Critical support: Strictly Ballroom was funded by an Albert Productions' company. While these days the label is doing publishing deals with Wally de Backer (aka Gotye), Megan Washington, Abbe May and Kathryn Rollins or label figureheads Dallas Crane or recording an act in the Neutral Bay studios with in-house producer Wayne Connolly that you don’t even know exists yet. Or AC/DC, who even without an ailing Malcolm Young are back in the studio and likely to be back on stage in the next year for what will likely be another massive tour. Frankly, if you haven’t been touched by Albert Productions in some way in the past 50 years, you have been living what could only be described as a rather sheltered life. . With the labels 's 50th anniversarythis year comes a flurry of reissues and boxed sets, giving a fine slice of the hits along with some of the lesser-known songs that emerged from the various offices and studios (see panel, opposite page). But among the stars it’s worth remembering “a whole lot of like-minded individuals and bands who were all incredibly focused and had a sense of destiny”, says David Albert, son of chairman Robert Albert and Albert Productions’ managing director.

Seriously talented: Harry Vanda, left, and George Young at work. Those people include his uncle Ted, who started Albert Productions and produced the Easybeats; songwriters/producers George Young and Harry Vanda, who went from the Easybeats to be the powerhouses behind so many hits; and Fifa Riccobono. She started in 1968 as a secretary and by the ’90s was the first woman CEO of any music company in Australia, and after three separate stints at Alberts still has a role with key clients – including, of course, AC/DC. “It was partly Ted’s way that no one was better than anybody else and between Ted, Harry and George, they created this,” Riccobono says, The key was the trust they had in each other and the desire to work for each other, part of what enabled her to be a groundbreaker for women in the notoriously sexist Australian music industry she says. This year's model: Dallas Crane carries the flag for Albert Productions in the 21st century. Credit:Jacky Ghossein “One of the things that allowed me to do the things that I do and to do them as well as I could do them, was I always had Ted’s backing,” Riccobono says now. “Having someone back you like that makes you go out and fight as hard as possible. I never wanted to come back and let him down, or fail George and Harry.”

And while Albert Productions is often referred to as the house AC/DC built – and the hard rock band built around George Young’s younger brothers Malcolm and Angus still is the central plank of the business – those three men and later Riccobono (“she was always there, from the first day really,” Malcolm Young once said) did the heavy lifting as a partnership. Cheers: Steve Wright of the Easybeats in 1986, another of Albert Productions' signings. “People outside the business tended to give George and Harry all the credit for what went on, which I don’t think is appropriate,” former A&R manager Chris Gilbey told family biographer Jane Albert some years back. “I think George and Harry made great records but I think Ted gave them a canvas on which to paint, free reign.” This was always acknowledged by Vanda and Young – who never actually signed a contract with Albert Productions as it all worked on trust - with George Young quoted in Jane Albert’s book, House Of Hits, saying that ‘‘Ted was always concerned about the music and the song” above anything else. Support: Ted Albert advanced AC/DC a lot of the money in the early days so the band could tour. Credit:Murray

“Get it right, get the song right, get the music right, get the mix right. And only then when you are happy that you have the absolute best out of the song, out of the record, out of the mix, then you release it,” Young said. “You did not release records to schedules or deadlines, or because the manager or a radio station had to have it on their playlists. You released the record when the record was finished. It was the music that called the shots and that was Ted's philosophy.” Stevie Wright – the singer of the Easybeats, co-writer of their earliest hits, later a solo star with the radio format-busting Evie (Parts 1, 2 and 3) and the quintessential Australian frontman of the '60s – backs that description of Ted Albert’s philosophy. Remembering how Ted Albert watched them perform for the first time from the back of the room (“a bit like Brian Epstein seeing the Beatles”), he says “we were recording with someone who was interested in us”. Stars of today: Gotye has a publishing deal with Albert Productions. Credit:Rohan Thomson “George left work. I left work,” Wright says. “Because we felt something would happen.” The music man in Ted Albert, amplified by Vanda and Young, was remembered by Tony Barber, a member of Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, the first signing to the label in 1964.

“Ted Albert asked me to visit him at his office. We were the only ones in the room. Ted was seated at a large desk, cushioned between two heavy wooden speaker boxes. He had just produced a record and wanted me to be one of the first to hear it,” Barber says. “He told me it was called Sorry. He didn’t tell me who the artist was. We sat there in silence as we listened to it. It absolutely blew me away. After the last note of the song we looked impassively at each other’s face. Twenty seconds later Ted spoke first. "What do you think, Tony?" I replied: ‘‘Ted ... you and I know we’ve just listened to a number one hit record. It’s sensational.” ‘‘A smile formed across Ted’s face that stretched from ear to ear. I was looking at a happy and justifiably proud man whose same opinion had been endorsed. I knew it wouldn’t be the last time, either.” And to prove that history lives on 50 years later, Dave Larkins of Dallas Crane, a band whose sound and philosophy echoes the golden years of both Alberts and Australian rock, recalls the thrill of meeting the co-writer of Sorry. “George [Young] has done it all; written, performed, produced. Anything with his name on it is usually pretty amazing,” Larkins says. “He went out of his way to meet us when he was in Australia – even took us out to lunch. We tried to talk him into doing a record with us. It was only going to cost a carton of duty-free Marlboro Reds.” Good Times: Celebrating 50 years of Albert Productions is out on August 15. The five-CD box set has 102 tracks – including two previously unreleased songs – from Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs’ Mashed Potato through to Doc Neeson’s recently recorded cover of Flash and the Pan’s Walking In The Rain. What the musicians say...

Angus Young “When we first went out there, we were lucky enough to get a deal with Alberts even before we left Australia, so that was good for us. We didn’t have to go shopping ourselves, but what was good was that Ted [Albert] advanced us a lot of the money so as we could get out there and tour and back-up the records. For him it was a long-term investment, but it paid in the end. It all helped.’’ Told to Jane Albert in the book House of Hits. Doc Neeson of the Angels “We were working with George and Harry, so it was like working with gods.” Told to Music Max. Stevie Wright

Favourite Alberts song: Land of Make Believe. It was a Vanda/Young song – Harry was lead vocal, Steve Marriot was on it. I think Tony Cahill had joined us by then. Pat and Olivia had some guest vocals too, I think. I carried a torch for Olivia then. I played tambourine. I broke the skin of the tambourine but continued to play.” Tony Barber of the first Albert Production signing, the Aztecs ‘‘‘Song searching’ was a competitive sport. A race. Almost an Olympic sport. During the period of 1964-1968, every band and artist was looking for that elusive song that would get them into the charts and give them a hit. It was a race to find and record particular songs first. I loved the musical atmosphere and tension it created. We won some of those races, we lost some.” Wayne Connolly, of Knievel and now in-house producer/writer at Alberts Favourite Alberts song: “Pretty hard to go past Friday On My Mind, of course, but if we are going past it, then Remember Me, an early psych-pop classic complete with electric sitar on Ted Mulry’s first album.

Mark Opitz, engineer and producer for Alberts through the 1970s and ’80s “It was a small, tight unit. It was just George and Harry, myself, Fiff Riccobono and the two girls working in the office ... You were struck by the ‘us against the world’ thing, the reverse siege mentality. It was very clubby.” From House Of Hits. John Paul Young “I’m grateful for every one of their songs and I still enjoy performing them all. I’m a fan and I’ve always been a fan of George and Harry’s, and that’s the way it is.” From House Of Hits. John Brewster of the Angels

Favourite Alberts song: “Too many favourites for me but, because of the lyric and because Bon [Scott] was such a great singer, I’ll pick Long Way to the Top [by AC/DC]. That song, that lyric, resonates so much when remembering how tough it was touring Australia in the old EH station wagon trying to get the band up the ladder. It speaks for all of us rock’n’rollers. Herm Kovak, member of the Ted Mulry Gang “[Alberts] really had a family vibe to it. Ted Albert and Fifa Riccobono really cared about their acts: without fail every royalty statement up to his passing had a personal handwritten note and Fifa carried that on. We were the last band Ted Albert produced and the only act that had him play tambourine on records. It was the love of The Goons that was the connection. ‘‘We were probably the only people at Alberts that heard his repertoire of Goons' voices.” Dave Larkins of Dallas Crane

“Obviously the heritage was a contributing factor [in signing to Alberts], but the main attraction was having a small artist roster, and a label that really seemed to care about what we were on about artistically on all fronts. We got signed on a demo of, let’s just say, not our most commercially viable material. We were impressed that they saw potential and range in our writing abilities. We wanted to be the band that came in and reinvigorated the Alberts recording brand, and I think they were happy for us to be that band as well.”