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Aquarius Records is an independent record label based in Montreal , Quebec , Canada.

History [ edit ]

Aquarius Records was founded in 1969. The first president was Terry Flood and the other founding owners were Donald Tarlton , Bob Lemm, Dan Lazare and Jack Lazare. ^[1] The label was initially distributed by London Records of Canada.

Among the first acts signed to the label was the Halifax band April Wine , ^[2] who had also worked with Much Productions. ^[3] Other artists developed by Aquarius during their first decade included Montreal's Walter Rossi and a rock band from Windsor, Ontario called Teaze . While still with London, Aquarius released records by Mashmakhan, Freedom North , Ross Holloway, Roger Doucet , The Rabble and others.

In 1978 Aquarius Records changed distribution to Capitol-EMI and it was early in this association that April Wine began achieving international success. In the 1980s Aquarius signings included Corey Hart , Sass Jordan , Mindstorm, Sword and Myles Goodwyn and the label also released albums by The Stampeders and The Guess Who . In its first twenty years Aquarius sold over 5 million records in Canada and Aquarius artists sold a similar amount in the rest of the world.

In the 1990s some of Aquarius' efforts were diverted by the launching of a French-language label called Tacca Musique which had success almost immediately with artists like Kevin Parent and France D'Amour . On the English side, Aquarius would release new artists Bif Naked and Serial Joe and also it licensed records by Men Without Hats and Deep Purple . By the end of the 1990s the ownership of Aquarius Records was acquired by Donald Tarlton (Donald K. Donald). ^[4]

Starting in 2000 Aquarius began expansion through the development of new imprints, including DKD Disques (La Chicane, Danni Bedard) and through joint ventures like Last Gang Records ( Metric , Crystal Castles , Mother Mother , Chromeo ), Arts & Crafts International ( Stars , Amy Millan ), Indica Records ( Les Trois Accords , Dobacaracol , Priestess ), Mensa Music ( Adam Gregory ), Moving Units ( Bless , Platinumberg). The biggest selling new artist on Aquarius was Sum 41 , and other artists, including Danko Jones , Jeremy Fisher , Gob and Mark Berube , came to the label. Also during this period, it began a distribution deal with Unidisc Music .

In 2006, Aquarius was one of six labels who resigned from the Canadian Recording Industry Association , complaining that their interests were not being represented. ^[4]

Notable artists released on Aquarius [ edit ]

See also [ edit ]

• List of record labels

References [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

• Aquarius Records website
• Aquarius Records on MySpace
• Aquarius Records on PureVolume