User:Ralph Carr
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
'Ralph Carr - Music Manager
With over 20 years experience in the Australian music industry, there are few who enjoy the success and possess the nuance that Melbourne identity Ralph Carr does.
His powerful influence in the industry is one few can contend. He possesses a first rate approach in artist management, having developed the Australian and international careers of Australia’s biggest acts, including Rick Price, Tina Arena, s2s, Invertigo, Kate Ceberano and more recently Vanessa Amorosi.
He is the owner and founder of Standard Records and Standard Publishing. Both of these companies are active in Australia and overseas. Standard Records and Standard Publishing are highly awarded by the societies of APRA and ARIA for their achievements.
Carr is committed to developing Australian acts to a high-class world standard and then pursuing the right deals and marketing edge for each artist he represents.
Let’s rewind..: In 1984 Ralph Carr completed HSC at Parade College and deferred University. For five years he worked in bands performing as a musician, mastering three instruments; guitar, bass and keyboards and produced a number of albums. This was a great learning period in his life, an opportunity to nurture the art in this field. Ralph decided that his future would be in the music industry. He managed his first band Jaanz under his company RCM International.
Early achievements..: Winners of the Yamaha ‘Band Explosion’ composition Winners of the Yamaha ‘Band Explosion’ in Asia Winners of the Yamaha ‘Band Explosion’ world competition. Recording contract with Sony Music Australia Robert Parde and David Jaanz went on to successful careers. David is the most respected singing teacher in Australia. (Jaanz School of Voice) Robert Parde who was then part of the Jaanz line-up is still managed by RCM and has been signed to Standard Music Publishing for 5 years. He won the most prestigious APRA Award with ‘Song of the Year’ in 1996 with ‘Wasn’t It Good’ sung by Tina Arena, and wrote the Vanessa Amorosi major hit song “Shine”. Ralph also formed and managed his own booking agency in 1985 named RBS Entertainment Group
The Management: Ralph Carr took over the management of Pseudo Echo towards the end of their career. He organized two successful national tours for the band. Following this, Carr spent time in Los Angeles working out of Denis Dunstan’s office (Fleetwood Mac’s Manager) trying to gain an understanding of the USA and world markets).
Standard Music Publishing established 1994 Ralph Carr’s publishing division was established in 1994 to offer the same hands-on and intense attention to detail for songwriters that he brought to his management clients. The results have been amazing and Standard Music Publishing is now one of the most high profile independent publishers in Australia. Standard Music Publishing has been highly awarded by the national association of music publishers and songwriters, APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association), winning prestigious APRA Awards over the past few years including ‘Song of the Year’ for Tina Arena’s Wasn’t It Good in 1996, ‘Most Performed Work’ in 2001 for The Vanessa Amorosi track ‘Shine’ and two final-nominations for Desensitized and Say You Do in subsequent years for the ‘Most Played’ award.
Standard Music Publishing also has a growing reputation overseas. Early in 2003 Standard had a track performed by well-known American country star Jo Dee Messina called ‘Burn’. Jo Dee took ‘Burn’ to Number 3 on the Billboard US Country Charts and won for Standard Music and ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers) Country Music Award for the song’s success in the United States. Standard Music songwriters have written and co-written songs which appear on releases by many of Australia’s best know acts, including Vanessa Amorosi, Human Nature, Tina Arena, Rick Price, Deni Hines, Vika and Linda Bull, Paul Kelly, Batchelor Girl, Lee Kernaghan, Marie Wilson, The Seekers, and international artists such as Terri Clark, Wynonna, Jo Dee Messina and Michael English all of whom are US Country artists who have sold in excess of one million records in the U.S. market.
Standard Records established 1998 In 1998 Ralph Carr entered a new phase in his elaborate career with the formation of his record label; Standard Records. After a number of months in which every major record company in Australia expressed interest, a deal was struck in the same year between Standard Records and the News Ltd owned Company, Mushroom Records, for distribution and marketing of Standards products within Australia and New Zealand.
It was a logical progression from Carr’s management company RCM International. Carr’s catalyst for forming Standard Records was always his desire to discover young gifted singers and songwriters and give them the independence they need. It was his intention to develop a “creative village” environment with the set up of the record label. With the Publishing Company, the Management Company and now the Record Label all phases of production have been covered in order to give the artist their best possible chance at achieving success in the competitive world of music.
Rick Price: 1989 to 2004 In 1989 Ralph Carr secured the management of Rick Price. Once acquired, Carr went on to position Price in the Pop/R&B genre field. Success inevitably followed. Rick Price’s first single Not a Day Goes By reached #5 on the Australian National Charts. It spent 20 weeks in the Australian Top 20 and achieved ARIA Gold and Platinum status.
The second single Heaven Knows also reached #5 on the National Australian chart and achieved both Gold and Platinum status. Heaven Knows also received the prestigious award for APRA ‘Song Of The Year’ in 1992.
When the album Heaven Knows was released it debuted at #3 on the charts. It achieved Gold and Double Platinum status.
With Carr’s persistence, Price went on to achieve more than any other artist in terms of sales within Asia due to Carr’s focus in this region. He sold more than 250,000 albums in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Tina Arena: 1992 to 1999 In 1992, Ralph Carr began to manage Tina Arena and formulated a three-year plan that saw her become of the biggest artists not only in Australia, but also securing a spot in the competitive world market.
In August 1994, after completely re-positioning Tina Arena in the market place and re-working her image, the first single Chains was released from her Don’t Ask album, which was executively produced by Carr himself.
The first album Don’t Ask received the following accolades:
• 2.6 million sales world wide, achieving 10 x Platinum sales in Australia and making Tina the highest selling female artist in the history of Australian music. A record that’s yet to be beaten. • Winner of 4 ARIA Awards at the 1995 Australian Record Industry Association Awards: ‘Best Pop Release’ ‘Song Of The Year’ ‘Female Artist Of The Year’ ‘Album Of The Year’ • Sell-out Australian Stadium tour, with additional shows added in all cities. • Variety Club Performer of the Year, 1995 • Advance Australia Foundation Award, 1995 • Nominated at the British Music Awards for ‘Best New International Artist’, 1995 • ‘Australian Artist of the Year’ at the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo, 1996 • Mo Awards from the Variety Club of Australia, 1995: ‘Outstanding Artist of the Year’ ‘Best Female Artist’ • Song of the Year’ at the 1996 APRA Awards for co-composition ‘Wasn’t It Good’. • Advance Australia Award for her outstanding contribution to music, 1995 • ‘Patron of the Year’ for Australian Music Week, 1998 • Gold and Platinum album sales for ‘In Deep’ in France.
In 1996, Tina Arena began working on her second album In Deep. Ralph Carr was the executive producer of that record, putting together all of the songs, coordinating producers and mixers of In Deep. It debuted at Number One on the Australian ARIA charts, selling five times platinum in Australia, and over 1.5 million copies worldwide. The first single Burn also debuted in the Number One position. In Deep reached Top Ten for the year in France in 1999, selling over a million copies.
Kate Ceberano: 2004 ongoing In late 2002, Ralph Carr took over the management role for Kate Ceberano. Under his guidance, Ceberano released her first studio album since 1997; a collaboration titled The Girl Can Help It, which for the first time featured her as co-writer on all original works.
She is one of Australia’s favourite artists with several ARIA Award wins for Best Female Talent. Carr reestablished her in the Australian market as a strong and powerful performer. She lived in the United States working on a new album and developing as a singer and songwriter, all of which were steered by Carr’s encouragement. Carr assisted in creating a National tour for The Girl Can Help It, allowing Ceberano to bring her material to fans around the country.
sister2sister: Standard’s first release was pop act s2s(sister2sister). They are teenage sisters Christine and Sharon Muscat. Their debut single Sister was released in October 1999. The single peaked at #3 nationally in Australia and achieved platinum sales status along the way. In less than 12 months of operation s2s won for Standard its first ARIA award, picking up the award for Best Independent Single at the 2000 ARIA Awards. This was a great and inspiring achievement for the extremely young recording company. S2S’s debut album One released June 2000, achieved gold sales status in Australia and has since been released all over Europe and Asia to wide acclaim. S2S spent much of 2002 touring both the USA and Europe with Britney Spears.
Invertigo: Invertigo’s first three singles Desensitiized, Chances Are and Say You Do were a great success for both the group and for Standard. Invertigo has been nominated for two ARIA Awards, a number of APRA Awards and received very successful airplay for their releases. The band’s debut album Forum, release in July 2001, debuted in the Australian ARIA charts at Number 11 Nationally and achieved Gold sales status.
In addition to their Australian successes, Standard Records were able to secure for Invertigo a record deal with prestigious Atlantic Records in the United States.
David Franj: David Franj released his debut album Wrong Place, Wrong Time in March 2003. The album spawned four singles; Oxygen, Never Be Amazing, God Only Knows and Teresa (Radio-Only release). Each of these releases entered the Australian ARIA Charts on their first week of release, with Oxygen reaching the Top 20 and Never Be Amazing climbing to the Top 10. David Franj accompanied the release of Never Be Amazing in late 2002 joining the Rumba stadiums tour around Australia, performing his material to thousands of Australians. While preparing material for future releases, Standard secured for David Franj the second single to be released from the soundtrack for Nick Giannopoulos’s feature film The Wannabees.
Vanessa Amorosi Carr also manages Australian million-selling vocal powerhouse, Vanessa Amorosi. Amorosi is gearing up to release her new single from her forthcoming album, called 'Kiss Your Mama!'
Quotes: “The Starmaker Records Company boss, Standard’s Ralph Carr”... Paul Stewart, Herald-Sun
“The drive that Ralph Carr gained from growing up in a working-class migrant family often allows him to put aside social niceties”...”Carr is part of new breed of pro-active pop entrepreneurs” Christie Eliezer, BRW
“The best thing about Ralph was that right from the word go he told me to make the album that I wanted to make. He has let me develop without pushing me too quickly”... David Franj speaking to Paul Stewart, Herald-Sun
“Ralph literally picked me out of the gutter and said, ‘You can do this’. He has educated me into becoming the woman I am today and into the artist I am today,” Tina Arena, speaking to Chrissie Camp, TV Week
“...Ralph Carr, (the) mastermind behind the phenomenal success, Don’t Ask (1995) Who Magazine
“Vital to the signing (Invertigo) was the band’s manager, Ralph Carr, who has engineered success for acts such as Tina Arena, Rick Price and Sister2Sister” Paul Stewart, Herald-Sun
“In all seriousness, Ralph Carr has a uniquely successful track record” Paul Dickson, Mushroom CEO. April 26 Press Release
“Carr makes things happen” Lawrence English. Sain Unlimited ‘Starting Your Own Record Label’
“... A great motivator who always sees the big picture ... he’s a bloody dynamo behind the scenes” Tina Arena. September 13 1997 – Herald Sun
“When it comes to picking talent ... Ralph Carr sure has a knack” Grapevine – Celebrity News with Sue Smethurst
“Working with Ralph is perfect for me! He understands my personality and always encourages me to be bigger, braver, and powerful. He understands great singers and music and can talk with me on many levels regarding performance and stage - this is helpful as most management are strictly admin oriented. I adore him, he makes me feel very special in his stable of fine artists.” Kate Ceberano
