Madison Avenue

In 1990 dance music enthusiast Andy Van and a pair of DJ friends, John Course and Colin Daniels started their own hobby record label, Vicious Vinyl. It was the time of anonymous club breakthroughs like 'Pump Up The Jam', and artists like S-Express and Bomb The Bass. The friends were excited by the trend in DJ/producers becoming recording artists. They secured distribution and poured their DJ wages into a recording operation in a garage in the outer Melbourne suburb of Frankston. For seven years they pumped out the releases without making any money. But the Vicious Vinyl label was earning a lot of respect in the ever burgeoning dance scene. Then one of their tracks, 'Coma' by Pendulum, became a mainstream hit and earned an ARIA award. The success and respect continued with 'Gotta Have Hope' by Blackout and 'White Treble Black Bass' from Sgt Slick.

Madison Avenue was always going to be Vicious Vinyl's assault on the rest of the globe. It just didn't turn out quite the way it was originally intended. Singer Cheyne Coates forced her way into the picture. Before Madison Avenue Cheyne's career was as a Melbourne-based singer and choreographer, performing at other people's album launches and fashion parades.

The plan for Madison Avenue was to form a C and C Music Factory/Soul II Soul style group, producers with a lead singer. The first single, 'Don't Call Me Baby' was intended for another singer, but Andy Van fell in love with Cheyne's guide vocals on the song, and decided to go with that version instead. The track went crazy on the dance floor and ended up Australia's No.1 pop hit over Christmas '99, the first Australian-made number one in nearly three years, the first Australian-made dance number one EVER. Five months later 'Don't Call Me Baby' was No.1 on the UK pop chart, and the track went on to top the US dance charts. Cheyne Coates had become Madison Avenue's voice and image.

In June 2000 they followed up with a similarly attituded 'Who The Hell Are You', another Australian national No.1 hit, also another US Dance chart No.1. In March 2001 Madison Avenue took out the most coveted prize at the annual International Dance Awards held in Miami, Florida. They won the Best Dance Artist award over Destiny's Child, Madonna, N-Sync and Britney Spears. At the same time, Madison Avenue revealed their plan to take a break at the end of 2001 to pursue individual projects.

They came back together for a performance and in the studio during 2003, but nothing materialized. By late 2003 the pair confirmed they would not work together again. Andy Van went on to create Vandalism.