ANDREW PENHALLOW
Born 24 January 1952, London England
Died 17 May 2023, Sydney Australia
Andrew Penhallow was an Australian music record label owner and artist manager. Andrew is widely credited with the promotion of Australian dance and electronic music being moved into the music mainstream in the 1990s as well as co-creating the Boiler Room section of the major Australian music festival Big Day Out.
Early Life
Andrew Penhallow was born and raised in Muswell Hill, London, the son of Ronald and Marjorie Penhallow. After being invited to leave school by his headmaster at the age 15, he worked at Tottenham Cemetery and in retail, typesetting and graphic design. He moved to Australia in 1975 and several years later began working at Rolling Stone magazine.
GAP Records and Factory Australasia
In 1980, with his partner Paul Gardiner, then editor of Rolling Stone, Penhallow established GAP records (the name being a play on Gardiner And Penhallow). “Paul got $10,000, I got $10,000 from my then mother-in-law. Then Paul got another $10,000 from his wife’s ex-husband who was a brain surgeon. We pulled together $30,000 and set up GAP.” [1]
While GAP released Australian independent music (its most successful act was Pel Mel, it real success came through its deal with Manchester’s iconic Factory Records.
When GAP records approached Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton to set up Factory Australasia, “Tony said speak to Rob Gretton because he handled that side of things. Rob was very laid-back and said ‘Maybe’. I don’t know what convinced them, but we did the deal. We didn’t know what we were doing – we just liked the music.” [2]
Penhallow was particularly devoted to recreating the high-quality – and often expensive Factory artwork [3] that contributed to the label’s iconic style and reputation which often pushed the capabilities of Australian printing and record manufacturing operations.
Factory Australasia would become the most successful offshoot of Factory in the world.
Volition Records
After GAP records, Penhallow set up Volition Records. The label was plugged into the then underground dance and club music scene - creating a roster of electro and dance music acts Severed Heads, Boxcar, Itch-E and Scratch-E, Single Gun Theory, Future Sound of Melbourne (FSOM), Southend, Vision Four 5, Sexing The Cherry, and Robert Racic.
“He fostered electronic music in this country in a way that changed the landscape forever,” said Noel Burgess from Vision Four 5.
Volition had success pushing “what would usually be seen as underground music into the mainstream consciousness”.[4] Severed Heads “Dead Eyes Opened” reached No 16 on the ARIA Charts (1994), South End’s Olympic tribute “The Winner Is….” Reached No 9. Sexing the Cherry and Single Gun Theory also charted in the ARIA Top 50.
Penhallow successfully lobbied the Australia Record Industry Association to introduce at Best Dance Release category in the annual ARIA Music Awards. In 1995, the first year of the category, three of the five nominations were Volition acts (and Volition won with Itch-e and Scratch-e) [5]. The following year, the Volition act FSOM won in the category.
Volition also signed several guitar-based indie bands (the Falling Joys, Big Heavy Stuff, and Swordfish).
In 1994, Penhallow worked with New Zealand music producer Alan Jansson to release Proud: An Urban-Pacific Streetsoul Compilation through Volition. The album highlighted previously unrecorded or unknown Pacifican hip acts and is now regarded as one of the most essential New Zealand albums of all time.[6]
The Big Day Out – The Boiler Room
In 1994, Penhallow co-created the Boiler Room for the annual Australian music festival, the Big Day Out run by Ken West and Viv Lees.
Ben Suthers from Big Day Out said "A whole pile of bands, like Severed Heads, Itch-e and Scratch-e, Boxcar, and Vision Four 5, they were all signed to Volition. Ken went to Andrew and went, 'Let's do a dance thing'. Andrew came up with the name Boiler Room, and I worked with him putting those shows together."[7]
Initially stacked with Volition acts, as interest in raves and dance clubs grew, the Boiler Room went on to become one of the major draws of the Big Day Out.
2000AV, Resolution Music and DNA INDUSTRIES
From 1997 Penhallow concentrated on artist management, A&R, and the developing area of music synchs.
In 1999, Warner Music Australia appointed him their Australian Artist Dance And Electronic Music Lead Consultant. (Despite years and many offers to work for major labels in Australia, Penhallow maintained his independent spirit and refused all major label overtures for staff positions). He created the Australian dance compilation series “A Higher Sound”.
Andrew Penhallow eventually produced and compiled a dozen compilation albums of dance and electronic music sourced exclusively from Australian artists, producers and DJs.
From 2006 under the umbrella of Resolution Music, Penhallow managed the rights of independent labels, artists, producers, DJs, and songwriters, developing outlets for them through labels, publishers, distributors and music placement companies.
Penhallow worked with ARIA nominated hip hop artist Citizen Kay, blues rock artist, Jack Biilman, Nantes and songwriter David Rogers, Quails and songwriter Amy Pez, DJ Pablo Calamari, country-tinged singer-songwriter, T. Wilds among many others.
Death
Penhallow was diagnosed with throat and neck cancer in February 2023, after discovering a lump on the right side of his neck. His treating oncologists were optimistic about a full recovery after a short course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but Penhallow died from multiple organ failure on 17 May 2023.[8]
REFERENCES
1. The Factory Records Catalogue, Factory Records: Andrew Penhallow https://factoryrecords.org/andrew-penhallow.php
2. Andrew Penhallow, Dance Music Pioneer Behind Volition and BDO’s Boiler Room, Has Died, The Music Network, May 18 2023 https://themusicnetwork.com/andrew-penhallow-obituary/#:~:text=Andrew%20Penhallow%2C%20the%20Australian%20dance,posts%20from%20friends%20and%20associates
3. Did New Order really lose money on the Blue Monday sleeve?, RadioX, 23 March 2023, https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/new-order/did-new-order-lose-money-on-blue-monday/
4. Aus Music Pioneer Andrew Penhallow Passes Away, The Music, 17 May 2023, https://themusic.com.au/news/aus-dance-music-pioneer-andrew-penhallow-passes-away/E7upBwYJCAs/17-05-23
5. Itch-e and Scratch-e win ARIA award, 1995 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOXg-nbe-Gc
6. Essential NZ Albums: Proud - An Urban-Pacific Streetsoul Compilation, Radio NZ, 18 August 2012 https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/essentialnzalbums/audio/2528477/proud-an-urban-pacific-streetsoul-compilation
7. Inside the Boiler Room — how the Big Day Out changed Australia's perception of dance music, ABC Double Jay, 10 Oct 2019 https://www.abc.net.au/doublej/music-reads/features/big-day-out-boiler-room-paul-mac-groove-terminator-bexta/11568102
8. Australian Penhallow, Australian Music Trailblazer, Has Died. https://www.billboard.com/pro/andrew-penhallow-obit/ https://www.billboard.com/pro/andrew-penhallow-obit/