| Industry | Music & Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1983 1999 (relaunch) |
| Headquarters | New York, NY, U.S. |
| Key people | Billy Bragg, The Housemartins & The Beautiful South |
Go! Discs was a Hammersmith, London based record label, launched in 1983 by Andy MacDonald and Lesley Symons. With artists like Billy Bragg, The Housemartins and later The Beautiful South, it became a prominent label. Go! Beat Records was launched as a subsidiary for dance artists like Beats International, Gabrielle and Portishead. In 1992 Paul Weller signed for the label.
In 1996 MacDonald resigned when PolyGram acquired a majority stake in the label, and the label folded not too long afterwards. However, Go! Discs' dance offshoot Go! Beat Records, continued and became a unit in the Universal Records group.
Go! Discs had the dubious honour of sponsoring the Fulchester United team, club of Billy the Fish in Viz comic. Various blatant plugs for Go! artists were often spoken by characters in the strip and Fulchester's home ground carried adverts for Go! and various releases from them. Equally dubiously in the late 80s the label employed Essex comedian Phill Jupitus as head of publicity.
However, the label was revived.
After leaving Go! Discs, Andy MacDonald started Independiente Records, and continued his involvement with the recording career of Paul Weller. Independiente is also famous for being the home of Travis, Embrace, Aaliyah, So Solid Crew, Howling Bells and Malian desert blues band Tinariwen.