Island Records

History

Rise of the brand

Island Records was founded in Jamaica on 4 July 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall and Leslie Kong, and financed by Stanley Borden from RKO. Its name was inspired by the Harry Belafonte song "Island in the Sun". Blackwell stated in 2009: "I loved music so much, I just wanted to get into it, or be as close to it as I could." Blackwell's first album was Lance Hayward at the Half Moon Hotel, which was recorded in late 1959.

Tom Hayes, the label's sales manager between 1965 and 1967, referred to the early period of the label in the UK as "organized chaos". The 1964 hit, "My Boy Lollipop", sung by Jamaican singer Millie Small (1947–2020), was the label's first success in the UK and led to a world tour that also involved Blackwell. In a 50th anniversary documentary, Blackwell stated that he was only interested in building long-term careers at that stage in time, rather than short-term projects. Suzette Newman has been a close colleague of Chris Blackwell's since working together in the early days of Island Records, and while there she ran the Mango world music label. Suzette Newman and Chris Salewicz were the editors for the book The Story of Island Records: Keep On Running.

Blackwell relocated to England in May 1962 to garner greater levels of attention after the local Jamaican sound systems proved to be overwhelmingly successful. The label was based at a now demolished basement in Kilburn, London Borough of Brent, in a property that was used by Sonny Roberts's Planetone label and whose landlord was Lee Gopthal who would later create Trojan Records. The vast majority of the artists who had signed to Blackwell's fledgling label while he was in Jamaica agreed to allow the musical entrepreneur to release their music in the UK. While in England, Blackwell travelled throughout the city carrying his stock with him and sold to record stores in the city. He did not provide any copies to radio stations, as they would not play any of the Island music; the music was also not reviewed by the press. Meanwhile, Goodall left to start the Doctor Bird record label in 1965.

Blackwell signed the Spencer Davis Group to the label (at that time, many Island releases were being distributed by Philips/Fontana). The group became very popular and Island started its own independent series to spotlight UK rock talent. They signed artists such as John Martyn, Fairport Convention, Free, and greatly influenced the growing FM radio market. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was a major label in England with artists including Roxy Music, King Crimson, Sparks, Traffic, the Wailers, Cat Stevens, Steve Winwood and many others. (In the US, many of its releases were licensed to A&M or United Artists until 1970, when it set up stateside distribution deals with Capitol, Warner and Atlantic, as well as independent distribution.)

PolyGram acquisition

In July 1989, Blackwell sold Island Records and Island Music to the PolyGram UK Group for £180 million; he explained in 2009: "It became too big and too corporate for me and I couldn't really handle it." Following the sale, Island was no longer an independent company, but Blackwell was given a position on PolyGram's board and stayed on as CEO of PolyGram's new Island Entertainment division for ten years. PolyGram immediately began reissuing much of the Island back catalogue on compact disc and expanded Island's reach through its global manufacturing and distribution network, but the label was relatively unfocused in the 1990s. Between 1993 and 1995, Island had a sub-label called the Island Red Label, which focused on independent artists.

Blackwell eventually ended his association with the company in 1997, as the corporate life hindered the independent ethos of his personal life. "I never really had a job until I sold Island to PolyGram in 1989. It had gotten too corporate," he commented afterwards. After Blackwell left, PolyGram closed Island's film business. Blackwell left to found the Palm Pictures company and run a chain of boutique hotels in Miami, US and the Caribbean, including the very exclusive Goldeneye, once the Jamaican home of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. Then in May 1998, all of PolyGram and its associated labels were purchased by Seagram which announced its plan to integrate PolyGram with UMG to produce an estimated cost savings, within a couple of years, of between US$275 million and $300 million annually. Seagram further explained that the acquisition would unite a significant international presence with a thriving domestic business, as more than three-quarters of PolyGram's sales were outside the US.

Under Universal Music Group

In December 1998 and the first three months of 1999, UMG placed three divisions under the management of the Island brand: one in the UK, one in the US, and one in Germany. In each territory, these companies were merged under umbrella groups:

In the UK, Island Records Group, now operating under Virgin EMI Records since 2013.

In the US, Island, Mercury, and Def Jam and 14 other record labels were merged into The Island Def Jam Music Group; however, within the year, Island/Mercury decided to build upon the success of Def Jam Recordings and re-incorporated the label as Island Def Jam. On 1 April 2014, Universal Music announced the disbandment of IDJMG, one of four operational umbrella groups within Universal Music. Effective as of the same day of the announcement, Island Records, Def Jam, Mercury and Motown would later operate as autonomous record labels, until 2024, when UMG reunited all four labels under the Republic Records unit, Republic Corps.

In Germany, Island and Mercury merged to become divisions of the Island Mercury Label group.

However, in 2001, UMG was merged with French company Vivendi S.A. to create Vivendi Universal S.A.; but the music company remains under the name Universal Music Group (UMG).

In the US, Island became a predominantly pop/rock label, as its urban artists were assigned to either Def Jam or Def Soul, a new Island/Def Jam R&B imprint. Following the takeover of Island by UMG, flagship band U2 were dissatisfied after chief Jason Iley moved to the Mercury label in the mid-2000s and signed with Mercury for the UK and Interscope Records for the US. However, successful artists such as Tricky and PJ Harvey were impressed by the label and signed on as artists. Tricky explained: "I knew I could get freedom. I knew I could do what I wanted to do.", while Harvey later stated:

I came to work with them, sort of fully formed—the way that I looked, the way that I sounded: that was already there. And I felt, like, that they just supported where that was going to go.

Island 50

In 2009, Island Records marked the 50th anniversary of its foundation in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell with a series of live concerts and an exhibition under the Island 50 banner. The events were a celebration of the street-cool, independent outlook and striking visual imagery at the label's creative core. These festivities centred around a week-long run of shows at Shepherd's Bush Empire and Bush Hall in London. The concerts featured performances tracing the label's history from its reggae and jazz roots to the modern era. Among the artists who appeared were Sly & Robbie, Ernest Ranglin, Paul Weller, the I Threes, Aswad, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Grace Jones, Steel Pulse, Keane, Tom Tom Club, Toots & the Maytals, the Mighty Diamonds, Yusuf Islam/ Cat Stevens, Bombay Bicycle Club, Baaba Maal and U2. Another Island 50 tribute event was held over four nights at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, with Marianne Faithfull, Grace Jones and Sly & Robbie all appearing, and Chris Blackwell holding a Question & Answer session.

There was also a major exhibition at the Vinyl Factory Gallery in Soho, held in an open space beneath the record shop Phonica. The exhibition featured a display of treasured musical artefacts, including the Trabant car from the sleeve of U2's Achtung Baby, Nick Drake's guitar, the dress worn by Amy Winehouse at the 2008 Grammy Awards, the handwritten lyric sheet for Winehouse's song "Love Is a Losing Game" and Bob Marley's passport application form. The exhibition contained 800 prints showcasing the work for Island of the photographers Adrian Boot, Jean-Paul Goude, Anton Corbijn, Gered Mankowitz, Keith Morris and Brian Cooke, and the London exhibition also featured live performances at the Vinyl Factory Gallery by DJ Shadow and PJ Harvey.

Into Island's sixth decade: 2009–2017

Following its 50th anniversary in 2009, Island Records entered its sixth decade on a tide of optimism. The years that followed saw fresh success for a number of established acts, including PJ Harvey, Keane, Paul Weller and Bombay Bicycle Club and an exciting wave of new signings. In its largest live production since its 2009 anniversary, the label also staged a concert by the Weeknd and Jack Garratt on Osea Island, a small island in Essex, as part of a bespoke one-day festival for 400 guests, including label staff, media and 200 fans who obtained tickets via a ballot. in this same year Island Records appointed Mark DiDia as the new executive vice-president and general manager of Island Records.

2016 proved a particularly successful year for the label in the UK: over a seven-week period between April and June, four separate Island acts spent at least one week at number one. The albums concerned were PJ Harvey's The Hope Six Demolition Project, Drake's Views (which spent two weeks at number one), Ariana Grande's Dangerous Woman and Catfish and the Bottlemen's The Ride.

PJ Harvey's eighth studio album, 2011's Let England Shake, was one of the key records of Island's sixth decade. Made in a cliff-top church in Dorset, it won the 2011 Mercury Music Prize, making Harvey the only artist to land the prestigious award twice (she had prevailed ten years previously with Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea). Mumford & Sons, who grew out of a series of jam sessions in London in 2007, signed a licensing deal with Island in 2009. Heralded as standard bearers for a vibrant new wave of folkish, countrified rock, their debut album, Sigh No More, sold two million, reaching number two in Britain and America. It also won best British album at the BRIT Awards in February 2011. The follow-up, Babel, did even better in 2012, becoming the UK's fastest-selling album of that year, going to number one in Britain and the US and winning album of the year at the 2013 Grammy Awards. Island also secured the signing of English indie rock band Florence and the Machine whose debut studio album Lungs (2009) sold four million copies, and spent over 12 months on the UK Albums Chart before being crowned British Album Of The Year at the 2010 BRIT Awards ceremony. Lungs was followed by the studio albums Ceremonials (2011), and How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015).

Keane were another of the big successes of Island's sixth decade. Having topped the charts with their five million-selling debut album Hopes and Fears in 2004, they went on to secure five consecutive number-one albums in the UK (a feat bettered only by The Beatles), with subsequent releases Under the Iron Sea (2006), Perfect Symmetry (2008), Night Train (2010) and Strangeland (2012) all topping the charts. Paul Weller's relationship with Island dates back to his fourth solo album, 1997's Heavy Soul, and its 2000 follow-up Heliocentric. He returned to the label in 2008 and began an outstanding trilogy of releases that contained some of his strongest solo work 22 Dreams (2008), the Mercury Music Prize-nominated Wake Up The Nation (2010) and Sonik Kicks (2012).

Seventh decade and further expansions: 2019–present

On 23 July 2020, Universal Music Group and its local subsidiary MCA Music launched Island Records Philippines, the first Southeast Asian branch of the 61-year old label. The Philippines branch is led by former Sony Music Philippines and Sindikato Management executive Enzo Valdez. In June 2021, Imran Majid and Justin Eshak were named co-CEOs of Island Records. They assumed the position on 1 January 2022.

In 2021, Island signed the American singer Sabrina Carpenter. She released her first single under the label, "Skin", on 22 January 2021. The song peaked at number 48 and 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Global 200, becoming her first entry on both charts. Since signing with the label, she has gone on to have a major worldwide breakthrough, releasing three hit albums: Emails I Can't Send (2022), Short n' Sweet (2024) and Man's Best Friend (2025).

Manga Entertainment

Island World Communications, under the leadership of Blackwell and Andy Frain, created Manga Entertainment Ltd, the anime and live action Japanese film division of Island in 1991. and the distribution of what was the label's first release is considered a crucial milestone in the establishment of anime in the UK. In 1994, Island sold the distribution licences for most of Manga's releases to Siren Entertainment, an independent entertainment company in Australia. Those rights were then given to Madman Entertainment in 1999 when Siren became solely an acquisitions company.

Subsidiaries and labels

This list is probably incomplete, and some of the dates are uncertain.

Publications

Hard Rope & Silken Twine (1974), written by The Incredible String Band, illustrated by Wayne Anderson