Steve Melhuish – Course Co-ordinator

The Early Years

I met and worked with (Sir) Richard Branson on an underground ‘hippy’ magazine called Student. When Student began to run out of money, we decided to sell LP’s via mail order at a discounted price. We took a full page ad in the Melody Maker with the headline “50 p off LP’s” which was quite a chunk when LP’s where selling at £2.50. A great launch party was followed by a nationwide postal strike within the week! So, we had all this stock and needed to sell it ASAP. Richard asked a mate if we could use an empty location above a shoe shop in Oxford Street. This became the 1st Virgin Shop.

I ran the shop for about a year and then got involved with the Virgin label at around the time Mike Oldfield was signed, someone I wanted to work with at the recently purchased Manor Studio in Oxford. However, Richard wanted me to continue managing the shop and so… I made the decision to start my own record store in downtown sunny Croydon.

70’s

During this period I opened up 6 record stores in London and the suburbs – Bonaparte Records Ltd. I became one of the main players in the indie record scene in the UK.

By 1976/7, for the first time it seemed to me, I was fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. Siouxsie and the Banshees and Billy Idol were regulars at the Bromley shop. The Damned would hang out in the Croydon shop and The Jam at Guildford where Kirsty MacColl also worked in mail-order! So, I was involved in the punk phenomena right from the start. Musically, for me it was a breath of fresh air but from a business perspective, I had an advantage to compete on a more level playing field with the majors.

I put the first ever advert in the NME for punk records (circulation in ‘77 was approx 220,000 per week)! Many enquiries followed not only from the public but from other shops and abroad, particularly Paris, New York and LA. We started to export and I got involved with Geoff Travis at Rough Trade, Tony Wilson at Factory, Dave Robinson at Stiff, and Martin Mills at Beggars etc.

By the late 70’s we were wholesaling indie/punk records nationally in the UK.

Just like Small Wonder, Beggars Banquet and Rough Trade, we launched our own record label and in November 1977, released a Kilburn & The High Roads (Best Of) EP featuring Ian Dury, much to the consternation of Stiff Records who unbeknown to me, had just signed him up!

So… I’ve been ‘DIY-ing’ it since 1977.

80’s

I continued to own and run international import/export companies distributing UK labels in US/Canada with offices in New York, LA, and Montreal and employed over 100 people.

Opened up the first UK record store in New York.

I also owned and etablished various record labels: Human Records, Rollerball Records, Six Strings & a Plank of Wood and managed all facets of operation marketing, promotion, distribution and A&R. In addition, I signed or managed the following bands: Au Pairs, Dangerous Girls, Jackie Graham, Those Helicopters, Jim Mullen, Kirsty MacColl, The Slits and others.

90’s

Continued exporting to the US and Canada but changed direction towards the end of the 90’s as the Internet began to alter and change the perspective of how businesses purchased imports in the US.

00’s

Invited to set up a record label at the University of Kent’s Canterbury College. By the mid 2000’s, I began teaching music business courses: BA in Commercial Music Course at Westminster University and Canterbury Christchurch University, where I established C3U Records.
I continued acting as consultant for various management companies and labels advising on the new digital post Napster world, including online music distribution.
I’m currently a member of AIM and MMF and Music Tank.
Many of the guest speakers at the Music Business School I have known for over 25 years.
Many of the bands on the Music Business School Facebook site are ex-students who I have also worked with previously, who are actively involved in the music industry in varying degrees as working artists successfully selling their own CD’s and downloads.