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Telstar Records was a record label founded in 1982 by Sean O'Brien and Neil Palmer with a government loan of £120,000. It was founded as a specialist compilation marketing label and had hits with a range of compilation franchises such as the Deep Heat and 100% ranges. As well as these brands the company would licence a number of major artist recordings (for example ABBA and the Four Tops) to release telemarketed compilations. In the mid 1990s it diversified its output into the singles market and long-term artist development with the launch of the Multiply Records and Wildstar Records subsidiaries. Prior to these developments Telstar would normally only release singles that were tele-marketed and associated products like The Chippendales or PJ and Duncan aka. Acts signed in this period included Connor Reeves, Sash!, Phats And Small and Basement Jaxx, while Craig David brought the first ever UK number one single for the label. Other artists included Victoria Beckham (a sub-licence deal from 19 Records), Rosie Ribbons, Skream! and Mis-Teeq. In the late 1990s, Telstar became closely associated with BMG Records, especially with the Telstar TV compilation arm and The Hits Album releases. Telstar Records went bankrupt in 2004, largely due to the company's habit of giving large advances to artists such as Claire Sweeney, Victoria Beckham and Rosie Ribbons who failed to make them any money. In the media much of the blame for the label's failure was placed on their most high profile signing, Victoria Beckham. However as most of Telstar's roster were not directly signed to the label, instead being either sub-licenced or part of number of joint ventures, BMG (soon to be merged with Sony) declined in buying the label's assets outright.
Telstar T2 Telescope Multiply Wildstar Joint venture with Capital. XSrhythm Compilation Brands Chart Attack Chart Attack was Telstar Records first chart hit in the UK Top 75 album charts. It was released in the fall of 1982 and reached number 7 in the main chart in the days before the exclusion of such various artist albums. See also | ||||||||
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