| Waterfront Records | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1982 |
| Founder | Steven Stavrakis, Chris Dunn |
| Distributor(s) | Festival Records |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Location | Sydney |
| Official website | waterfrontrecords |
Waterfront Records was an Australian independent record label based in Sydney, that released recordings by Australian bands during the 1980s and 1990s.
History
Waterfront records was started in 1982 by Steven Stavrakis who, at the time, was an employee of another independent label Phantom Records.[1] The first release for Waterfront was the Careless Talk Costs Lives EP by JFK & The Cuban Crisis that was originally submitted to, but rejected by, the Phantom label.[2] Stavrakis heard the recordings and when Phantom passed on it he decided to release it himself. Stavrakis was later joined by Chris Dunn who was instrumental in discovering a number of the acts that appeared on the Waterfront label.[3]
Over the next 15 years Waterfront put out over 170 releases. Acts like Tumbleweed and Ratcat who would later have success on the mainstream charts released their first records on Waterfront.[4][5] Waterfront also licensed some recordings from the Sub Pop label that saw them handling the Australian releases for artist like Nirvana, Henry Rollins, L7 and Tad.[6]
The label later spawned a retail shop also called Waterfront that occupied various locations in the Sydney CBD with the three directors each managing different aspects of the business. Frank Cotterell (retail); Chris Dunn (label/retail) and Stavrakis (label/retail). Stocking local and imported records they gravitated towards a more punk rock aesthetic and were integral in the growth of that scene locally. The shop also regularly hosted live in-store performances.
After the store closed down in March 2000, Waterfront was reincarnated in February 2003, in the form of online retail store with backing by MGM Distribution, with assistance from former Waterfront Record director Cotterell. Stavrakis is not, and has not ever been, involved in the current entity that is Waterfront Records. At that time the intention was purely to run an online retail service (not a record label).
The "real" Waterfront Records label releases can be identified by the DAMP catalogue number prefix.
Artists released on Waterfront
- The Eastern Dark
- The Happy Hate Me Nots
- The Hard Ons
- The Hellmenn
- John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong
- Kat Frankie
- The Lonely Hearts
- Massappeal
- Mr Floppy
- Nunbait
- The Pigs
- The Proton Energy Pills
- Ratcat
- The Splatterheads
- The Trilobites
- The Tripps
- The Spunk Bubbles
- Tumbleweed
- Ups and Downs
- Thrust
- The Stupids
- Nirvana
- Vicious Circle
See also
References
- ↑ Mathieson, Craig (12 December 2023). The Sell-in: How the Music Business Seduced Alternative Rock. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781865084121.
- ↑ Pig City: From the Saints to Savage Garden. Univ. of Queensland Press. 12 December 2023. ISBN 9780702235610.
- ↑ Homan, Shane; O'Hanlon, Seamus; Strong, Catherine; Tebbutt, John (2 December 2021). Music City Melbourne: Urban Culture, History and Policy. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781501365713.
- ↑ "Billboard". 20 July 1996.
- ↑ Walker, Clinton (12 December 1996). Stranded: The Secret History of Australian Independent Music, 1977-1991. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9780732908836.
- ↑ Giffin, Brian (4 May 2015). Encyclopaedia of Australian Heavy Metal. Lulu.com. ISBN 9780994320612.