Marcus Herman
One of the characters vital to the Overnighters is Melbourne recording personality Marcus Herman.
Read about him here.
Observer Overnghters Personality
Marcus Herman: In the late forties ran Marco Recording Studio from his parent's home in Glen Iris, Victoria, recording performers direct to acetate disc, initially on 78rpm records and later on 33:1/3 LP's and 45rpm EP's. When tape recording came in he began Australia's first tape-to-disc transfer service. In the fifties Robert 'King' Crawford (later of FEIP - Free Entertainment In the Park fame) approached Marcus and they became business partners in Planet Records ("If Artists are Out of This World they're On a Planet").
Studios were in the historic Eastern Market Building in Exhibition Street, Melbourne, later demolished to make way for the Southern Cross Hotel, now due for a further replacement. Planet achieved a number of firsts, including (a) the first individualised art-covers on LPs; and (b) a process providing extra playing time on 7-inch EPs due to a technique Marcus invented; refusing a £10,000 offer for the rights from a major company.
Planet boasted many best selling albums. Some of the artists were Barry O'Dowd, Patti Stewart, Malcolm Arthur, Vic West, Kenny Arnott, Jack O'Leary, Rochelle Turner, Bruce Clarke, The Trailblazers, Allan Rhodes, Billy Hyde, Bill McCormack. Planet produced the first Melbourne Rock & Roll LP featuring The Henri Bource Allstars. A regular visitor to Planet was a skinny teenage lad, Keith McGowan, who used to pick up records for broadcast by his employer, Radio 3UZ in Bourke Street.
Herman and
Crawford produced the lunchtime "Rock'n'Pop" shows for 3UZ, presenting virtually every major Australian act.
Planet was eventually acquired by a group expected to give it a financial boost, but unbeknown to
Crawford and Herman, that company was in dire straits, and short-sightedly bulk-erased all the master tapes and sold them for a pittance as blank tapes! This makes the scarce sought after surviving mint condition Planet label vinyls quite valuable.
In the sixties Marcus Heman founded Crest Records ("The Best that's Pressed is on a Crest") which released many Gold and Platinum award winning albums, including the 1974 album "30 Smash Hits of the War Years" with the Concert Band & Chorus of the
RAAF which became the biggest selling Australian made Middle of the Road category LP album, with worldwide sales well over 875,000.
Crest, with branches in four states, specialised in jazz, folk, country and light classics, and also distributed many import labels.
Marcus produced the successful 3XY "Jazz as You Like It" lunchtime concerts in the Melbourne Town Hall, compered by
Mike Walsh, featuring such artists as Judy Jacques & The Yarra Yarra New Orleans Jazz Band,
John Hawes Jazz Band, etc. Later, employing the innovative marketing skills of
Donald W. Fraser, Recording Industry Marketing Services, was launched. Known as
RIMS, it was a consultancy that for the first time showed performers how to produce and distribute their own material. Under
RIMS guidance numerous best sellers were achieved by such clients as Ray Kernaghan
(father of Lee) and '1901', the group formed by The Howie Brothers.
After becoming disenchanted with some elements of the recording industry, in 1982 Herman founded
Rede Pty Ltd, trading as On-Line Video Productions, mainly focusing on corporate videos with (continuing) clientele such as adidas. A successful exploratory release in 2002 of a TV advertised CD album "Let's Have a Ball!" with
The Wedderburn Oldtimers Orchestra on the Resonance label provided the incentive to return to
Marcus Herman's first love, recording. This was followed by a CD "Life Begins at
Midnight" featuring Keith McGowan reciting romantic, inspirational, dramatic and humourous verse from the pens of great past and present authors, including
Nick La Souef's "Late One Night in Alice." It also features a sensational guest appearance of
Mavis Ellis (Harmonica Mave) reciting "The White Magnolia Tree."
Marcus has just released "The Bluebird Of Happiness" CD on his new
STANZA label ("STANZA, - Stands Alone for Listening Pleasure.") featuring the magnificent voice of Welsh tenor
Rhys Meirion who will be touring Australia for Australian Opera. The concept for the 21 track album, which was highly praised in a
Mebourne Observer review, arose from a desire to produce a new stereo hifi album of uplifting and inspirational songs chosen to make people feel good in troubled times, many favourites which hadn't been performed for a very long time including "Bless This House" - "One Little Candle" - "Count Your Blessings" - " Let the Rest of the World Go By" etc.
Marcus, now a grandfather, stays young at heart thanks to his family and friends, a keen sense of humour, and continuing interest in audio, video, photography, music, and also regularly walking and playing competition tennis.
Contact: Marcus Herman
Email: mherman@optushome.com.au
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