Sunshine Records (Australia)


Sunshine Records was an Australian independent pop music record label of the mid-1960s. It was established in late 1964 by promoter Ivan Dayman in collaboration with musician-producer-arranger-songwriter Pat Aulton and entrepreneur, producer and songwriter Nat Kipner. Although his enterprise was short-lived, Dayman was arguably the first Australian popular music entrepreneur to create a fully integrated pop music company that included artist management and bookings, record production, record labels, venue management and concert promotion.
Most of the label's releases were made in the period 1965-67. Its biggest act was solo singer Normie Rowe, Australia's top male pop star from 1965 to 1968, who scored a string of Australian hit singles including "It Ain't Necessarily So", "I ", "Que Sera Sera" and "Shakin' All Over".

History

Label founder Ivan Dayman reportedly ran a gravel quarry in his hometown of Adelaide, South Australia before moving into pop management and promotion in the early 1960s. He was very successful for a few years and at its height in 1965-66 his Sunshine group included two record labels, a concert promotion and booking agency, artist management and a string of venues in capital cities and major towns from Adelaide to north Queensland, including the famed Cloudland Ballroom in Brisbane.
In late 1964 Dayman expanded his business by establishing the Sunshine label, to record and produce the pop artists he already had under contract and to launch new discoveries. The label's parent company, Sunshine Productions, was a partnership between Dayman, expatriate American entrepreneur Nat Kipner and musician Pat Aulton. Kipner had teamed up with Dayman when the latter expanded his pop promotions into Brisbane, where Nat was producing TV pop shows for Channel 7, among many other ventures; he also ran a record store, wrote comedy skits and songs for the George Wallace Jr TV variety show Theatre Royal, ran a small publishing company with Johnny Devlin, and wrote songs with Devlin, country musician Geoff Mack and Nat's teenage son Steve Kipner. Pat Aulton had met Dayman in Adelaide in the early Sixties while fronting The Clefs; Dayman hired him to work as an MC and opening act for his concerts, and Aulton eventually became Sunshine's musical director and house producer.
Sunshine established a manufacturing and distribution deal with by Festival Records, similar to those that Festival made with other contemporary independent labels including Clarion Records, Spin Records and Albert Productions. Sunshine was a relatively productive label, with over 100 singles, more than 30 EPs and at least dozen LPs released between 1964 and 1971.
This is a similar volume of releases to its successor, Spin Records, and both labels existed for a similar time-span, but while Sunshine and Spin released almost identical numbers of singles and EPs, Spin issued many more LPs. This difference can be explained by the rapid growth in sale of LPs in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During Sunshine's peak period from 1964 to 1967, singles and EPs were by far the biggest selling vinyl formats in Australia while LPs—still something of a luxury at that time—formed only a small percentage of total record sales.
In early 1964 Dayman took over the Saturday night lease on Melbourne Festival Hall and renamed it "Mersey City". On 2 May 1964 the venue opened with Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays, attended by over 4500 teenagers. Dayman also used Worsley and the Blue Jays to open several other Queensland venues in Bundaberg, Toowoomba, Ipswich, Inala, Surfers Paradise and the city and by the end of the year, with the success of their first single, they were one of the hottest pop acts in the country.
The first Sunshine single release, in October 1964, was the single "Jay Walker" by The Blue Jays, who were already well established in their home town of Melbourne and had released instrumental singles on the small Crest label. In early 1964 Dayman teamed the band with a young Brisbane singer, Tony Worsley. The Blue Jays continued to release records under their own name, but it was the teaming of The Blue Jays with Worsley that launched Sunshine on the national pop scene. In November 1964 Sunshine issued the first single jointly credited to Tony Worsley and The Fabulous Blue Jays, "Sure Know A Lot About Love", which charted in Brisbane, and the band broke through in other capitals with a their powerful version of Rosco Gordon's "Just A Little Bit" in early 1965.
Another notable early release was the Pat Aulton-produced single "Lost My Baby"/"Slowly But Surely" by The Pacifics, a Brisbane-based four-piece instrumental group that had previously recorded two instrumental singles for EMI's Parlophone label, produced by Nat Kipner. The B-side of their second single was written by Nat's young son Steve Kipner, who went on to front Sydney-based beat band Steve & The Board and subsequently formed the British-based pop duo Tin Tin with fellow Australian Steve Groves.
Sunshine's greatest success was solo singer Normie Rowe, who scored a string of major Australian hits between 1965 and 1968, and his double-A-sided 1965 single "Que Sera Sera" / "Shakin' All Over" became one of the biggest-selling local hits of the 1960s and is still one of the biggest selling Australian singles of all time.
The Sunshine roster featured several male solo singers including Normie Rowe, Peter Doyle and Mike Furber. Its more 'left field' signings included hardcore Brisbane blues-R&B band The Purple Hearts, highly rated NZ pop/R&B group The Librettos, Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays, Normie Rowe's backing band The Playboys, Marcie Jones & The Cookies, highly rated Sydney teen singer Toni McCann, renowned surf band The Atlantics, Ricky & Tammy, Melbourne's feedback kings Running Jumping Standing Still, NZ folk duo Bill & Boyd, Rev. Black & The Rockin' Vicars, popular Brisbane solo star Jonne Sands and Brisbane pop band Wickedy Wak, whose Sunshine single "Billie's Bikie Boys"—the recording debut of future star Rick Springfield—was produced by Ian "Molly" Meldrum.
Many earlier Sunshine recordings, including most of Rowe's early singles and albums, were produced by Nat Kipner, but in late 1965 Kipner sold his share in Sunshine and the Sydney Bowl nightclub. During mid-1966 Kipner collaborated with independent producer Ossie Byrne on the short-lived Downunder Records. During this period he briefly took over the management of The Bee Gees and persuaded Festival's Leedon label to release the band from their contract and signed them to the newly established Spin Records, which he had just joined as A&R manager. Following Kipner's departure, Pat Aulton took over as Sunshine's main producer, but both he and Kipner also produced recordings on Sunshine's short-lived sister label Kommotion, which was set up to promote the acts who appeared on the TV pop show of the same name. Aulton produced and engineered many later Sunshine singles and albums, as well as providing uncredited vocal and instrumental backing and contributing to arrangements.
Sunshine Productions ran into serious financial problems around the end of 1966, but the full story behind the company's collapse is still not known. Pop historian Bill Casey has suggested that the financial strain of Normie Rowe's extended overseas stay was a contributing factor, but it seems likely that the main cause of the company's demise was Dayman's questionable business practices. The Kommotion label folded at the start of 1967, and Sunshine was taken over by Festival and become a wholly owned subsidiary label.
After the collapse of Sunshine, Pat Aulton discovered that Dayman had made him a director of the company without his knowledge, and when Sunshine's creditors moved in to recover their debts, Aulton's unwitting liability cost him his car, furniture and other assets. Fortunately, he was by then well known to Festival managing director Fred Marks, who rescued Aulton with the offer of a position as a staff producer at Festival. It is not known whether Dayman retained any interest or played any role in the company after 1967, although he continued to operate his promotions and management business in several cities.
Sunshine's recording assets were acquired by its distributor, Festival Records during 1967. The label's releases declined rapidly from this point and it ceased operations after two final singles released during 1971.
The Sunshine catalogue remained in the archive of Festival Records until that company went into liquidation in 2005, when the combined Festival-Mushroom Records recording archive was sold to the Australian division of the Warner Music Group for a reported A$10 million.

Discography

Singles

Credits:
Catalog no.DateArtistTitleNotes-
QK-747Oct. 1964The Blue Jays"Jay Walker" / "Path Finder"-
QK-778Nov. 1964Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays"I Sure Know A Lot About Love" / "Me You Gotta Teach"-
QK-798Jan. 1965The Blue Jays"Motivate" / "We're Friends"-
QK-7991965The Pacifics"Lost My Baby" / "Slowly But Surely"-
QK-8331965The Playboys"Exodus" / "Sabre Dance"-
QK-903Mar. 1965Tony Worsley & The Blue Jays"Just a Little Bit" / "If I"-
QK-9181965The Playboys"Swan Lake" / "Camptown Races"-
QK-902Mar. 1965Peter Doyle"Speechless " / "Like I Love You"-
QK-935Apr. 1965The Blue Jays"Zoom Gonk" / "Hey Jack"-
QK-951Apr. 1965Normie Rowe & The Playboys"It Ain't Necessarily So" / "Gonna Leave This Town"Produced by Pat Aulton
QK-9521965The Playboys"Desperado" / "The Mean One"-
QK-983May 1965Tony Worsley & The Blue Jays"Talking About You" / "I Dream of You"-
QK-984May 1965The Blue Jays"Beat Out That Rhythm On a Drum" / "I'll Make You Cry Too"-
QK-9851965Marcie Jones"I Wanna Know" / "Quiet"-
QK-9991965Toni McCann"My Baby" / "No"-
QK-10001965Ricky and Tammy"Won't You Tell Me" / "Little Girl"-
QK-1001June 1965Peter Doyle"Stupidity" / "Heigh Ho"-
QK-10411965The Playboys"He's Awright" / "Torture"-
QK-1069June 1965Normie Rowe & The Playboys"I " / "I Just Don't Understand"-
QK-1103Sep. 1965Normie Rowe & The Playboys"Que Sera Sera" / "Shakin' All Over"Produced by Pat Aulton-
QK-11051965Marcie Jones"I Just Can't Imagine" / "When A Girl Falls In Love"-
QK-1075Sep. 1965*Normie Rowe & The Playboys"I Confess" / "Everything's Alright"*withdrawn-
QK-1087Aug. 1965Tony Worsley"Velvet Waters" / "Rock-A-Billy"Produced by Nat Kipner-
QK-11051965Marcie Jones"I Just Can't Imagine" / "When A Girl Falls In Love"-
QK-11321965The Five"I'll Be There" / "How Can She Know"-
QK-11381965The Purple Hearts"Long Legged Baby" / "Here 'Tis"-
QK-11621965The Librettos"I Cried" / "She's a Go Go"-
QK-1137Nov. 1965Peter Doyle"Watcha Gonna Do About It?" / "Do It Zula Style"Produced by Pat Aulton-
QK-1158Nov. 1965Normie Rowe & The Playboys"Tell Him I'm Not Home" / "Call On Me"-
QK-1169Nov. 1965Tony Worsley"Missing You" / "Lonely City"-
QK-11841965Frankie Davidson"Don't You Just Know It" / "So Little Time"-
QK-1182Jan. 1966Mike Furber & The Bowery Boys"Just a Poor Boy" / "Mailman Bring Me No More Blues"-
LK-12081966The Atlantics"That's Old Fashioned" / "Gotta Lotta Love"-
QK-11981966Ricky & Tammy"Summers Long" / "All Around"-
QK-1207Feb. 1966Peter Doyle"The Great Pretender" / "Everybody Loves a Lover"-
QK-12131966The Purple Hearts"Of Hopes and Dreams and Tombstones" / "I'm Gonna Try"-
QK-12371966The Playboys"Happy Organ" / "The High and the Mighty"-
QK-1238Mar. 1966Normie Rowe and the Playboys"The Breaking Point" / "Ya Ya"-
QK-1241Feb. 1966Tony Worsley"Something's Got a Hold On Me" / "Something"-
QK-12431966Dave Howard"Go Catch the Moon" / "What a Kiss Can Do"-
QK-12441966The Five"I Can't Find Her" / "There's a Time"-
QK-12441966The Five"I Can't Find Her" / "There's a Time"-
QK-12501966Frankie Davidson"The Dollar Auctioneer" / "Just For Today"-
QK-12511966The Librettos"Rescue Me" / "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?"-
QK-1227Feb. 1966Mike Furber & The Bowery Boys"You Stole My Love" / "It's Gonna Work Out Fine"released simultaneously as Kommotion KK-1227
QK-13171966Peter Doyle"Something You Got Baby" / "Go Away"-
QK-13181966Marcie Jones"Danny Boy" / "That Hurts"-
QK- 13411966The Librettos"Kicks" / "Watcha Gonna Do About It?"Produced by Pat Aulton-
QK-13431966Ricky & Tammy"Through My Fingers" / "Can I"-
QK-1344June 1966Normie Rowe and the Playboys"Pride and Joy" / "The Stones That I Throw"Produced by Pat Aulton-
QK-1366June 1966Tony Worsley"Raining In My Heart" / "Knocking on Wood"-
QK-14171966Frankie Davidson"Leave a Little Love" / "Clap Your Hands"-
QK-13821966Tony Shepp"Come On Over to My Place" / "Don't Ask Me Why"-
QK-14331966The Atlantics"It's a Hard Life / "Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do"-
QK-14421966The Sounds of Seven"Dominique" / "Daddy's Little Girl"-
QK-14481966The Purple Hearts"Early in the Morning" / "Just a Little Bit"-
QK-14531966The Five"Bright Lights, Big City" / "Wasting My Time"-
QK 14691966The Lost Souls"Peace of Mind" / "This Life of Mine"-
QK-14951966Russ Kruger"Keep Me Satisfied" / "Tell the Truth"-
QK-15291966John Rowles"Please Help Me I'm Falling" / "Girl Girl Girl"-
QIK-1565Nov. 1966Normie Rowe"Ooh La La" / "Ain't Nobody Home"-
QIK-1605Dec. 1966Normie Rowe"It's Not Easy" / "Mary Mary"-
QK-1531Nov. 1966Peter Doyle"Tweedlee Dee" / "Mr Goodtime"-
QK-1556Jan. 1967Tony Worsley"No Worries" / "Humpy Dumpy"-
QK-1557Jan. 1967The Atlantics"I Put A Spell On You" / "By the Glow of a Candle"-
QK-15671967Marcie Jones"That's the Way It Is" / "Big Lovers Come in Small Packages"-
QK-15891967The Purple Hearts"You Can't Sit Down" / "Tiger in Your Tank"-
QK-15901967Ricky & Tammy"We Don't Do That Anymore" / "Paradise"-
QK-16331967Russ Kruger"Look At My Baby" / "My Little Girl"-
QK-16911967The Atlantics"You Tell Me Why" / "Come On"-
QK-16921967Bill & Boyd"Two By Two" / "Symphony For Susan"-
QK-17171967The Running Jumping Standing Still"Diddy Wah Diddy" / "My Girl"-
QK-17181967Marcie Jones"You Can't Bypass Love" / "He's Gonna Be Fine Fine Fine"-
QIK-1731Apr. 1967Normie Rowe"Going Home" / "I Don't Care"-
QK-17331967Mouse" Yellow Raincoat" / "Pink Fairy Floss"-
QK-17361967The Purple Hearts"Chicago" / "Bring It on Home"-
QK-17721967Julian Jones & The Breed"Regrets" / "No Matter What You Do"-
QK-18171967Normie Rowe"I Live in the Sunshine" / "Far Beyond the Call of Duty"-
QK-1820June 1967Normie Rowe"But I Know" / "Sunshine Secret"-
QK-18391967Bill and Boyd"If I Were a Rich Man" / "Little Miss Sorrow, Child of Tomorrow"-
QK-18491967Mike Furber"It's Too Late" / "I'm So Glad"-
QK-18581967The Escorts"The House on Soul Hill" / "Sound of Your Voice"-
QK-18591967Ross D. Wyliewith the Escorts"Short Skirts" / "Paper Bunnies"-
QIK-18721967The Playboys"Black Sheep RIP" / "Sad"-
QK-18191967The Running Jumping Standing Still"She's Good To Me" / "Little Girl"-
QK-20221967Ross D. Wylie"A Bit of Love" / "Last Day in Town"-
QK-2008Oct. 1967Normie Rowe"Turn Down Day" / "Stop to Think It Over"-
FK-19861967Bill & Boyd"Les Marionettes" / "She Chased Me"-
QK-19981967The Escorts"On a Day Like Today" / "Sitting By a Tree"-
QK-20121967Mike Furber"Bring Your Love Back Home" / "If You Need Me"-
QK-2014Oct. 1967Tony Worsley"Reaching Out" / "Do You Mind"-
QK-2225Mar. 1968Rev. Black & The Rockin' Vicars"Down to the Last 500" / "Sugar Train"Produced by Pat Aulton -- #30 Brisbane, 4 weeks-
QK-2238May 1968Normie Rowe"Penelope" / "Lucinda" -
QK-17281968Tony Williams"If You Lose Her" / "It's Alright Now"-
QK-23811968Jonne Sands"It's Your Life" / "I'll Never Dance Again"-
QK-24791968Rev. Black & The Rockin' Vicars"Such A Lovely Day" / "Sorrowful Stoney"Produced by Ron Dalton-
QK-24581968Jonne Sands"Mothers and Fathers" / "Isn't It"-
QK-2493Aug. 1968Normie Rowe"Born to Be By Your Side" / "Break Out"-
QK-25141968Johnny Mac & The Zodiacs"Mister Sticker Licker" / "Just Step Back"-
QK-2596Oct. 1968Normie Rowe"Walking on New Grass" / "Open Up The Skies"-
QK-25771968Jonne Sands"Change of Mind" / "Gingerbread Man"-
QK-26931968Geraldine Fitzgerald"Something to Think About" / "Let's Go"-
QK-27521969Rev. Black and the Rockin' Vicars"Walking and Talking" / "How Does It Feel?"Produced by Pat Aulton
QK-28191969Normie Rowe"Just To Satisfy You" / "Drinkin Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee"-
QK-28801969Jonne Sands"Let the Sunshine In" / "Wish It Were You"-
QK-2890June 1969Normie Rowe"You Got Style" / "Don't Say Nothing Bad "-
QK-29821969Coloured Rain"Angie" / "What More Do You Want"-
QK-29831969Jonne Sands"Yeah I'm Hip" / "I've Just Seen a Face"-
QK-31151969Inside Looking Out"Long Live Sivananda" / "On Whom Her Favour Falls"-
QK-31181969Wickedy Wak"Billie's Bikie Boys" / "Chitty Chitty Bang Band"Produced by Ian Meldrum
QK-31831970Jonne Sands"Oh Girl" / "Confessions of a Lonely Man"-
QK-40851971Normie Rowe & The Playboys"Que Sera Sera" / "Let Me Tell You"re-release
QK-44121971Jelly Roll Big Band"I've Been Away Too Long" / "Son Of a Preacher Man"-