MILESTONE COMES AS NO SHOCK

August marks a rather incredible milestone for one of Australia’s greatest music institutions – Shock Records – as the company celebrates it’s 21st birthday.
First started in the bedroom of co-founder Andrew McGee’s house in inner-city Richmond in Melbourne, the company has gone on to become Australia’s largest independent record company with an annual turnover of more than $100 million.
And it might sound strange, but former British PM Margaret Thatcher actually had a hand in the naming of the company back in 1988. Shock co-founder and now Chairman David Williams explains.
“I was looking for something I could bark down the phone to people. I hate to say it, but I was sort of inspired by Margaret Thatcher. When I was living in London, the way she was running the government was pretty horrific. One of the things she instituted was to give troublemakers a short, sharp shock. So when we were trying to come up with a name, we wanted something short, so I thought of ‘short, sharp, shock’. She didn’t do a lot of good in the world, Margaret Thatcher, but she helped name our record company,” he said.
Within a year of being founded by Andrew, David and Frank Falvo, the company was already boasting a turnover of more than half a million dollars, thanks to savvy distribution deals signed with overseas labels including Relativity, SST and 4AD.
After outgrowing it’s humble residential beginnings, in 1990 Shock moved into an office in Northcote in Melbourne’s inner-north, where it began to expand on it’s exports of Australian labels to the world. In the same year, the company also released it’s first local product – the self-titled debut for alternative Melbourne outfit Intoxica.
Just one year later, the company scored it’s first ever chart hit, with Scatterbrain’s single ‘Don’t Call Me Dude’ rocketing into the top ten in January 1991. The same year saw the company sign Tism and release albums by the Underground Lovers, Primal Scream and Ed Kuepper.
1992 saw the company open it’s first interstate office – in Sydney. It would open offices in Brisbane and Perth three years later.
By the time Shock Records was just six years old, it was already turning over in excess of $7 million annually, had achieved chart and sales successes and set up it’s own in-house record labels and publishing company.
Shock was responsible for giving US rock outfit Offspring their first ever No.1 album anywhere in the world. ‘Smash’ topped the Aussie albums chart in February 1995 and went on to become Shock’s first gold selling release (accredited for sales of 35,000 or more).
It was in that same year that the company partnered with Central Station Records. Their collaboration brought about two No.1 hits in 1995 – with the very first single released through the partnership, Hocus Pocus’ ‘Here’s Johnny’ and later with Nicki French’s ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’.
In a sign that the company was way ahead of it’s time, it was also in 1995 that Shock began to distribute music on the net – becoming the first Australian record label to do so.
1997 marked the release of the first Wild FM compilation, the release of Ben Lee’s second album, the signing of iconic Aussie outfit The Angels, another spate of chart placings and a turnover of more than $40 million.
There are more chart successes in the label’s tenth year of operation – a massive No.1 single for Jennifer Paige (‘Crush’), top 20 successes with Aaron Carter, Mousse T vs Hot ‘N’ Juicy’ and Josh Abrahams with Amiel. There was also a top five chart placing for Joanne ftg. BZ with their cover of ‘Jackie’.
’98 also marked the year that Shock outgrew it’s premises in High Street Northcote and moved around the corner to it’s new home in Beavers Road, where it remains to this day.
1999 was the year of the Vengaboys and Eiffel 65, the year that sales of the Wild FM compilations surpassed one million units and the year that founder Andrew McGee retired from the music industry.
Shock released Craig David’s debut album ‘Born To Do It’ the year after, which went on to sell more than 350,000 copies and achieve one gold and two platinum singles.
In 2001, Mis-teeq hit the charts for the first time with ‘One Night Stand’, Hampton The Hamster took over the charts with his irritating style of dance pop, Shock released Basement Jaxx’ album ‘Rooty’ and the single ‘Where’s Your Head At’ (both achieved gold sales accreditation), and there were more chart placings for the successful Skitz Mix and Wild FM compilations.
Shock released it’s first wrestling DVD titles in 2002, released Spooks (Season One) on DVD in 2003, had chart success with the Freestylers and Mister Timothy ftg. Inaya Day in 2004 and in 2005, released the first and second singles from former Australian Idol contestant Ricki-Lee.
2007 was the year of the Bloc Party, the year Shock sold it one millionth WWE DVD, another big year for Ricki-Lee (this time with ‘Can’t Touch It’) and the year that the company released all 692 episodes of iconic Aussie drama ‘Prisoner’ on DVD – on 174 discs!
21 years, countless CD and DVD releases, tours, chart placings and sales accreditations later, and co-founder and Chairman David Williams insists that the company’s success rests solely on the shoulders of the company’s incredible staff.
“The key has been the people. A lot of great people have worked at Shock and we’ve still got people who are passionate about music and the entertainment business.”
But he insists that the reason for celebrating such an amazing milestone isn’t just about a pat on the back.
“I’m not into big celebrations for the sake of saying, ‘aren’t we great – we’ve been here for 21 years’,” he said, “But we have worked with a lot of artists, released a lot of music and DVDs, and if the fact that we’re 21 gives us some scope to bring additional attention to those artists, then it’s worth doing. It’s great to be turning 21, but we’re not looking back.”
And when you combine such a humble attitude with passionate, dedicated staff and a stable of superb artists armed with their respective catalogues of fine fare, we can virtually predict that we’ll be seeing many more milestones for Shock Records well into the future.
To all in Beavers Road and all who came before you, a heart-felt congratulations.

www.shock.com.au

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