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Leaving behind the lush tropical vegetation and beautiful white coral beaches of Scotland wasn’t easy for Pete Murray. Scotland may be renowned for interminable rain, grey sky, fog, midges and haunted castles but it’s all just a myth invented by the kilted northerners to discourage the neighbouring English to leave them alone!

Tranquillity is a rarely associated with the Scots, so Murray, early 1980’s, guitar in hand, set off in the warm summer Scottish sunset in search of adventure in Frog land. The Parisian metro was as good a place as any..... an acoustic guitar and a local expat club for young “filles au pairs” was just fine!

After a stint at the top of the French charts with fellow buskers (who remembers British Colony?) and a brief period as International Label Manager for French independent record company Musidisc, Murray started his first label “Off The Track Records” in 88 with French sound engineer E.T (no, not the spatula finger.....). First signings included the fantastic STIFF label and The Pogues, 3 Mustaphas 3, the Mint Juleps, Apple Mosaic (the guitarist went on to form EMF) etc....

It was during the modest celebrations of the Pogues first gold album (hic!) in OTT’s Parisian flea-market offices that Murray presented to the French media his new signing “Les Negresses Vertes” (hic!). Murray licensed the Negresses’ first album “Mlah!” around the globe and made it to the top of the UK indie charts, an absolute first for a French band singing in French. William Orbit remixed the first single “Zobi la Mouche”.

Murray’s follow-up to Les Negresses Vertes was Elmer Food Beat. 700,000 units were sold in France alone of the first 2 albums. The band (singer armed with a shrimp net in guise of guitar and clothed in massive y-fronts underpants) were nominated Group of the Year in ’91 at “Les Victoires de la Musique”. The same year Murray was nominated “Independent Producer of the Year” by the French Music & Media Industry at the MIDEM in Cannes.

In ’92 Murray launched the Nord-Sud label for Barclay Records. First signing ZEBDA went on to sell in excess of 1 million unit. Limited radio exposure of the Nord Sud signings prompted Murray to take the label’s 4 bands on the road for a 40 date tour with a crew of 46 people. The whole exercise cost less than a modest TV ad and saw each band ship thousands of CDs.

After 18 months working within a major record company (zzzzzz....) it was time to move on and spend some time in Bali.... In 1995, Murray forms MURRAYFIELD MUSIC and finds the ideal politically incorrect band – SILMARILS. European music magazine “Music & Media” summed up the band as being “....somewhere between the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Beastie Boys and skateboards.....”. Silmarils took France by storm when their first single “Cours Vite” and the video clip (directed by Olivier Dahan), starring France’s 3 top porno stars, was quickly banned from major TV. Some people dare to say that this was of course was the desired effect........ The first album went gold.

Next signing to Murrayfield was DOLLY, a powerful 4 piece tight rock outfit from Nantes in the west of France. The charismatic Manu was voted on numerous occasions France’s best girl singer. The first album sold in excess of 200,000 copies and the band recorded a great duet with Kelly Jones from STEREOPHONICS.

Passionate about all things audio, Murray joined forces with friend and ex-Off the Track employee J.P Chalbos in ’97 to form LA SOURCE MASTERING, which rapidly became France’s top audio mastering facility. JP is La Source’s chief mastering engineer and masters all France’s top artists ranging from hip-hop to rock as well as lots of UK and other European acts. Recent acquisition of la Source’s main competitor TOP MASTER, with the legendary “vinyl king” André Perriat (aka DD), has created a unique complete mastering facility, managing all physical and digital formats. The union of the 2 top names and top engineers is about to be renamed as ODIO Mastering (June 2009).

The year 2000 – time for a change, Murray invests in and becomes CEO of GRANDLINK NETWORK & MEDIA, a Luxembourg based new technology company and goes on to develop an innovative b2b system using satellite multicast technology to deliver broadcast quality digitized music and video files to TV and radio, therefore enabling massive economies for the record companies. A few millions of euros down the road, with the system installed at all major radio stations, the French record industry in their supreme wisdom decide to use a non-secure internet based solution....(?) which of course 5 years down the road still doesn’t work. Sacré bleu!

A few rounds of golf later “et voilà!” Summer 2005, Murray concludes that there’s nothing wrong with new technology, except for the lack of loud guitars. So one afternoon, sitting in his office gazing at the white coral beaches on the Scotsman calendar, JP from LA SOURCE sticks his head around the door and suggests Murray come to the studio to check out the young band in a mastering session. 3 songs later, the guitarists from FICKLE are in Brady’s Irish pub around the corner, pints in hands......

A week later, Murray is in sunny Aix-en-Provence sharing a bottle of Pastis with the band to celebrate the signing to Murrayfield. They band went on to support Panic At The Disco and fall Out Boy. Their album ID sole 10.000 copies, but with Ez, the singer being one of France’s top body boarders, the pull of the blue ocean was too much… so the band went their separate ways in 2007…….

In 2006, on a cycling trip (si! si!) around the Ile de Groix off the southern coast of Brittany, Murray stumbled upon SYLVER CYCLE, a 6 piece rock band from Brest. Despite a couple of promising recording sessions in Brittany (in the rain…), the band split (usual disagreements – typical band stuff, the guitarist shagging the singer…). Pretty singer Syl went on to pursue her solo career and the bassist Ben (aka “The Goat”) was recruited to Murrayfield where he does everything from product management and artist liaison to booking the studios at La Source and buying the cigars and bottles of single malt (good goat!).

One early spring morning early 2007, Murray pops the CQFD sampler (les Inrockuptibles) into the CD player and stumbles upon a demo by unknown French kids THE DODOZ. The next day, a quick flight to Toulouse and a rehearsal with the band, and within a month the band are in France’s legendary studio LE MANOIR with Clive Martin and Pierre Rougean producing. The band, still “under-age” meant that the parents approval was required – and the contracts were signed the last day of recording…… Champagne!

Peter Murray took the band to the wonderful Véga Studio near Carpentras early this year where he produced 5 new songs with the band which will be on the album.

THE DODOZ have since done support gigs with THE HOOSIERS, SIOUXSIE (at the Eiffel Tower),BABYSHAMBLES and STEREIPHONICS, and they were selected to play at the UK Industry booze-up “IN THE CITY”, where NUDE records main man Saul Galpern signed the band’s first single “Do You Like Boys?” for the UK. Airplay followed on the BBC, XFM etc…In 2008 they were programmed at some of the major festivals in France and Switzerland including SOLIDAYS, Les FRANCOFOLIES, MUSILAC, PALEO FESTIVAL……

Their first EP has been distributed worldwide through Europe’s leading digital specialist BELIEVE (iTunes, Napster, Virgin….), and the single “Do You Like Boys?” reached the n°1 spot on France’s national rock radio station Le Mouv.

The band is on the road permanently and sold-out their first headline gig in Paris at La Maroquinerie in March. Summer is looking exciting with a long list of festivals including the Roman Arena in Vienne (near Lyon) with OASIS on June 14th and the incredible Amphitheatre in Nimes with Franz Ferdinand and the Ting Tings on July 21st.

The album will be released in France, Belgium, Switzerland & Luxembourg on October 26th through French independent distributor Discograph.

Recent news is the signing of new band from Nice in the sunny south of France, MUTINE. An amazing crossover of rock and dancefloor, fronted by sexy Manon, this 5 piece band are in pre-production and negotiations are underway with different record companies, with the first single planned to hit the radios in France in September.