Zarjazz was a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...

and sub-label of

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldw ...

. Zarjazz was formed in 1984 by Madness, a British

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a wal ...

band. The label's first release was

Feargal Sharkey Seán Feargal Sharkey (born 13 August 1958) is a singer from Northern Ireland most widely known as the lead vocalist of punk band The Undertones in the 1970s and 1980s, and for solo works in the 1980s and 1990s. His 1985 solo single " A Good ...

's hit single "

Listen to Your Father "Listen to Your Father" is a song from Irish singer Feargal Sharkey, released as his non-album debut single in 1984. It was written by Carl Smyth, and produced by Sharkey and Liquidator Productions (i.e. the British ska band Madness). The song re ...

", on which Madness (minus

Suggs Graham McPherson (born 13 January 1961), known primarily by his stage name Suggs, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, radio personality and actor from Hastings, England. In a music career spanning 40 years, he came to prominence in the ...

) performed as Sharkey's backing group. Zarjazz also achieved success with album and single releases by Madness themselves, and with the charity record '

Starvation Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, dea ...

' (credited as Starvation) featuring members of Madness,

UB40 UB40 are an English reggae and pop band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. They have been nominated for the ...

, the Pioneers and

General Public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

. The record label dissolved in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

. Other Zarjazz artists were the Fink Brothers (Suggs and

Chas Smash Cathal Joseph "Carl" Smyth (born 14 January 1959), also known as Chas Smash, is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His career spans more than 40 years. Smash came to prominence in the late 1970s as secondary vocalist, trump ...

), Charm School, and Tom Morley. The label was run from an office on Caledonian Road in North London, which also houses Liquidator Studios. Madness still owns the studio, but currently rents the premises to

Apollo 440 Apollo 440 (also known as Apollo Four Forty or @440) are a British electronic music group formed in Liverpool in 1990. The group has written, recorded, and produced five studio albums, collaborated with and produced other artists, remixed as ...

References

British record labels 1984 establishments in England 1986 disestablishments in England Record labels established in 1984 Record labels disestablished in 1986 Madness (band) Zarjazz {{UK-record-label-stub

See also

References