Phantom Records

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Phantom Records
Founded	1979
Founder	Dare Jennings Jules Normington
Genre	indie rock, indie pop, post-punk, detroit, power-pop, surf
Country of origin	Australia
Location	Sydney, New South Wales

Phantom Records was an Australian independent record label established by Dare Jennings (founder of Mambo (Clothing) and Jules Normington in 1979. Phantom Records was known not only for its guerrilla retail tactics, but as one of Australia's first great indie labels.

Phantom Records began life as a record shop in Pitt Street, Sydney, opened by Jennings on 17 October 1978. Normington had been managing Radio Birdman and the Ripple Records import shop in Sydney. Normington and Jennings followed the Birdman tour around Europe in early 1978 and during this time they talked of starting a record shop, which Jennings did on his return. Later that year, Normington was in Los Angeles and Jennings tracked him down and asked him to buy stock for the shop. Normington hunted down sixties punk records, psychedelic records and secondhand rarities to send back to Sydney.

Jennings entreated Normington to come back and manage the shop. He returned July 9, 1979 and joined Normington as a partner. Assisted by Steve Stavrakis (who later started Waterfront Records), Normington turned Phantom into a mecca for record buyers.^{[citation needed]} Phantom flourished in the punk and postpunk years, specialising in "punk, soul, surf, psychedelic, sixties garage and nothing else".^{[citation needed]}

In late 1979, Normington and Jennings had the idea for the Phantom label when they realised they were surrounded by talent who were as yet unsigned. Their girlfriends Penny Ward and Julie Mostyn were lead singers in bands: Shy Impostors were about to record and The Flaming Hands had already recorded tracks, as had their friends The Passengers. The Visitors had an album's worth of material recorded before their final gig in August 1979.

On April 30, 1980, the first two singles on the Phantom label—"Face with No Name" by The Passengers and "Cool in the Tube" by Surfside 6 were released. Phantom Records went on to become an indie phenomenon, releasing the very first records of great Australian bands such as the Hoodoo Gurus, The Sunnyboys, Flaming Hands and The Cockroaches. Apart from the music, Phantom was known for its record covers sporting artwork by local artists like Reg Mombassa.^[1]. These were followed by a succession of pivotal singles and EPs, and the label became as important as the shop in its exposure of new alternative music.

The signings reflected the character of the shop, which was primarily Normington's taste and for several years this selection criteria led to one success after another. Crucially Phantom became an inspiration for others to start labels such as Waterfront Records and Citadel Records, catering to the burgeoning local scene and attracting bands from interstate.

The momentum slowed in the mid 80’s until 1987 when Phantom was re-energised by the success of The Hummingbirds, The Sparklers, The Shrinking Violets, The Mark of Cain, Even As We Speak and Vanilla Chainsaws. During this period Dare Jennings was concentrating more on his 100% Mambo clothing company and as he phased himself out of Phantom. After several years Sebastian Chase became a partner in Phantom Records. He had been a founding member of the major label "indy" offshoot rooArt Records, in the late eighties. In 1991, Chase had left rooArt after a split with partner Chris Murphy and approached Phantom. Normington knew of him as The Hummingbirds had moved from Phantom to rooArt a couple years earlier.

Phantom was divided into three companies and Jules increasingly focused on the more successful of these, Phantom Collectibles. But ultimately Chase’s goals for the Phantom company diverged from Jules’ - to the detriment of the label. The shop closed its doors in 1998. In 1999, disenchanted with what Phantom had become, Jules formed Laughing Outlaw Records with writer Stuart Coupe. Phantom is now run solely by Sebastian Chase, who keeps it active with sporadic releases.