Founded around October 1979 by Paul Gardiner (Rolling Stone Australia editor / owner) and British born Andrew Penhallow (GAP = G ardiner A nd P enhallow), licensing a.o. Factory and Rough Trade (UK) releases for Australia.
GAP itself is attached to EMI Australia Ltd., doing the manufacturing and distribution, and the first records are released in February 1981.
The GAP catalogue system for singles is based on a compromise between GAP and EMI: GAP could define the prefix and EMI allocated their generic number.
The prefixes stand for:
SBR = Single Broken
SFA = Single Factory
SKA = Single Kamera
SMU = Single Mute
SOV = Single Oval
SPG = Single Primate / GAP
SRT = Single Rough Trade.
In 1981, GAP started operations for Rough Trade (RTGAP) in New Zealand.
In 1982, distribution in Australia switches to CBS Records Australia Ltd. However, distribution in New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia remains with EMI.
In 1983, GAP started operations for Factory in New Zealand, taking over from RTC.
In July 1985, GAP Australia and New Zealand are merged into Factory Records Australasia, headed by Andrew Penhallow only.