Renegade Productions Inc., the company formed around the band Renegade, officially turned 25 this week.
It's been the best of times, and some of the hardest too for the Vancouver Canada-based company with worldwide business.
The bands that have come in the doors of the production company have been amazing, including The Cult, John Mayer, Jet, BTO, Tea Party, Joe Cocker, Avril Lavigne, Matthew Good, Hedley, Hinder, Simple Plan, 54-40, Third Eye Blind, Moist, Damien Rice, Slayer, Lillix, Theory of a Deadman, Holly McNarland, Joydrop, Spirit of the West, Puffy Amiyumi, Dan Powter, Default, Kittie, Chevelle, Trapt, and on and on.
Companies using our services include Nettwerk, Canadian Music Services, Universal Music, Warner Bros., Sony, Atlantic, Virgin, Island, House of Blues, Bruce Allen, SL Feldman, 604 Records, SRO, and more.
The band Renegade started everything, playing clubs in Canada and the US, then concerts headlining and opening for Nazareth, Henry Lee Summer and Boulevard, as well as recording at Little Mountain with Mike Fraser.
The label Renegade Sounds followed, with sales in over 30 countries of Renegade, MATREX and Vertigo.  Arpieye Music Publishing was also formed.
The company has also been involved with crew and staging for Loveryboy, Tal Bachman, Lillix,Tea Party, and Kittie, and promotes new bands like Scott Jackson, Damsel Fly, Broken Condom Babies and A New Honour.
The flagship location on east Hastings Street is still running, with interim locations on Homer, Cambie and west Hastings providing the facilities of the day.  Centring on Vancouver's vibrant waterfront, Renegade Productions has 3 locations now with 5 rehearsal and one demo studio on Hastings, 19 rehearsal studios in Gastown, and 28 rehearsal studios at the newest Victoria Drive location, as well as
the scheduled June opening of the 48 track Studio A with Michael Scott (Van Halen, Chris Isaac) in a new large 3,500 sq ft space that will make album quality recordings at an affordable price.
Upcoming is also an expansion into the Fraser Valley with Kevin Williams and Garth Richardson into a brand new 35,000 sq ft facility housing a recording school, 2 SSL studios, a live venue, rehearsal studios, and production offices.
A moment to touch on hard times; many people, governments and businesses for one reason or another try and wreck music companies and generally don't believe in them.  As well, there is the daunting task of keeping safe millions of dollars worth of equipment.  The fight to produce music is an unfortunate by-product that has tested the will of this company, but we have never lost!
Can't forget those staff that have helped this company grow; Kenny, Terra, Glenis, J.P., Zoe, Alena, Jimmy, Geraldo, Wayne, Catriona, Michael, Vic, Ashley, Barbara, Louise, Anna, Hayley, Lance, Jay, Telly and many more.
So, thanks everybody!  This is all for music, and all started with a band and a song.
Jim

On May 11, 1983...25 years ago next week, Renegade Productions Inc. was formed tby Jim Buckshon to protect the Renegade band against a coup d'etat. The original lineup worked clubs with Sue Medley fronting, later being replaced by Steve Foster, who went on to sing the 1st album, "On the Edge". The name Renegade was picked because it runs off the beaten path. This has remained our direction. At the same time as the band was gaining recognition, the company that was formed around the band became involved in recording, rehearsal studios, and programming backing tracks. With Marty Sippola on vocals and other friends in the band (Kenny Geatros, Geraldo Dominelli, Paul Minshall, John Tompkins, Renegade rose up tp be a pretty good concert and club draw after recording "Back From the Dead". The group disbanded with the exit of Marty Sippola, but the CD's caught the ears of AOR Heaven in Germany and the CD's still sell in over 30 countries as well as labelmates MATREX and Vertigo (all inter-related players). In the meantime, Renegade Productions added 15 more rehearsal studios and a 2nd location, whuch now has expanded to 3 locations and 55 studios. The bands that come into our studios are many that we idolized; The Cult, BTO, Tea Party, Jet, Joe Cocker, Slayer, Loverboy, John Mayer, and on and on, The same premise that started the company was to protect the band from outside forces and this has been played out again and again through the years. Music in it's pure sense is beautiful and business to many people is evil,,,the goal of this company has always been to shield the pure from hostilities and let the music play. For 25 years, it has been difficult, but it has worked, This company stands proud on it's past achievements and it's brilliant future, especially important being the young talented staff that pretty much run the show now.

 Thanks for listening for all these 25 years and supporing us! We've still got a long way to go!

www.renegadeproductions.net

Hey all,

Many of our good friends are only on this page which is the Renegade band and Renegade Sounds record label page.  The Renegade Productions company page is really the big one, so if you're not on it, please add yourself. It's www.myspace.com/renegadevancouver

Thanks

Some news from our parent company, Renegade Productions Inc.

We've all been working at a frantic pace getting Renegade Victoria Drive off the ground to accomodate all the great new bands coming in!
We think we've got all the best new projects in Vancouver ( hint: many are in the top friends at myspace.com/renegadevancouver.
Renovations are on schedule with about half the studios already up and running, so we are now operating about 40 studios in 15,000 sq ft at 3 locations.
Our Gastown Studios are pretty much packed with talent right now, too!  It's an exciting time!
The label is busy shipping melodic rock CD's from Renegade, MATREX, and our newest signing, Vertigo worldwide and reviews for the new Vertigo CD "Takes Me Back" are up on many sites in Europe.  Some reviews can be found in our blogs.  We are hoping to announce a new signing soon.
The company has also been busy with services for recording and touring acts, and we hope to announce a new management project this Spring.  Please check the pics as we have a few new ones up here and on the main website and have updated our artists' list too.
Thanks for reading!
The staff at Renegade Productions.

www.renegadeproductions.net