Axis Records

The rise of rack servicing
By the beginning of the 1970s, Australian retailers had begun to embrace the concept of “rack servicing”, more commonly known internationally as rack-jobbing. Under this system, a record company or specialist distributor supplied a retailer with a display rack and assumed responsibility for selecting, delivering and regularly replenishing the records it contained. Sales representatives visited each outlet according to a regular call cycle, removing slow-selling stock and replacing it with titles considered more likely to attract customers.

The arrangement offered clear benefits to both parties. Record companies gained exposure in a much wider range of locations without depending entirely upon specialist record retailers. Participating businesses required little knowledge of the music industry: they provided the floor space, processed the sales and allowed the supplier to manage the stock.

EMI (Australia) had commenced its own rack-servicing operation in 1969. Known locally as “Vendor Refill”, it had developed into a smooth and highly successful marketing operation by the time Axis was proposed.

Rack servicing was particularly well suited to budget-priced albums. These records were generally compilations or reissues drawn from existing catalogues and could be purchased relatively cheaply, often on impulse. Their colourful sleeves, familiar artists and prominent display racks were designed to attract shoppers who had not necessarily entered the store intending to buy a record.

The growth of the budget market was also creating two increasingly distinct types of record buyer: the customer making a considered purchase of a full-priced album and the more spontaneous buyer attracted by a familiar artist at a considerably lower price.

Music for Pleasure and the budget market
Paul Hamlyn’s Music for Pleasure label commenced Australian operations in October 1968 and soon became one of the country’s best-known suppliers of budget-priced records. Its albums combined low retail prices with repertoire licensed from major record companies, including EMI (Australia).

The Australian budget-record industry was consolidated further in 1971 when Paul Hamlyn’s Music for Pleasure operation acquired Summit Records, another important supplier of inexpensive albums to non-traditional retail outlets. Music for Pleasure was also preparing to broaden its Australian activities through the classical Classics for Pleasure range and repertoire obtained from EMI (Australia) and other companies.

For Geoffrey (Geoff) Weule (pronounced "Wylie"), then EMI (Australia)'s Advertising Manager, this presented an obvious commercial problem. EMI possessed a large and valuable catalogue and had already built a successful rack-servicing operation of its own. Supplying attractive repertoire to an outside budget business risked creating direct competition for EMI’s existing racks.

Geoff believed that EMI (Australia) should retain the business by establishing its own budget operation.

The proposal for an EMI budget division
Geoff’s proposal was initially his alone. His immediate colleagues did not share his enthusiasm, so he sent a memorandum directly to EMI (Australia)’s Managing Director, Ken East, questioning why the company should provide some of its strongest catalogue material to Music for Pleasure and Classics for Pleasure when the resulting albums could compete with EMI’s own rack business.

Ken was cautious but receptive. He recognised that the proposal would require a persuasive commercial case and undertook to discuss it with Cec Barlow, then EMI (Australia)’s General Manager, Record Division.

Although initially displeased that Geoff had gone directly to the Managing Director, Cec agreed with the underlying idea. He instructed Geoff to prepare a strategic plan outlining how an EMI-controlled budget label could be established in Australia.

As the plan developed, Geoff concluded that the venture should be more than another EMI label. It should operate as a separate division within the company, with its own sales force, staff, distribution arrangements and financial objectives.

The business case rested upon three principal benefits. The new division would have to increase EMI’s turnover and profitability, contribute towards the company’s financial guarantees to Australian and international licensors, and increase the workload passing through EMI’s manufacturing facilities.

Geoff completed the strategic plan in late November 1971. He and Cec refined its financial projections before Cec presented the proposal to Ken East and Deputy Managing Director Norval Scott. The plan was approved with minor amendments and subsequently received the endorsement of the EMI (Australia) Board.

Despite the approval, the project continued to encounter considerable internal resistance. Some EMI (Australia) executives believed Geoff had bypassed them and were openly hostile when the new division was announced. Axis was therefore not an inevitable extension of existing company policy; it was a contested proposal that succeeded because Geoff, Cec and Ken were prepared to support it.

Geoff was appointed General Manager of the proposed division. Les Smith joined EMI (Australia) from printing company F.H. Booth & Son on 13 December 1971 as Pre-Production Controller, taking over Geoff’s former responsibilities while he concentrated upon establishing the new operation.

Choosing the Axis name
Once the project had been approved, Geoff approached Les Ahlburg of the Sydney design company Naughton Ahlburg and Associates to develop a name and visual identity.

Les and his team proposed “Axis”. The name was short, memorable and sufficiently broad to encompass everything from classical music to contemporary pop. It was also considered unlikely to date and offered strong possibilities for logos, merchandising and promotional material.

The promotional concept was neatly expressed in the slogan:

“The world of sound revolves around the Axis.”

The proposed name was far from universally popular. Several people within EMI (Australia) disliked it, while EMI UK was concerned that “Axis” would evoke the Axis powers of the Second World War. London was nevertheless prepared to approve and register the name if the Australian company remained committed to it.

Geoff himself was won over by the black-and-white and colour logo treatments prepared by Naughton Ahlburg and Associates. With his support, the Axis name was adopted.

Preparing the first release
Axis was scheduled to launch on 1 May 1972 and made its Australian debut during that month.

Assembling the opening catalogue was a substantial undertaking. Thirty albums had to be individually cleared and negotiated, with Geoff regarding the selection and balance of repertoire as critical to the credibility of the new venture.

The final release comprised 24 popular-music albums and six classical titles. The popular releases were assigned catalogue numbers in the AXIS 6000 series and retailed for $2.50, placing them well below the price of a standard full-priced LP.

Importantly, Axis was not intended merely as a dumping ground for ageing or unwanted recordings. Geoff wanted the first release to demonstrate that the label was a serious record operation capable of presenting recently recorded Australian material alongside established catalogue titles.

He consequently insisted upon including Johnny Farnham Sings the Shows as AXIS 6000, despite opposition from some of his colleagues. Ken East supported the decision and encouraged him to add a Slim Dusty album for the same reason. Slim Dusty Live at Wagga Wagga therefore appeared as AXIS 6017.

The presence of Farnham and Dusty gave the inaugural release a contemporary Australian component and helped distinguish Axis from budget labels devoted almost entirely to repackaging older overseas recordings.

The records were pressed with distinctive black-and-white Axis labels. Although comparatively simple in appearance, the design clearly identified the releases as belonging to EMI (Australia)’s new budget range.

A large-scale launch
The establishment of Axis Records required a much greater investment than the creation of an ordinary record label. EMI (Australia) ordered 1,400 “Spin-King” merchandising racks and matching header cards, together with 200,000 colour promotional leaflets.

The new division required a Sales Manager, nine sales representatives, three order pullers, two packers and two invoice clerks. Seventeen new positions were created and ten additional company cars were ordered.

Geoff also recruited three female sales representatives for New South Wales at a time when record-company sales forces were overwhelmingly male. Two of them, Olwyn Siber and Robin James, remained with EMI (Australia) for many years. Geoff regarded their appointments as an important departure from established industry practice.

Stephen Shrimpton, previously a sales representative with Bowater Scott, was appointed Sales Manager of Axis Records. He formally joined EMI (Australia) on Monday, 14 February 1972 and was given responsibility for motivating and directing the new sales force. Stephen brought with him Bernie Schober to assist. Like Olwyn and Robin, Bernie remained with EMI (Australia) into the 1980s.

The manufacturing commitment was equally substantial. EMI (Australia) planned an initial stock pressing of 150,000 records, followed by another 45,000 during the second month and 23,000 during the third. Axis therefore committed EMI (Australia) to manufacturing 218,000 records during its first three months.

The scale of the launch demonstrated that Axis was never conceived as a minor catalogue imprint. It was an independently managed sales and distribution operation designed to compete directly for a rapidly expanding part of the Australian record market.

An immediate commercial success
Axis considerably exceeded EMI (Australia)’s expectations. During its first year, the division sold 705,116 records against a budget forecast of 395,150. Sales were therefore 309,966 units—or approximately 78 per cent—above the original projection.

The result vindicated the decision to retain EMI’s budget business in-house and demonstrated the strength of the Vendor Refill network. Axis could place familiar artists and repertoire in thousands of everyday retail environments, supported by dedicated racks, regular stock replenishment and its own specialised sales staff.

The operation subsequently expanded into cassettes. Because the Spin-King racks had been designed for twelve-inch albums, EMI (Australia) devised packaging that placed the cassette within a die-cut LP-sized sleeve, allowing it to be displayed alongside the records.

EMI (Australia) also introduced Drum Records as a second budget range. Rather than allowing another company to create competition for Axis, EMI deliberately established a complementary line of its own.

By mid-1973, Stephen Shrimpton had been promoted to National Sales Manager for EMI (Australia), while Brian Harris became National Sales Manager for Axis and Drum Records. The two budget ranges continued to grow and eventually contributed more than a quarter of EMI (Australia)’s total turnover.

A new look for the 1980s
Axis underwent a substantial overhaul in April 1982. The relaunch introduced a new logo, a revised record-label design and a new catalogue-numbering sequence. Subsequent albums appeared in the AX-1000 series and initially retailed for $4.99.

The records were now pressed with black text on a bright yellow label. This became the principal Axis label design for the remainder of the vinyl era and continued in production, with relatively minor variations, until EMI (Australia) ceased manufacturing vinyl records in November 1990.

One of those variations appeared in July 1987, when the perimeter text was amended to identify the newly formed EMI Music Group Australasia. Despite later changes to the appearance of Axis album covers and promotional material, the basic yellow record label remained remarkably consistent.

Catalogue-number changes
In July 1984, Axis adopted EMI (Australia)’s new six-digit catalogue-number format as part of a company-wide overhaul of its numbering system. The transition was neither immediate nor comprehensive. Not every existing Axis title was reissued with a six-digit number, and some albums continued to appear under their earlier AX-1000 catalogue numbers for several years.

From July 1985, Axis appears to have settled on the AX-701000 series. In practical terms, this was a continuation of the previous sequence rather than an entirely new series. The AX-1000 range had concluded at AX-1215, while the new sequence commenced at AX-701217.

The apparent omission of AX-701216 suggests that the six-digit system was designed to preserve the numerical progression of the earlier series, with “701” incorporated into the revised format.

The final vinyl presentation
Axis underwent another branding revision in 1987, adopting a new logo and the familiar red presentation used for pop titles, including those by The Beatles. The change gave the range a stronger, more contemporary retail identity and distinguished it from the label’s earlier budget issues.

Curiously, the records contained within the redesigned sleeves generally retained the established yellow Axis labels, including the earlier logo. The change was therefore most evident in the external packaging rather than on the vinyl itself.

This final Axis vinyl series remained in use until 1990. By then, the Australian market was moving decisively away from vinyl and towards compact discs and cassettes. EMI’s Australian vinyl-manufacturing operations ceased in November that year, bringing the history of Axis as a locally pressed vinyl label to an end.

Axis in the compact-disc era
The end of Australian vinyl production did not mark the end of Axis itself. EMI (Australia) continued to use the Axis name for budget-priced cassettes and compact discs during the first half of the 1990s, carrying the label’s established role as a vehicle for back-catalogue and value-priced releases into the digital era.

Compact discs allowed EMI (Australia) to introduce older recordings to another generation of buyers while continuing the commercial model that had defined Axis since 1972: familiar repertoire, attractively repackaged and offered at a lower price than the company’s standard new releases. The end of locally manufactured Axis vinyl therefore closed one chapter in the label’s history rather than bringing the Axis story to an end.

The Beatles and their solo recordings on Axis
Beatles-related recordings first appeared on Axis in June 1981 with two solo releases: John Lennon’s Mind Games (AXIS-6441) and George Harrison’s Dark Horse (AXIS-6442).

The first albums by The Beatles to appear on the label followed in August 1981. Rock ’N’ Roll Music Volume 1 and Rock ’N’ Roll Music Volume 2 were derived from the two-record compilation Rock ’N’ Roll Music, originally released in 1976. The album had been divided into two separate budget-priced LPs the previous year, with the two volumes released in October 1980 in Britain through EMI’s Music for Pleasure label and in the United States through Capitol’s budget-priced green-label series. Following this international precedent, EMI (Australia) issued the two volumes through Axis in August 1981.

Both albums were reissued as part of the Axis relaunch in April 1982, this time carrying AX-1000 series catalogue numbers and appearing in the label’s new budget-price presentation.

The solo catalogue continued to expand with John Lennon’s Rock ’N’ Roll in October 1982, George Harrison’s The Best of George Harrison in November 1982 and Ringo Starr’s Ringo in January 1983. Wings’ Wild Life followed in July 1984.

In several cases, these albums were Australian counterparts to budget reissues released overseas through Music for Pleasure or Capitol, although the Axis editions sometimes used different cover designs.

In April 1985, Axis issued two further Beatles-related albums: John Lennon’s John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and The Beatles’ A Collection of Beatles Oldies, the latter having originally been released in Australia in May 1968.

Rock ’N’ Roll Music Volume 1 and Volume 2 returned once more in the AX-701000 series in mid-1987. Mind Games also proved particularly enduring, appearing under three successive Axis catalogue numbers as the label’s numbering system changed.

The final Beatles album released through Axis was The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, issued in January 1990.

The account of Axis’s conception and launch draws principally upon Geoffrey K. Weule’s recollections in Chapter 10 of his book Once Upon a Record, supplemented by contemporary release and catalogue research.