was a
British Recording Label founded by
English entrepreneur
Richard Branson , and
Nik Powell in
1972 . It was later sold to
Thorn EMI , and then merged with
Capitol Records in 2006 to create Capitol Music Group.
for the fledging Virgin Records label]]Branson & Powell had initially run a small record shop called Virgin in
London , specialising particularly in "
Krautrock " imports, before turning their business into a fully-fledged record label. The name , according to Branson (in his autobiography), arose from a colleague of his when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin - as they were all new to business - like "virgins".
The original Virgin logo (known to fans as the "Gemini" or "Twins" logo) was designed by English artist and illustrator
Roger Dean : a young naked woman in mirror image with a large long-tailed serpent and the word "Virgin" in Dean's familiar script.
The first release on the label was the classic
Progressive Rock album ''
Tubular Bells '' by multi-instrumentalist
Mike Oldfield in
1973 . This was soon followed by some notable krautrock releases, including electronic breakthrough album ''Phaedra'' by
Tangerine Dream (which went Top 10), and ''The Faust Tapes'' and ''Faust IV'' by
Faust . ''The Faust Tapes'' album retailed for 49p (the price of a 7" single) and as a result allowed this relatively unknown band to reach number 12 in the album charts. Other early albums include
Gong 's The Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible, Pt. 1)
(V2002) and the various artists ''Manor Live'' (V2004) album.
Although Virgin was initially one of the key labels of English progressive rock, the 1977 signing of the
Sex Pistols , who had already been asked to leave both EMI and A&M, reinvented the label as a new wave outpost. Afterwards they signed groups like
Human League ,
Culture Club ,
Gillan ,
Simple Minds , and less successful bands like
Shooting Star ,
The Motors ,
Holly And The Italians and
Fingerprintz . A short-lived subsidiary label,
Dindisc , had
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and
The Monochrome Set during its brief 1980-81 existence. Similarly, Virgin Front Line became one of the UK's most successful reggae labels in the late '70s and early '80s.
The current Virgin logo (known informally as "The Scrawl") was created in 1982 as a hasty doodle on a cocktail napkin; rather than hiring the graphic designer, Branson simply paid him for the napkin.
The group
Genesis recorded various albums for this record company beginning with 1983's self-titled effort (Virgin reissued the group's prior albums, which had originally been released on the Charisma label in the UK).
After several false starts licensing its bands to American labels like
Epic (Culture Club, Holly and the Italians & Shooting Star),
Atlantic (Genesis,
Julian Lennon ) and
A&M (UB40, Human League, Simple Minds, Breathe), Virgin Records opened up its American division, , in
1987 . Virgin Records America's releases were distributed by
WEA until
1992 . Prior to the formation of Virgin Records America, its artists were licensed in the United States to labels such as
CBS ,
A&M ,
Warner Bros. Records , and others.
Virgin Records was sold by Branson to . Branson sold Virgin Records to fund
Virgin Atlantic Airways which at that time was coming under intense anti-competitive pressure from
British Airways . (In 1993 BA settled a libel action brought by Branson, giving him £500,000 and a further £110,000 to his airline).
After being acquired by ,
Juliet , the
Spice Girls ,
Melanie Chisholm (1995-2003),
Gorillaz ,
Paula Abdul ,
Brooke Allison ,
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus ,
Angela Via ,
The Almost ,
N.E.R.D. and recently
RBD ,
Bizzy Bone ,
Fat Joe and
Swami .
See Also: Capitol Music Group
Capitol Records and Virgin Records were merged in 2006 to create
Capitol Music Group after a massive restructuring of the EMI company.
{Link without Title} Stepping down as chief executive of Capitol Records was Andy Slater, per the announcement, with Jason Flom, former executive of Virgin, taking the reins as Chairman and CEO of the newly created company.
