Half a Cow

Half a Cow is an independent record label from Australia, established in 1990 by Sydney musician and music identity Nic Dalton.

History

In 1987 - 1989 Dalton ran a bookshop (owned by Dalton's parents) in the Sydney suburb of Glebe called Dalton's Books. In late 1989, Dalton and his friend Miles Ferguson, took over the store, renamed it Half A Cow and started stocking more comics, records and tee-shirts than the 'beat' books they had been concentrating on. At the same time, they started Half A Cow Records and started working on the label's first release, Billiepeebup (hac01, released October 1990) - a 4-track recorded album of songs made between 1985 and 1989 by the Love Positions, a duo of Dalton and his then girlfriend, Robyn St Clare from The Hummingbirds. That was the label's second release (out October 1990), the first being a 10" EP called Pleasure (cow01) by the Craven Fops in March 1990.

In 1991, Half a Cow released the single Don't Want To Be Grant McLennan by Smudge (about Go-Betweens co-founder Grant McLennan), which was an indie hit, and single of the week in music magazine NME