Ron Tudor

Tudor had established an independent record label, Fable Records, in late 1969 with an official launch the following April.[5][11] During 1969 Tudor had appeared on a TV talent quest, New Faces, as a judge. He signed both the finals winner, John Williamson, and second place getter, Liv Maessen, to Fable.[12][13] Maessen's second single was a cover version of Mary Hopkin's "Knock, Knock Who's There?" (April 1970), which peaked at No. 2 on the Go-Set National Top 60 Singles Chart in August.[14] Williamson's debut single, "Old Man Emu" (May 1970), peaked at No. 3 in September.[15]

From May to December 1970 the Australian music industry was embroiled in a "pay per play" dispute, 1970 radio ban, which hampered the airplay of both local artists and United Kingdom artists on major labels. Under the ban Hopkins' version of "Knock, Knock Who's There?" was not aired on commercial radio, whereas Maessen's version was.[16]^: 267 Go-Set's chart compiler, Ed Nimmervoll, acknowledged both artists on their National Top 60, which was given as "Mary Hopkins/Liv Maesson [sic]".[14][16]^{: 265–269} Due to the radio ban Fable Records had further chart success with the Mixtures' cover version of "In the Summertime", originally by UK group Mungo Jerry, which reached No. 1 in August for nine weeks.[17]

Melbourne band Jigsaw (Chester's sometime backing band) on Fable Records and Sydney band Autumn on Chart Records both had success with their respective versions of UK group Christie's hit song "Yellow River".[18] "Yellow River" displaced "In the Summertime" at No. 1 in late October.[19] For a short period, the ban had the inadvertent effect of putting more local musicians to air than ever before and also opened the door to the underground artists on previously minor labels such as Fable Records.[16]^{: 64–65, 130, 265–269}

In the following year Tudor organised for a studio band, Drummond – essentially members of an Adelaide-formed group, Allison Gros – to record a novelty version of "Daddy Cool" (July 1971), originally by US 1950s group the Rays.[20] According to McFarlane, "[Drummond]'s gimmicky trademark was to utilise chipmunk voices mixed in with normal vocal sounds."[20] It displaced "Eagle Rock" by local band Daddy Cool from the number-one spot in September.[20] "Daddy Cool" held the top spot for eight weeks and stayed in the charts for 22 weeks.[21][22] In that time Allison Gros had changed their name to Mississippi, while Tudor used the Drummond name for studio musicians, which issued two further singles.[20]

Tudor founded Fable's sub-label, Bootleg Records, in late 1971 in partnership with Brian Cadd – previously a member of the Groop (1964–69) and Axiom (1969–71) – as inhouse producer and A&R agent.[23][24] Cadd started his solo career and also formed a studio ensemble, the Bootleg Family Band (1972–75), to back his solo and other artists' work via the Bootleg label.[25] Bootleg's first hit was Mississippi's "Kings of the World" (January 1972) which reached No. 10.[26] Cadd's debut solo single, "Ginger Man", appeared in August and peaked at No. 16.[27] In June 1979 Tudor was installed as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire with the citation "For service to the recording industry".[1]

Tudor continued with Fable Records into the early 1980s but later described how "his refusal to take part in the Radio Ban led to Fable being 'blackballed' by the major labels and that his business was effectively strangled [due to] its inability to get records distributed".[11] He sold the label to John McDonald in July 1984.[5][11] In the following October he joined Armstrong Studios, which was renamed as AAV Studios.[5] Tudor retired form the music industry by the late 1980s.