Grooves golden for record entrepreneur

Press, 6 March 1985, Page 33

Grooves golden for record entrepreneur

By

NEVIN TOPP

Selling “products” with names such as The Clean, The Great Unwashed, The Chills, and Sneaky Feelings, sounds like a nightmare. But the sounds these contemporary New Zealand rock music groups have made are proving successful in this country, and are now being sought overseas from the leading New Zealand independent record label, Flying Nun, of Christchurch. Roger Shepherd, the owner of Flying Nun, expects to double his turnover because of his attendance at MIDEM, the international recording and music publishing fair, at Cannes, from January 30 to March 3, followed by a business trip to Britain. The label was established in Christchurch in 1981 be-

cause of the burgeoning rock-music scene in the city at the time, but Mr Shepherd says that the label only sold about 5000 records in its first half-year of busiIn the 1984-85 financial year to the end of this month, the label expects to sell "well over” 30,000 records in this country — a small market. Flying Nun was set up by Mr Shepherd purely because of an altruistic interest in rock music, but business quickly intruded after the first record — “Tally Ho,” by The Clean — went to No. 11 in the national charts and the label needed a national distribution chain. Mr Shepherd had expected the Flying Nun label to remain within the boundaries of Christchurch, but it now distributes its records

to more than 80 of the main record shops in the country, has a national office in Christchurch with a fulltime worker, has sales representatives in the other main centres, and has a mail-order system. At present, Flying Nun handles the recordings of about 10 bands, but in spite of becoming "quite hardheaded” in business (“to survive”), Mr Shepherd says that he handles only music that “we like personally.” The growth in the business has meant that Flying Nun has had to “clean up our act just in the paper work set-up alone.” “Paying sales tax once a month makes you wake up pretty quickly.” Flying Nun was one of seven record companies represented on the New Zealand stand, set up with the help of the Department of Trade and Industry, and the New Zealand Embassy in Paris, at the MIDEM festival. Mr Shepherd says it was valuable making contacts. As a result of the trip, he has signed a deal with Creation in Britain, one of the leading independent labels. It distributes its records through Rough Trade, the top independent record company in Britain. There is already a lot of

interest in Flying Nun in London. “Everyone seems to be waiting for something to strike,” Mr Shepherd says. There is a lot of interest in Australian bands, he adds. Flying Nun also looks set to sign a deal with a leading independent Dutch label for distributing New Zealand records in Europe, and there may be an indirect sales move in the United States. Flying Nun will send packaged records to Britain and licensing material to be pressed in that country, particularly from the top band, The Chills, and a compilation album. “The value of the New Zealand dollar is such at the moment that our records are about the same price in Britain as those that are made in that country,” he says. Although Flying Nun records are popular they are seldom played during peak listening hours on commercial radio stations. Exceptions are made for a big hit, such as “Pink Frost,” by The Chills. As one Department of Trade and Industry official said, it appears that there is more interest in New Zealand music in Britain and Europe than in this country.