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I.R.S. (International Record Syndicate) Records was a record label
Record label

In the music industry, a record label can be a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of recorded sound and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the Record producer, manufacturing, distribution , marketing and promotion, and enforcement of copyright protec...
, started in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 in 1979 by Miles Copeland III
Miles Copeland III

Miles Axe Copeland III is an United States entertainment executive, best known for founding I.R.S. Records. His brother, Stewart Copeland was part of the pop-rock trio The Police, which Miles managed....
 along with Jay Boberg and Carl Grasso. Miles was also the manager of Wishbone Ash
Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash are a United Kingdom Rock music band who achieved success in the early and mid-1970s with their distinctive mellow sound, and popular records including Wishbone Ash , Argus , There's the Rub and New England ....
, The Police
The Police

The Police were an English Power trio Rock music band consisting of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland . The band became globally popular in the late 1970s, playing a style of rock that was influenced by jazz, punk rock and reggae music....
, and later, Sting, as well as other bands. I.R.S. was the sister label of Copeland's Illegal Records (UK).

I.R.S. releases were distributed by A&M Records
A&M Records

A&M Records is an United States record label owned by Universal Music Group which operates through the Interscope-Geffen-A&M division....
 until 1985, by MCA Records
MCA Records

MCA Records was an United States-based record label owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part....
 until 1990, and finally by EMI
EMI

The EMI Group is a United Kingdom music company comprising the major record label EMI Music ? which operates several labels and is based in Kensington in London, England, United Kingdom ? and EMI Music Publishing, based in New York City....
 (which bought the label in 1994) until the label folded in 1996.

Acts on I.R.S.






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I.R.S. (International Record Syndicate) Records was a record label
Record label

In the music industry, a record label can be a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of recorded sound and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the Record producer, manufacturing, distribution , marketing and promotion, and enforcement of copyright protec...
, started in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 in 1979 by Miles Copeland III
Miles Copeland III

Miles Axe Copeland III is an United States entertainment executive, best known for founding I.R.S. Records. His brother, Stewart Copeland was part of the pop-rock trio The Police, which Miles managed....
 along with Jay Boberg and Carl Grasso. Miles was also the manager of Wishbone Ash
Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash are a United Kingdom Rock music band who achieved success in the early and mid-1970s with their distinctive mellow sound, and popular records including Wishbone Ash , Argus , There's the Rub and New England ....
, The Police
The Police

The Police were an English Power trio Rock music band consisting of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland . The band became globally popular in the late 1970s, playing a style of rock that was influenced by jazz, punk rock and reggae music....
, and later, Sting, as well as other bands. I.R.S. was the sister label of Copeland's Illegal Records (UK).

I.R.S. releases were distributed by A&M Records
A&M Records

A&M Records is an United States record label owned by Universal Music Group which operates through the Interscope-Geffen-A&M division....
 until 1985, by MCA Records
MCA Records

MCA Records was an United States-based record label owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part....
 until 1990, and finally by EMI
EMI

The EMI Group is a United Kingdom music company comprising the major record label EMI Music ? which operates several labels and is based in Kensington in London, England, United Kingdom ? and EMI Music Publishing, based in New York City....
 (which bought the label in 1994) until the label folded in 1996.

Acts on I.R.S. included The Animals
The Animals

The Animals were an England music group of the 1960s known in the United States as part of the British Invasion. Known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon, as exemplified by their signature songs "The House of the Rising Sun" and "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place", the band balanced tough, rock music-edged pop mu...
, Wishbone Ash
Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash are a United Kingdom Rock music band who achieved success in the early and mid-1970s with their distinctive mellow sound, and popular records including Wishbone Ash , Argus , There's the Rub and New England ....
, Marillion
Marillion

Marillion are a United Kingdom Rock group. Formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England in 1979, their recorded studio output comprises fifteen albums and is generally regarded as comprising two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original vocalist & frontman Fish in late 1988 after their first four albums, and the subsequent arr...
 (US & Canada only), English Beat, Nuclear Assault
Nuclear Assault

Nuclear Assault is an American thrash metal/crossover thrash band formed in 1984....
, R.E.M.
R.E.M.

R.E.M. is an American Rock music band formed in Athens, Georgia, Georgia , in 1980 by Michael Stipe , Peter Buck , Mike Mills , and Bill Berry ....
, Human Switchboard
Human Switchboard

HistoryThe Human Switchboard formed in 1977 when Bob Pfeifer met Myrna Marcarian at Syracuse University. They spent that summer back in Cleveland, where Pfeifer grew up....
, The Cramps
The Cramps

The Cramps were an American garage punk band formed in 1976. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of lead singer Lux Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy as the only permanent members....
, Go-Go's, The Fleshtones
The Fleshtones

The Fleshtones are an United States garage rock band from Queens, New York formed in 1976....
, Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo

Oingo Boingo was an United States New Wave music band. They are best known for their influence on other musicians, their soundtrack contributions and their high energy Halloween concerts....
, Squeeze
Squeeze

Squeeze are an England musical ensemble that came to prominence in the United Kingdom during the New Wave period of the late 1970s, and continued recording successfully in the 1980s and 1990s....
, Suburban Lawns
Suburban Lawns

Suburban Lawns were an United States New Wave music group from the late 1970s through the early 1980s.Originating in the Southern California Punk rock scene, the band consisted of:...
, Over the Rhine
Over the Rhine

Over the Rhine is an Ohio-based band , the core of which is the husband-and-wife team of bassist/pianist/guitarist Linford Detweiler and vocalist/guitarist Karin Bergquist....
, The Buzzcocks, The Alarm
The Alarm

The Alarm are an alternative rock band that emerged from Wales in the early 1980s. They started as a local punk band with a spirited, energetic acoustic/folk influence and stayed together for ten years....
, Gary Numan
Gary Numan

Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of commercial electronic music and has been described as the "King of synthpop." Numan is widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars "....
, Wall of Voodoo
Wall of Voodoo

Wall of Voodoo was a Rock music musical ensemble from Los Angeles, California best known for the 1983 hit "Mexican Radio". The band had a sound that was a fusion of synthesizer-based New Wave music with the spaghetti western soundtrack style of Ennio Morricone....
, General Public
General Public

General Public was a Pop band, formed by former The Beat vocalists Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger....
, Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Carlisle

Belinda Jo Carlisle is an United States singer. Carlisle has enjoyed success twice during her career, first as lead singer and founding member of the seminal, all-female band New Wave music band The Go-Go's, then as a successful international solo artist....
, Camper Van Beethoven
Camper Van Beethoven

Camper Van Beethoven is an American alternative rock group. An eclectic band even by the standards of 1980s underground music, Camper Van Beethoven mixed elements of Pop music, ska, world music, punk rock, Folk music, country music, and acid rock....
, Gren
Gren (recording artist)

Gren was a power-pop trio consisting of Brett White , Marcus Gonzales and John "Possum" Hill .Gren formed in Los Angeles, California, USA, in the spring of 1994....
, Dread Zeppelin
Dread Zeppelin

Dread Zeppelin is an United States band best known for Cover version the songs of Led Zeppelin in a reggae style sung by an Elvis Presley Elvis impersonator named Tortelvis , though their act now encompasses many other songs and other styles of music....
, Lords of the New Church
Lords Of The New Church

"Lords of the New Church" was the third single to be released by singer-songwriter Tasmin Archer....
, Fine Young Cannibals
Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals were a United Kingdom band formed in Birmingham, England in 1984, by guitarist David Steele and bassist Andy Cox , and singer Roland Gift....
, Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath are an English Rock music band. Formed in Birmingham in 1968 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward , the band has since experienced multiple lineup changes, with a total of twenty-two former members....
 and Concrete Blonde
Concrete Blonde

Concrete Blonde is an alternative rock band based in the United States. They were initially active from the early 1980s to 1995, and reunited in 2001....
. An instrumental-only imprint, I.R.S. No Speak, released albums by Wishbone Ash
Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash are a United Kingdom Rock music band who achieved success in the early and mid-1970s with their distinctive mellow sound, and popular records including Wishbone Ash , Argus , There's the Rub and New England ....
, Miles' younger brother Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland

Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the musical band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks....
 (The Police) and William Orbit
William Orbit

William Orbit is an England musician composer and record producer, perhaps best known to most for his work on Madonna 's album Ray of Light, which received four Grammy Awards, sold 4 million copies in the United States, and sold 16 million copies worldwide....
. I.R.S. also produced the feature film Shakes the Clown
Shakes the Clown

Shakes the Clown is a 1992 American movie directed and written by Bobcat Goldthwait, who performs the title role. It also features Julie Brown, Blake Clark, Paul Dooley, Kathy Griffin, Florence Henderson, Tom Kenny, Adam Sandler, Scott Herriott, LaWanda Page, and a cameo by Robin Williams as Mime Jerry ....
, which starred Bobcat Goldthwait
Bobcat Goldthwait

Robert Francis 'Bobcat' Goldthwait is an United States comedian, actor, screenwriter, and film and television director. He is commonly known for his energetic, rabid stage personality, his dark, acerbic humor, and his gruff but high-pitched voice....
. They released David Lynch
David Lynch

David Keith Lynch is an United States film director, screenwriter, Film producer, Painting, cartoonist, composer, video artist and performance artist....
 and Alan R. Splet's soundtrack to Eraserhead
Eraserhead

Eraserhead is a surrealist-horror film written and directed by David Lynch, and released in . In 1971, Lynch moved to Los Angeles to study for an MFA degree at the AFI Conservatory....
 in the 80s.

In 1985, Copeland brokered a deal to switch the label's distributor to MCA Records
MCA Records

MCA Records was an United States-based record label owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part....
. Under the agreement, A&M continued to release the label's pre-1985 catalog, much of which still can be found under the A&M banner.

In 1990, the band Green Day
Green Day

Green Day is an American Rock music trio formed in 1987. The band has consisted of Billie Joe Armstrong , Mike Dirnt , and Tr? Cool for the majority of its existence....
 included a mock letter from then-I.R.S. college radio rep Lori Blumenthal in one of their last cassette releases for Lookout Records. The fictional letter expressed IRS' interest in signing the band to the label. A mock reply letter from Lookout, also included in the cassette artwork, deemed I.R.S. a "cheesy" and "washed up" record label.

The last IRS release was the 1996 Buzzcocks
Buzzcocks

Buzzcocks are an England punk rock band formed in Manchester in 1976. They have been led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Pete Shelley for nearly their entire existence....
 CD All Set.

The Cutting Edge

From 1983 to 1987, I.R.S. Records sponsored a weekly MTV show called The Cutting Edge, hosted by Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones
The Fleshtones

The Fleshtones are an United States garage rock band from Queens, New York formed in 1976....
. The series focused heavily on bands that recorded for the label.

I.R.S. Records - On The Charts


This was a 1994 compilation album that chronicled the acts of I.R.S. Records from 1979 to 1994.
1 Our Lips Are Sealed
Our Lips Are Sealed

"Our Lips Are Sealed" is a song written by Go-Go's guitarist Jane Wiedlin and Specials and Fun Boy Three singer Terry Hall . It was first recorded by the Go-Go's as the lead-off song on their 1981 album Beauty and the Beat and served as their debut American single....
 - The Go-Go's
The Go-Go's

The Go-Go?s are an all-female American Pop music band formed in 1978. They made rock history as the first all-women band that both wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the Billboard album charts....

2 Mexican Radio
Mexican Radio

"Mexican Radio" is a song written and performed by the band Wall of Voodoo, and produced by Richard Mazda. The track was initially made commercially available on their 1982 in music album Call of the West....
 [Edit] - Wall of Voodoo
Wall of Voodoo

Wall of Voodoo was a Rock music musical ensemble from Los Angeles, California best known for the 1983 hit "Mexican Radio". The band had a sound that was a fusion of synthesizer-based New Wave music with the spaghetti western soundtrack style of Ennio Morricone....

3 Only a Lad
Only a Lad

Only a Lad is the full-length debut album by Oingo Boingo, following their Oingo Boingo . The album's musical arrangements, by vocalist Danny Elfman and guitarist Steve Bartek, complete the group's switch from cabaret act to New Wave music band ....
 - Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo

Oingo Boingo was an United States New Wave music band. They are best known for their influence on other musicians, their soundtrack contributions and their high energy Halloween concerts....

4 Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades - Timbuk 3
Timbuk 3

Timbuk3 was a Grammy-nominated band which released 6 original studio albums between 1986 and 1995 produced by Derrick Vedrani. They are most well-known for their Top 20 single "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades"....

5 Save It for Later - The English Beat
6 She Drives Me Crazy
She Drives Me Crazy

"She Drives Me Crazy" is a song recorded by the Fine Young Cannibals, included on their 1989 album The Raw and the Cooked . The song peaked at #5 in the band's native United Kingdom in January 1989 before hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S....
 - Fine Young Cannibals
Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals were a United Kingdom band formed in Birmingham, England in 1984, by guitarist David Steele and bassist Andy Cox , and singer Roland Gift....

7 Mad About You
Mad About You

Mad About You is an United States sitcom that aired on NBC from September 23, 1992, to May 23, 1999. The show starred Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a newly married couple in New York City....
 [Single Mix] - Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Carlisle

Belinda Jo Carlisle is an United States singer. Carlisle has enjoyed success twice during her career, first as lead singer and founding member of the seminal, all-female band New Wave music band The Go-Go's, then as a successful international solo artist....

8 Tenderness
Tenderness

Tenderness can mean:*a tendency to express warm, compassionate, or affectionate feelings*tenderness - pain or discomfort when an affected area is touched...
 - General Public
General Public

General Public was a Pop band, formed by former The Beat vocalists Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger....

9 The One I Love
The One I Love

The One I Love may refer to:* The One I Love , a song by R.E.M.* The One I Love * The One I Love * The One I Love , a manga series by CLAMP...
 - R.E.M.
R.E.M.

R.E.M. is an American Rock music band formed in Athens, Georgia, Georgia , in 1980 by Michael Stipe , Peter Buck , Mike Mills , and Bill Berry ....

10 Joey
Joey

Joey may refer to:...
 - Concrete Blonde
Concrete Blonde

Concrete Blonde is an alternative rock band based in the United States. They were initially active from the early 1980s to 1995, and reunited in 2001....

11 Rain in the Summertime [Edit] - The Alarm
The Alarm

The Alarm are an alternative rock band that emerged from Wales in the early 1980s. They started as a local punk band with a spirited, energetic acoustic/folk influence and stayed together for ten years....

12 Dizz Knee Land - dada
Dada (band)

dada is a three piece rock band that hails from California . The band is made up of Michael Gurley , Joie Calio and Phil Leavitt .The band's songs feature both Michael and Joie sharing the vocals on each song....



See also

  • List of record labels
    List of record labels

    This is a list of notable record labels.Owing to the large number of entries, the list has been divided by the first letter of the label's name, with labels starting with a number added to this page:...


External links

  • I.R.S. Records history 1979-1985, Billboard charts; photo galleries; US and international discographies.