Restless' Regis roosts atop Ryko

Exec to o'see A&R, sales and marketing operations

By JUSTIN OPPELAAR

Regis

Restless Records founder Joe Regis has been tapped to head the Ryko Label Group as president following the imminent completion of Ryko's acquisition of the extensive Restless back catalog, announced earlier this year.

Regis, who will report to Ryko chairman and chief exec Sam Holdsworth, replaces former Ryko prexy George Howard, who will ankle his post to pursue other opportunities. Also headed out the door is general manager Jill Christiansen.

Based in Los Angeles, Regis will oversee the label group's A&R, sales and marketing operations there, as well as in its New York and Massachusetts offices. Exec has been head of Restless since 1991.

Enigma sale

Before that, he was operating chief at Enigma Records, where he oversaw the sale of part of that label's catalog to EMI unit Capitol Records; the remainder of the catalog was reborn as Restless. During the 1980s, Regis oversaw college promo house One Side Marketing.

Ryko itself was split off in July 2001 from Palm Entertainment, the media enterprise run by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. The combined Ryko-Restless catalog includes work by Frank Zappa, the Replacements, Soul Asylum, They Might Be Giants and others.