I.R.S. RECORDS
Miles Axe Copeland, III began his career in the music industry as an agent and manager. Miles managed a number of artists who would ultimately be signed to A&M Records and I.R.S. Records including Squeeze, The Police, Chelsea, The Fall and Alternative TV. In 1977, he founded Illegal Records, Deptford Records and Step Forward Records in Great Britain riding the punk, punk rock and new wave genres.
In March 1979, Copeland optioned the single "Roxanne" by The Police to A&M Records. The deal was that A&M would manufacture and distribute the single and Copeland would market, promote and arrange a tour for the Police. The band signed with A&M a few weeks later.
Brother Ian Copeland established Frontier Booking International (F.B.I.) for the first tour by The Police–-the widely publicized U.S. tour with Ian driving the van, no roadies, sharing hotel rooms.
Later in 1979, Miles Copeland established a presence for these artists in the United States and Canada when negotiated a distribution deal with A&M Records establishing the International Record Syndicate (I.R.S.).
Copeland found his first and only president of I.R.S. Records in Jay Boberg who was a college radio promotion man with A&M Records in 1979. Copeland recognized Jay's success in promoting The Police and other punk acts. When he finalized his agreement with A&M, Copeland offered Boberg the presidency of I.R.S. Records. The two built the label together. Boberg would remain president of I.R.S. until 1994 when they sold the company.
I.R.S. began as the U.S. distributor for Copeland's British artists on seven labels.
Deptford Fun City Records (Alternative TV, Henry Badowski, Squeeze)
Fashion Music (Fashion)
Illegal Records (Founded in 1977 and ran until about 1991. Copeland launched it to support the first Police single "Fall Out/Nothing Achieving." Illegal distributed BJ Records (Brian James' initials). Its artist roster included The Cramps, The Humans, Lords of the New Church, R.E.M., Skafish, Root Boy Slim, and Wasmo Nariz.)
Industrial Records (Operated from 1976-1981 with artist Throbbing Gristle)
Rough Trade Records (Dream Syndicate, The Fall, The Monochrome Set)
Step Forward Records (Founded 1977 by Copeland and Mark Perry. Featured artists Chelsea, The Fall)
Spy Records (John Cale, The Necessaries)
Copeland also established a number of music publishing divisions including Bugle Music Publishing and Bugle Songs, Ltd., Illegal Songs, I.R.S. Music, I.R.S. Songs, and Firstars Music. All of the divisions were ultimately housed under the Bugle Publishing Group.
Still later, with Mike Gormley, Miles Copeland created Los Angeles Personal Direction (L.A.P.D.), an artist management company.
Now Copeland could offer artists a complete package–management, booking, recording and music publishing. Typically, all of Copeland's businesses had offices in Los Angeles and London. His music publishing concern also had offices in Nashville.
Henry Badowski, The Cramps, Brian James and Wazmo Nariz signed to I.R.S. Records in 1979.
Berlin, The Dead Kennedys, The Go-Go's and Oingo Boingo signed in 1980. Newcomer Oingo Boingo and The Buzzcocks each had a Billboard Top 100 album.
The Dead Kennedys were the reason Copeland began yet another record label, Faulty Products in 1980. Part of the A&M/I.R.S. agreement was that A&M could elect not to promote I.R.S. products. A&M passed on The Kennedys album (SP 70014, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables) and single (IR 9016, Police Truck/Holiday in Cambodia) because it felt the group's name was in poor taste. Miles created Faulty as his independent label. Its independence is questionable. The stock numbers listed here were within the I.R.S. album and singles series A&M used and Faulty's address was just a few blocks from A&M at 633 N. LaBrea, Suite A.
Alternative TV and Renaissance signed to I.R.S. in 1981. The Bangles signed to Faulty Products because neither Copeland nor the group wanted The Bangles on the same label as The Go-Go's. Their EP was originally released on Faulty and reissued by I.R.S. in 1983. Also, future Gold Mountain Ltd./A&M artists The Textones recorded a single for Faulty Products. Faulty was abandoned in 1983.
In 1981, I.R.S. was confronted with legal disputes brought by The Cramps and The Go-Go's.
In 1981, I.R.S. had its first RIAA gold certification with The Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat album. The Go-Go's claim the distinction of being the first all-female band to have a #1 album on the Billboard Pop Chart. The group was the only artist from I.R.S. ever nominated for Grammy® awards (1981 as Best New Artist and in 1982 their Vacation album was nominated in the Best Album Package category). In 1981, they also had a Top 10 and Top 20 single on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. Artists The Fleshtones, Renaissance and Wall of Voodoo each had a Billboard Pop 200 album.
The Cosmetics, English Beat, the Lords of the New Church and R.E.M. signed to I.R.S. in 1982. The Go-Go's were back on the Billboard Pop album and singles chart with both a Top 10 album and a Top 10 single. The RIAA granted a platinum certification for their Beauty and the Beat album–-the first platinum record for I.R.S. English Beat and R.E.M. both had Top 40 albums. Wall of Voodoo had a Top 200 album and a Top 100 single.
Miles, Ian and Stewart Copeland formed a film and television production company, Copeland & Power with Derek Power. The Alarm, the original quartet of The Animals, and Barry Diamond signed in 1983. The Alarm had a Top 200 Billboard Pop album while the Animals charted with two Top 100 albums and one Top 100 single. I.R.S. artists back on the Billboard Pop Charts were The English Beat with a Top 100 album and R.E.M. with a Top 100 single.
1984 was I.R.S.'s best year on the Billboard Pop chart–-nine albums and four singles by seven artists. Four of the albums were Top 40. Leading the label on the charts were the Go-Go's with a Top 20 and a Top 40 album plus Top 20, Top 40 and Top 100 singles. R.E.M. had a Top 40 album and a Top 100 single and The Alarm contributed two Top 100 albums.
The I.R.S. Man logo was first used commercially in September 1979. It was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on June 17, 1982 and was registered on July 12, 1983. I.R.S. also trademarked the word "Cassingle." Its first commercial use was June 22, 1982. It attained trademark registration status on June 28, 1983.
From 1979 until 1981, I.R.S. Records used a white label ringed by a rainbow. From 1981 until 1985, its labels were silver with a maroon I.R.S. Man at the lower left edge. Most record labels were customized with the band logo or art.
Miles Copeland also worked his magic in film and television. He was the executive producer for Urgh! A Music War (soundtrack on A&M Records), and in negotiations with MTV that gave The Police the distinction of being the first act the network sponsored as well as a Police television special exclusive to MTV. In 1982, Jools Holland hosted a one-hour show on MTV called "The I.R.S. Show." Holland interviewed British and American new wave bands. "The I.R.S. Show" became the pilot for "I.R.S. Records' The Cutting Edge" music and interview television program. Developed for MTV, it was an hour long show that aired on the last Sunday of the month. It first appeared on May 29, 1983. Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones hosted the show. That first show featured the world premierie of the video "Talking to a Stranger" by Hunters and Collectors, then artists with A&M. Among the I.R.S. and A&M artists who were guests on the show were The Alarm, The Bangles, Iggy Pop and Suzanne Vega. The television productions required their own management division, Copeland, Copeland, Copeland and Powell (C.C.C.P.) In 1986, it was expanded to a two hour format and was renamed. The series ran for five years. Two video collections from the show remain available, "The Best of the Cutting Edge–Highlights from the Series" volumes one and two.
I.R.S. Records emergence was perfect for a new television channel, MTV. The label had always pursued innovative marketing strategies and it jumped at music videos from the outset. Nearly all of the artists who recorded for I.R.S. were captured in music videos. I.R.S. created both promotional and commercial videos. The earliest commercial video was "Totally Go-Go's" filmed in December 1981 during a concert to support their first album. Other concert vides to be released by I.R.S. were "Police–Around the World" in 1983 and "Prime Time Go-Go's" in 1985. "Be(a)st of I.R.S. Video" a compilation tape of ten videos by ten artists was released in 1984. Among the earliest promotional videos were The Go-Go's "Vacation" and The English Beat's "Save It for Later," both in 1982.
In 1985, the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, held hearings on the "Contents of Music and Lyrics of Records. These hearings sparked by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) and spearheaded by the wives of then-Senator Al Gore and then-Secretary of State James Baker. The PMRC had asked music publishers and record companies to label their products so that consumers would be forewarned of sexual, promotion of violence, drugs, alcohol and occult content. Al Gore stated the PMRC wanted, "a voluntary guide system for parents...to try to prevent their children from being exposed to material that is not appropriate for them."
The U.S. Government Printing Office printed the hearing transcripts of September 18, 1985 which included a Los Angeles Times article, "Parents Warn: Take the Sex and Shock Out of Rock." Written by Patrick Goldstein, it appeared on August 25 and contained Jay Boberg's statement representing I.R.S. Records' position. "I can't believe they're serious–-I think this whole thing is ridiculous," said Boberg, 27-year-old president of I.R.S. Records. "I would fight to the death any review board that would rate our records. It's a complete intrusion of artistic expression and constitutional freedom of speech. It would be a very dark day if we were ever forced to go along with anything like that."
The article continued, "Boberg insisted that any ratings system would merely encourage kids to seek out albums that carried a warning tag. ‘When you put ratings on things, it just arouses kids curiosity and makes them want to hear all the more. That's what happened with movie ratings. I know that when I was 16, which wasn't so long ago, if a movie was R rated, that just whetted my appetite to see what I was missing.'"
I.R.S. Records left its distribution agreement with A&M in April 1985. By then, the Go-Go's had produced three gold albums and two platinum albums and R.E.M. had given I.R.S. two gold albums. The label had released 109 albums, 68 7-inch singles and 18 12" singles. The back catalog and two current albums continued to be distributed by A&M.
I.R.S. Records and A&M Records ran a full-page ad in the December 1989 (page 93) DISCoveries magazine, "Responsible major label reissue program. Including, wherever possible: [1] material never before available on CD; [2] rare and previously unreleased tracks, [3] unpublished photos and new liner notes." The ad included photos of 15 A&M and I.R.S. CDs with notes about the additions for these first edition CDs. For I.R.S., these were:
- The Cramps, Songs That the Lord Taught Us, original album with four alternate versions of songs and one unreleased song.
- The Cramps, Psychedelic Jungle/Gravest Hits, second album and EP.
- The Buzzcocks, A Different Kind of Tension/Parts 1-3, album plus the group's last three singles.
- Let's Active, Cypress/Afoot, their first EP and first album, the song Grey Scale, and one unreleased song.
- The Fleshtones, Living Legends Series, unreleased and rare tracks with highlights from all of their I.R.S. albums.
- Urgh! A Music War with unavailable live material by The Police, The Cramps and other artists.
- The Dream Syndicate, Medicine Show/This Is Not the New Dream Syndicate Album...Live!
The I.R.S. back catalog of some recordings continued active and was reissued by A&M until 1990. By 1990, I.R.S. was under EMI Records. In 1994, EMI bought I.R.S. for an estimated $20 million.
I.R.S. Records officially closed its doors on July 11, 1996.
Bugle Publishing Group had 1,000 songs in its catalog in 1997. Copeland sold it to Rondor Music International.
SOURCES:
1. Ark 21
2. Billboard. Faulty Products: IRS Indie Option. Sam Sutherland. July 17, 1982
3. Billboard. Copelands Join. February 26, 1983.
4. Variety. IRS Ankles A&M, Seeks New Distrib. December 12, 1984.
5. Billboard. IRS Through MCA May One. Paul Grein. May 4, 1985.
6. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.