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How Peter Andre managed to secretly secure the success of Muse and Garbage

Peter Andre may be best known for his viral hit Mysterious Girl and the follow-up songs, which came after the track that became so popular, he released it twice

[Peter Andre's success actually helped huge rock acts]

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Peter Andre's success actually helped huge rock acts(Image: Getty Images)

While Peter Andre is best known for a few of his catchy tunes, not many people are aware of how he spurred Muse on. Cast your minds back to 1995, and the Harrow-born musician landed his first UK Number 2 single with Mysterious Girl featuring Bubbler Ranx.

Prior to this, Andre had released six tracks, none of which cracked the Top 50, but Mysterious Girl instantly gripped the nation and was certified Platinum. With his ripped physique taking centre stage in the music video, it's fair to say that the track was everywhere.

And for record label bosses, they seemed to be lapping it up. Korda Marshall, who was previously Head of A&R at Sony RCA, had launched his own label and was relishing the success of late-Nineties music.

[Peter achieved commercial success in 1995 with Mysterious Girl]

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Peter achieved commercial success in 1995 with Mysterious Girl(Image: Hulton Archive)

[Andre's success helped push Muse ]

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Andre's success helped push Muse (Image: Getty Images)

"We had a big pop act, who everybody really laughed at," he said. He added: "Peter Andre so we had Mysterious Girl, which was the biggest record of the year." And for Korda, he revealed that his label had three huge hits that year, all of which included the word 'Girl'.

These were Mysterious Girl, Girl from Mars, released by Ash and Stupid Girl, performed by Garbage. But Korda later revealed that the money made from Peter's string of hits went towards launching the likes of Ash, Garbage and Muse.

Speaking on the Uprawr Podcast, Korda explained: "Mushroom Records exploded at that point, and basically with all the money that Peter Andre made from his four number ones and his massive album, and we spent it on Ash, Garbage, Muse, Zero 7, Paul Oakenfold, Cable, Seafood, you know, we just we spent all the success that Peter Andre had on growing the company."

[Korda Marshall was the mastermind behind some of the biggest tracks of the late Nineties ]

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Korda Marshall was the mastermind behind some of the biggest tracks of the late Nineties (Image: UPRAWR Podcast/YouTube)

He went on to add: " And that worked, because all those all a lot of those artists went on to become massive, so the company, Mushroom, exponentially grew to the point where the people in Australia who owned it realised they could sell it for an awful lot of money to News International through Rupert Murdoch, so James Murdoch became my boss."

Muse met in the early Ninties, after guitarist Matt Bellamy auditioned for Dominic Howard's band, Carnage Mayhem, before they renamed to Gothic Plague. Along came Chris Wolstenholme, before they once again rebranded to Rocket Baby Dolls and received a 150 grant from The Price's Trust for equipment.

Their first single, Uno, released in 1999, charted at number 73 on the Official Charts Company, and it wasn't until 2003 that they scored their first Top 10, with Time Is Running Out, peaking at Number 8 and achieving Platinum status. At the time, to most, Mushroom remained independent, but it was owned by James Murdoch, whose shares in News Corp were estimated at around $ 2.2 billion, according to Korda.

This, he says, gave them freedom as execs at News International spent their time focusing on Sky, Hollywood films and newspapers. The money, he says, was "obscene" as there were no lawyers or accountants steering their decisions. One memory, he recalls, is James Murdoch saying Muse's third record, Absolution, released in 2003, was "great", despite the band being "two million quid in the hole".

"Most sane owner of a record label would say, 'No, don't do that,' and James is like, 'Yeah, but they're great, aren't they? It's only money, let's pick it up'," Korda said. He explained that "most normal record labels" wouldn't have picked them up, meaning the band would have signed elsewhere.

However, Absolution became Muse's first Number 1 album and was certified three times platinum. This was just the start of their success; their next seven albums also topped the charts.

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