The history of The Vicious Group is the history of the Australian club lifestyle. Emerging from the early ‘90s rave culture, Vicious established itself as Australia’s pre-eminent dance outlet a decade and a half ago. It immediately garnered the interest of the world’s leading DJs and was soon creating its own international stars as the success of Madison Avenue went global. Further boundaries were pushed aside by the company’s founders Andy Van, John Course and Colin McMillan as the Vicious stable ventured into new areas: Vicious Urban, their R&B outlet; Vicious Grooves, the label’s funkier imprint; as well as developing a partnership wing encompassing clubland’s more underground musical styles with Vapour, Bamboo and Cosmetic. Publishing, licensing and management divisions followed, as did their booming foray into fashion with Vicious Threads.

From the outset, with the release of their first compilation, Vicious struck a balance between taste-maker cool and marketing savvy. International interest was immediate with their first CD in 1991 featuring UK techno don Carl Cox collaborating with early local signing Mark James, when released as a single it gave Vicious their first taste of mainstream acceptance as it not only topped the Australian Club Chart but entered the UK Top 100 Singles Chart. The burgeoning Vicious Vinyl, as it was known then, quickly unleashed a slew of homegrown beats onto the international dance scene with Groundlevel, Quench, Bubbleman (aka Andy Van) and Thunderchild (featuring Rogue Traders’ James Ash).

As Vicious Vinyl evolved from a grassroots rave organisation into the fully-fledged club leader that is Vicious today, it cemented its reputation with massive dancefloor success into various territories around the world. With their releases often receiving greater respect overseas than in their homeland, such as Blackout’s UK hit Gotta Have Hope, Vicious soon acquired well-deserved onshore respect with the commercial crossover acceptance of tracks from Pendulum and Sgt Slick. And then all hell broke loose with the worldwide phenomenon that was Madison Avenue: number one hits, awards and an American breakthrough.

Not ones to rest on their laurels, Vicious not only kept up the local club output with Rogue Traders, Mark James, Ivan Gough, mrTimothy, Dirty South, NuBreed and Cabin Crew but they also kept up a constant flow of compilations, mixed by label directors/DJs Van and Course, now also resident at Melbourne’s most notorious nightspot onelove. Their foray into R&B created more chart heat with Jay Wess while they also began licensing international tracks for release as monster hits through their Zip Music arm, swooping on the remixes of Midnight Star’s Midas Touch and creating Australian clubland’s biggest anthem in recent years.

And, just as they have an ear for future anthems, Vicious Threads proves they have an eye for future fashions. Harnessing the style and prowess of designer Ivan Gomez, Vicious wear is street smart, chic, romantic and robust. Their line of clothes is now stocked in over 80 boutiques around the world.

With Van’s new musical project Vandalism already topping the Australian club chart and the latest Vicious compilation featuring Rogue Traders’ Ash and their own Dirty South in the mix, the label’s future is far from nasty – it’s truly Vicious.

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