HOODOO GURUS
Announce new partnership with
UNIVERSAL MUSIC AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
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Since forming in 1981, Hoodoo Gurus boast 9 x ARIA Top 20 albums, 9 x ARIA Top 40 singles and a host of multi-platinum albums – they’re mainstays on the live scene, and influential to a new generation of artists that have arrived after them.
Few other artists have toured as comprehensively, achieved such an enduring reputation over successive generations, enjoyed such loyalty from fans and maintained such high currency for their work – both within Australia and abroad.
Now, embarking on the next chapter in their career, Hoodoo Gurus and Universal Music are proud to announce a new partnership.
The first fruits of this new partnership are borne in the launch today of the Hoodoo Gurus complete catalogue on all streaming services. All albums are expanded versions of the originals to include B-Sides and rarities from each era. Included in this rollout is the previously digitally unavailable Bite the Bullet: Directors Cut live/rarities collection alongside their 2003 garage side-project, Turkish Delight, recorded under the pseudonym of Persian Rugs. Persian Rugs’ Turkish Delight is released in extra expanded form, adding eleven additional studio tracks to the original release.
Also announced today is the launch of Hoodoo Gurus Record Club. The initiative sees the chronological release of each of Hoodoo Gurus albums on vinyl over one year – one per month on the 1st of every month from June 2018. The albums are pressed on luscious 180 gram coloured vinyl and 6 month and 12 month subscriptions are available exclusively via Hoodoo Gurus Record Club right now, as well as for individual purchase.
Once part of the club, your monthly dose of Hoodoo Gurus on vinyl will be delivered directly to your door! The releases are exclusively available via the Record Club for 3 months and each purchase through the Record Club is delivered with a vinyl sized 12” art print of the accompanying album. The first instalment in the Hoodoo Gurus Record Club is Stoneage Romeos from 1984 on yellow vinyl and will ship from 1 June 2018.
As part of the new relationship with Universal Music, Hoodoo Gurus recordings will be released via their own imprint within Universal – Big Time Phonograph Recording Co. – the label on which the band’s first recordings were issued. All current and potential future recordings will be issued through this imprint.
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A ground-up redesign of Hoodoo Gurus’ website hoodoogurus.net, new direct-to-fan store and refreshed socials are all part of this new chapter in Hoodoo Gurus story.
George Ash, President, Universal Music Asia Pacific says of the new partnership: “We’re delighted to be joining forces with Hoodoo Gurus to reintroduce their work to the market in new and innovative ways. They have amassed a remarkable catalogue of songs over their career which have become part of the fabric of music culture. I was marketing manager in New Zealand for their Mars Needs Guitars album, (one of their best performing titles in NZ, I might add) so it’s a wonderful circularity to be working with them again”
Dave Faulkner, lead singer and songwriter of Hoodoo Gurus says: “We’ve finally gone from the Stone Age to the 21st Century (pun intended) and made our music available for streaming, something our fans have been demanding for a long time. It’s a delicious irony for us that we are doing it through the revived Big Time Records entity, the label that we were first signed to in 1982. Hoodoo Gurus had to sue Big Time Records in 1988 over unpaid royalties and we won that case – but we never got those royalties, because Big Time Records went into liquidation straight afterwards. We ended up buying the Big Time label from the administrator, making it a very expensive trophy indeed. But It was all worth it, because we had gained our freedom, and we set a lot of other Big Time artists free at the same time. Now, Hoodoo Gurus are proud to celebrate our landmark deal with Universal Music with the relaunch of our very own Big Time Records label and, as the label’s owners, this time we’ll make sure we pay ourselves our royalties!”
Hoodoo Gurus evocative and relatable lyricism, peerless song writing, with a hint of punk attitude – placed in a distinctively Australian context have provided a careful balance of critical success and enduring mainstream appeal for over 35 years. The enduring importance of Hoodoo Gurus is reflected in sell-out tours, the status tracks from the Gurus’ catalogue as indisputable staples of radio, being name-checked in ‘best-ever album’ countdowns, even having songs played at weddings and funerals, these are just some of the barometers of the strong legacy Hoodoo Gurus enjoy.
The influence of the Hoodoo Gurus songs is felt beyond Australia’s boundaries and often name checked as vitally influential to a variety of other artists. You can hear the legacy of Hoodoo Gurus in anyone from You Am I and Spiderbait, through to Violent Soho and beyond. International artists who have publicly namechecked Hoodoo Gurus include Steve Van Zandt, Manic Street Preachers, Courtney Love and many more.
As elder statesmen of Australian rock & roll, the Hoodoo Gurus are held in the same high esteem by their peers as they are by their fans. In 2007, the group was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Two years earlier, a cross-section of the Australian music community paid the band the ultimate homage by lovingly producing a tribute album of Gurus’ covers entitled Stoneage Cameos. It included contributions from the likes of You Am I, Spiderbait, The Living End, Grinspoon and, most bizarrely, the Persian Rugs.
Through to their chart-topping successes throughout the ’80s and ’90s, their international triumphs and countless sold-out local tours, from their 1998-2003 break-up through to their comeback, Hoodoo Gurus have been and remain one of the most popular and successful musical acts Australia has ever produced.
See below for a chronological list of Hoodoo Gurus’ albums.
To join the Hoodoo Gurus Record Club, go to hoodoogurus.net. Hi res photos and album covers can be downloaded from here. Hoodoo Gurus’ Streaming Services links are https://HoodooGurus.lnk.to/os
Hoodoo Gurus are confirmed to appear at iconic Birdsville Big Red Bash on Wednesday, 11 July 2018 – Tickets on sale now from Oztix. Details of a short run of shows with the Gurus’ old friends You Am I are expected to be announced shortly.
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