Charisma

Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as the Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van der Graaf Generator. Gail Colson was label manager and joint managing director. The label's most successful acts were Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Julian Lennon, and Monty Python. The first release was the eponymous debut LP by Rare Bird, in December 1969, who gave Charisma its first hit single, "Sympathy", in early 1970. Besides the Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van der Graaf Generator, the label also released material by Robert John Godfrey, Lindisfarne and Alan Hull, Hawkwind, the Alan Parsons Project, Clifford T. Ward, String Driven Thing, Jack the Lad, Audience, Vivian Stanshall, Brand X, John Betjeman, Malcolm McLaren and Afraid of Mice. The 1970s solo albums of Peter Hammill, Tony Banks and Steve Hackett were also on Charisma. Managing director Colson left Charisma in the late 1970s to form her own management company, Gailforce. In 1983, Charisma Records was acquired by Virgin Records and continued to operate until 1986, when Virgin absorbed the label. In 1992, Virgin was purchased by EMI, then known as Thorn EMI. With most of EMI's purchase by Universal Music Group, Charisma returned to Virgin Records. A new version of Charisma, with no connection to the original label other than the name, operated between 1990 and 1992, with a street-oriented and independently distributed subsidiary called Cardiac Records. Some Charisma Records recordings were re-issued on the EMI label. In the UK, the label was revived by EMI's Angel Records in 2007.

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