rooArt was an Australian

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 and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

, founded in 1988 by

INXS INXS (a phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian rock band, formed as the Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney. The founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboardist Andrew Farriss, drummer Jon Farriss, gu ...

's then-manager, Chris Murphy, label owner Sebastian Chase and Murphy's former employee, Justin Van Stom. The label's roster included several well-known Australian bands and artists such as

Crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly, a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not linked scientifically to any certain trait but is rathe ...

Ratcat Ratcat are an Australian indie rock band from Sydney who formed in 1985. The band is fronted by mainstay vocalist and guitarist, Simon Day. Their combination of indie pop song writing and energetic Punk rock, punk-style guitar rock won them fan ...

, Screaming Jets,

You Am I You Am I are an Australian power pop band, fronted by its lead singer-songwriter and guitarist, Tim Rogers. They formed in December 1989 and are the first Australian band to have released three successive albums that have each debuted at the ...

Wendy Matthews Wendy Joan Matthews (born 13 January 1960) is a Canadian-born Australian singer-songwriter who has been a member of Models (band), Models and Absent Friends (band), Absent Friends and is a solo artist. She released Top 20 hit singles in th ...

, The Hummingbirds, The Trilobites and Amanda Brown with Lindy Morrison in Cleopatra Wong. Other bands which made early or first releases on the rooArt label included Hipslingers, The Last Metro, The Lab, The Fauves, Bellicose and

Custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with Eggs as food, egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in con ...

. rooArt released a series of three compilation albums of new or then-unsigned acts, called ''Youngblood''. A number of acts released on the compilations went on to record their own albums, including

Tall Tales and True Tall Tales and True were an Australian rock band formed in 1983 by Matthew de la Hunty on lead vocals and guitar and Paul Miskin on bass guitar, backing vocals and guitar. They released three studio albums, ''Shiver'' (1989), ''Revenge!'' (1992, ...

, The Trilobites and Martha’s Vineyard. Sydney band Crash Politics were the first band signed to rooArt, which released their debut album ''Mothers' Intention''. The label's second signing was The Hummingbirds, who had released four singles on their previous label Phantom Records, with their debut LP '' loveBUZZ'' being one of the first hit albums for rooArt. The label had a sub-branch called Ra Records, whose focus was on alternative rock;

Augie March Augie March are an Australian Pop music, pop and indie rock band formed in 1996 in Shepparton, Victoria. Since 2001 the group consists of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Glenn Richards, lead guitarist Adam Donovan, bass guitarist Edmondo Ammen ...

, The Mark Of Cain, The Mandelbrot Set (band) and

Buffalo Tom Buffalo Tom is an American alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986. Its principal members are guitarist Bill Janovitz who also sings the majority of lead vocals, bassist and singer Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginn ...

were signed to this. It also had a section called rooArt Jazz, which released an album by Free Spirits in

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

. rooArt releases were distributed by PolyGram until 1991, then by Warner Music Australia, until 1995 when the label switched to the independent Shock Records label to manage its marketing and distribution. In October 1996, on the eve of You Am I's triumph at the

ARIA Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

, it was announced that BMG Australia had purchased rooArt for A$5 million. Subsequently, other releases were released by BMG on the Ra imprint, including several from

Artists

The Screaming Jets The Screaming Jets are an Australian hard rock band formed in Newcastle, New South Wales from the band Aspect formed in high school by Grant, Dave, Frank Manitta and Grant Wiltshire (deceased) in 1984 which Paul Woseen was also a later member o ...

* The Hummingbirds *

* Absent Friends * Weddings Parties Anything *

James Reyne James Michael Nugent Reyne Order of Australia, OAM (born 19 May 1957) is an Australian musician. He achieved fame as the lead singer of Australian Crawl, and subsequently went on to a successful solo career. Biography Early years Reyne was born ...

* Martha’s Vineyard * The Trilobites * Amanda Brown

References

External links

RooArt
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

.com {{Authority control Australian independent record labels Rock record labels Pop record labels Record labels established in 1988

Artists

See also

References

External links