Virgin Records is to  celebrate its 40th anniversary with a plethora of events and highlights this  autumn.
An exhibition, book, documentary and a compilation CD - all  benefiting the charity War Child - will mark the occasion.

Virgin boss Richard Branson, who  established Virgin Records when he was 22 years old in 1973, said: "Virgin  Records is where it all started for Virgin and 40 years later it's great to see  we are still being innovative.
"This exciting series of events is the  perfect way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Virgin Records and the artists,  from Mike Oldfield to Emeli Sandé, who continue to disrupt the status  quo."
The exhibition will be held in Mornington Crescent, London, and  will feature both seen and unseen photographs, seminal videos and memorabilia  that epitomise some of Virgin's music collaborations.
An art book, edited  by music journalist Adrian Thrills, a TV documentary about Virgin Records from a  team who have created television for BBC One and BBC Four, and a compilation CD  will all be released.

The 2-CD set will feature one disc with  current Virgin artists, and another with original classics from the label. There  will also be a series of Virgin 40 compilation CDs spanning the four decades.

 

I'll be all over the book.

 

Now, where do I pre-order?

 

Nice info Erin  

more info to be relaesed in the next few weeks

http://www.musicweek.com/news/...of-disruption/054737

I wonder how many on here can remember his first pokey little oxford street shop upstairs near Tottenham Ct Rd? You could buy Bootlegs there. I remember buying "Live on Blueberry Hill!" Otherwise the records were all discounted. Didn't realise he took the blame for Emile Sande mind. Disgraceful.

I might manage a visit to my sisters around then and we can pop into London to have a peek at the goings-on.

As I have always lived in Central Scotland, you can count me as one of those who won't remember!

I assume  HMV and Harlequin had the biggest stake in W1 at that time.

Thanks Erin, I used to love hanging out in the virgin record store during my teenage years

We saved up and had an occasional cheap day return down to London. Such was Branson's advertising power in the music journals and underground papers, we always made a bee line to his shop.

 

Recall as a kid buying a copy of the Virgin sampler LP Cash Cows which featured most of the (then) current artists on the label – or at least those that had an album on the market around the autumn of 1980.

 

Albums for me were very much luxury items that I only received for Christmas/Birthday or very occasionally as a special treat. I regularly traded albums with school friends as a source of hearing new/different music – so when the above record was released at merely the price of a 7” single it was a must buy!