Before the early Rock’n’Roll era most labels just released American and English records but as Rock’n’Roll started they slowly added Australian Artists to their rosters.
The first actual Rock’n’Roll’ record scene by Australians started in 1958 when Johnny O’Keefe recorded for Festival Records and then others such as Col Joye, Johnny Rebb,Dig Richards, Lonnie Lee, The Delltones and many others followed suite
1959 is considered to be the birth of Aussie Rock as this was the year that TV shows like Six O’Clock Rock and Bandstand took the stars to the whole of Australia and consequently record sales took off.
Melbourne also had it’s record stars of that early time such as The Thunderbirds, Johnny Chester, Malcolm Arthur, The Planets and others although they did not have the national success the Sydney stars had. This was mainly due to the fact that the TV and major record companies were all based in Sydney.
Who were they?
The 3 major consistent recording stars of the time 1959 to 1965 were Johnny O’Keefe, Col Joye and Lonnie Lee although many others had great successes.
| EMI Australia (HMV-Parlaphone-Decca) | ||
| CBS (later Sony) | ||
| Festival Records (Pacific) (later Mushroom) | ||
| Phillips (Mercury) | ||