970s, it maintained its base in
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...
(with a shop, originally in
Gillygate and later in
Goodramgate) and through the early 1980s, with the growth of independently produced music, expanded its business to a point where the wholesale side became the separate entity, Red Rhino Distribution Limited. It also developed, in parallel with the main record label, a small
music publishing
A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellect ...
company called Screaming Red Music and the subsidiary labels Ediesta and Red Rhino Europe (RRE), the latter notable for releases by
Front 242 and
Butthole Surfers. The label was closed down with the financial collapse of Red Rhino Distribution in 1988, while its subsidiary label Red Rhino Europe continued under the name RRE Records (or simply RRE) as a subsidiary of
Play It Again Sam. The most notable artists featured in the main label's catalogue were
The Mekons,
Skeletal Family,
:zoviet*France: and the first record releases by
Pulp.
Notable releases
Discography
[based substantially on the published catalogue, summer 1985]
References
External links
Discogs.com a community-built database of music information
Red Army Choir
{{Authority control
Defunct record labels of the United Kingdom