Petrol charged Polo team on verge of World Cup

Globe trotting entrepreneur, CM (Chris) Murphy’s latest project, Petrol Records is being married with polo in a renaissance of the Sport of Kings.

The Australian team of young guns, the Petrol Polo team will breathe new life into the game of polo when they play in New Zealand against the international heavyweights of South Africa, India, Pakistan and New Zealand. The winner of these Zone D play offs will achieve the sought after place in the World Cup finals to be held in Mexico in November, 2007.

Stepping in as major sponsor just weeks before these playoffs, Murphy hopes to end the six year drought Australia has suffered in polo.

In 2001 Australia was just one goal away from winning the World Cup, when they were pipped at the post by Brazil. In 2004, Australia was successful in gaining a place into the best eight teams in the world in the World Cup finals in France.

Now in 2007, Murphy is confident the Petrol Polo team is on a truly winning streak. His generous financial backing of the team is just part of the grand plan to make polo a game for everyone, and to support young Australian hopefuls on the sporting field to achieve international triumph.

Murphy says, “Polo is where surfing was ten years ago. It’s set to become main stream. Polo is a game for the people. The guys in the team are not sporting Rolex watches and Armani Suits. Andrew Williams, for example is from a drought ravaged farm. He’s found polo to be a great diversion. It’s taken his mind off the drought and onto aiming for a world wide sporting achievement.”

Murphy has applied his philosophy on music to polo. His company Petrol Records has achieved extraordinary global success on legitimate digital services, and ranks as one of the world’s most successful independent labels at iTunes, amassing more than 180 #1s, more than 700 Top 10 positions, and more than 1,600 Top 100s. He aims to mirror this success with the Petrol Polo team.

Murphy says, “Australia is ready to take on the world at the finals this year. For too long this sport has been dominated by Argentina, the UK and the US. Australian soccer is on the map. Australian polo is next.”

Media contact: Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan 02 9977 1011/040409 5326

About Chris Murphy __Chris Murphy is a musical maverick and an innovator. He has been called one of the top music agents in the world. But, more than that, he is a man who has devoted his life to bringing hot grooves and sweet, sexy sounds to music lovers around the world. __As a cocky confident 20-year old, the international entrepreneur worked with AC/DC, Cold Chisel and the Angels as a budding agent. As the success of his own agency Solo was peaking, he amalgamated it with Premiere, which went on to become the most powerful agency ever in Australia. __In 1979, he discovered INXS, and led them to sales of more than 30 million albums; INXS received international acclaim and are still a brand that exists today. __On the international music scene, Murphy has carved out a reputation as a man who is passionate about music. First he did it with his music publishing company, MMA Music Publishing building a catalogue of more than a quarter of a million titles between 1982 and 1992. Murphy established offices in Los Angeles, London, New York and Sydney. MMA Music was the first independent music publisher to open an office in Hong Kong, implementing the transition of full copyright protection throughout the region. __Murphy was honoured as Australian Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998. That same year, Murphy founded rooArt Records and continued to sign international class acts. __In 1995, Murphy envisaged a massive change in the industry, which we now know as the digital arena. Again Murphy was not content, he wanted more of a challenge, Murphy resigned from his position as INXS’ worldwide manager to buy international high-end fashion magazine, Australian Style and then rundown radio station, 2SM. __The iconic Australian radio station during Murphy’s childhood was soon back to its former glory and used as the platform to launch his digital broadcasting and music division. During this period he sold MMA Music to multi-national company Polygram Music Publishing. Murphy saw a new era approaching, in 2001 he created his own music journey, further cementing his global reputation as a man with vision, passion and unrelenting tenacity. Murphy created, developed and launched a brand globally with the mandate ‘dedicated to bringing you seriously good music’.

Petrol Records has had great success and has received critical acclaim for the label’s diverse, culturally-astute music series and genre and region-specific titles aimed at globetrotting tastemakers, jet-setters and lovers of authentic music from around the world. Prior to partnering with EMI Music (2006), the Petrol catalogue was distributed via various partners in physical formats to traditional retailers such as Virgin Megastore, and directly to non-traditional channels such as the iTunes Music Stores in the digital