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GUIDE TO THE PAPERS OF WARREN FAHEY AM.BOX 1 SERIES 1 1 - 23LARRIKIN ENTERTAINMENT INCORPORATING FOLKWAYS MUSIC, LARRIKIN RECORDS, LARRIKIN MUSIC PUBLISHING AND LARRIKIN DISTRIBUTION.Folkways Music was established by Warren Fahey in 1973 as a specialist music store with a stated policy of representing Australian music. Originally located at 38 Oxford Street, Paddington, then relocated to 68 Oxford Street and then to 282 Oxford Street where it remains. The business also opened branch stores in The Rocks and Double Bay and also a small outlet in Newcastle. Folkways was sold 20 years later (in 1993) to its present owners John Foo and Keith Chee. The store became nationally recognised as the destination for Australian music and also specialist music from around the world. It operated a major mail order business and its annual catalogues were highly sought locally and internationally. As the store grew it offered an extremely wide genre of music from classical to jazz, traditional to contemporary and, at the same time, resisted stocking so called popular music. It also carried books on music, videos and musical instruments. For several years it was the leading retailer of harmonicas and tin whistles and an estimate of such sales over the 20 years Fahey controlled it would be in excess of 50,000 of each. Larrikin Records was established by Warren Fahey in late 1974 and operated out of the Folkways buildings. It was also sold after 20 years in 1995 (to Festival Records). Larrikin Music Publishing representing Eric Bogle and many other songwriters was sold to Music Sales Australia in 1985. As a record label the company released over 500 Australian recordings covering an extremely wide field of music. Fahey always claims he was a victim of his own musical passion and found it difficult to resist interesting music that, he often admitted, had little commercial potential. Artists who were first released on Larrikin include Robyn Archer, Eric Bogle, Bernard Bolan, Bushwackers Band, Redgum, Mucky Duck, Black Diamond Corner, Flederman, Sirocco, Dave De Hugard, Currency, The Larrikins, Phyl Lobl, Marie Wilson, Bondi Cigars, Foreday Riders, Jim Jarvis, Gary Shearston, and Flying Emus. Other artists to have their music released on Larrikin included Jeannie Lewis, Don Henderson, Harry Robertson, Tony Miles, Geraldine Turner, Facial Expressions, Franklyn B Paverty Band, Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band, Renee Geyer, Cappelli Correlli, John Derum, Steamshuttle, John Kane, Anne Infante etc. The label pioneered the release of indigenous Australian music with nearly 90 recordings including Wandjuk Marika, Tjapukai, Bobby McLeod, David Blanasi, Kev Carmody, Roger Knox, David Hudson and many indigenous recordings produced in association with community owners. The label was the first company to pay royalties to indigenous artists. It also released the music of Alice Moyle and ASIAS for over 15 years. In the early nineties Larrikin launched a major initiative, in association with Bill Stephens to record Australian cabaret music issuing albums of Jeannie Little, Margret RoadKnight, Donna Lee, Lorrae Desmond etc. The Australia's Yesteryears series of Australian radio, stage, country and opera nostalgia was launched and issued over twenty-five recordings including Bob Dyer, Australian Radio Serials, Tex Morton, Reg Lindsay, Dame Nellie Mleba, John Brownlee, Florence Austral, Percy Grainger, Smokey Dawson, John Ashe, Shirley Toms and Jack Davey. There was also a series of important jazz recordings featuring artists such as Bob Birtles, Bryce Rohde, Keith Stirling, Dick Hughes, Bruce Cale and David Fennel. The label's children's artists, especially Mike and Michelle Jackson, featured Gold and Platinum selling discs like 'Playmates' and 'Bananas in Pajamas'. The most important and successful artist on larrikin was songwriter and singer Eric Bogle. The first release (on ten albums) was 'Now I'm Easy' (LRF041) and featured the writers two most celebrated songs 'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' and 'Now I'm Easy'. The partnership of artist and label was based on a record-by-record deal that was extremely unusual for a Gold selling artist and the relationship lasted the life of the label. Larrikin licensed recordings to other record labels both internationally and domestically. As a means of promoting Larrikin (and Folkways) Fahey used his entrepreneurial skills to organise concerts, workshops and artist tours. In the nineties he also established the larrikin Booking Agency with Sirocco leader Bill O'Toole. The agency represented folk, classical, jazz and world artists and was situated in the Larrikin offices at Paddington and Newtown. The most important concerts were those organised for several years as the Larrikin Festival of Music as part of the Sydney Festival. These concerts, ten concerts over ten nights in January were staged at several venues including the Concert hall of the Sydney opera House, The Conservatorium of Music, Regent Theatre and the historic Pitt Street Congregational Church. International artists toured by Warren Fahey and Larrikin Entertainment included Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, A,L.Lloyd, Peter Bellamy, Mike Seeger and Alice Gerrand, Little Brother Montgomery, Johnny Copeland, Bert Jansch, John Renbourne, Martin Jenkins, Stefan Grossman, Shirley Collins, Roy Harris, Joe Hearney, Johnny Shines, Duck Baker, Willie Scott, Louis Killen, Christine Lavin. The main operation of Larrikin was its representation of international and domestic record labels to the trade. Many of the group's label partners continued with larrikin for over fifteen years and some for twenty or more. Domestic labels include jazznote, AIAIS, Candle, Missing Link, Grevillea, Eureka, Hunter, Move and Swaggie. International labels included Rounder, Topic, Green Linnet, Shanachie, Smithsonian Folkways, Vanguard, Celestial Harmonies and Biograph. In the early 1990's Larrikin purchased local distributor Avan Guard and added many classical labels to its representation including ASV, Chandos, Telarc, Hungariton, Supraphon, Guild, Saydisc, Delos and Collins Music among others. In a unique deal Larrikin (with EMI) also distributed the Virgin specialist labels Venture, Real World, EG Editions and Virgin soundtracks. The company's most successful release was the Michael Nyman catalogue and especially the soundtrack to The Piano that sold over 120,ooo units. When Larrikin was sold to Festival Records in 1995 Warren Fahey was invited to join the new entity as Joint CEO and also, twelve months later, he was appointed Deputy Managing Director of the Festival, Mushroom and Larrikin Group
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