1992 – The seeds are planted for Vicious
Vicious Recordings was conceived in late 1991, when three Melbourne DJs Andy Van, John Course and Colin Daniels dreamt of taking Australian dance music to the world.
The following year, “Vicious Vinyl” officially launched , distributed by Mushroom Distribution Services – where Colin was working at the time.
The three young DJ’s were early adopters of house music, playing across local Australian clubs including; The Chevron, Chasers, Cadillac Bar, The Warehouse and The Drinkers Club, plus specialty club nights in outer Melbourne suburbs, such as 21st Century and Stylus, (both early adopters of the new house and techno sounds on specially promoted nights run by one or more of the trio). Determined to put Australian dance music on the map, they started discussing a label of their own purely out of a frustration of the lack of opportunities for local underground artists. From that conversation in late 1991, Vicious Vinyl, later to be simply Vicious, was born in 1992. The label’s first techno/ rave release was in fact one of John’s, under his alias of Groovematic, called ‘Witness the Strength’.
Vicious is now one of the world’s longest running dance music labels and has remained independently run.