The World's Best Labels and Studios

In Part One we explained how former Public Image Ltd member Jeanette Lee joined the Rough Trade effort in 1987.  Jeanette had also been an employee at renowned punk clothing retailer Acme Attractions.

Jeanette Lee

Jeanette brought her own brand of marketing innovation to the record label and the late 1980s saw an influx of guitar driven bands which, in the era of Britpop, appeared the way forward. Unfortunately this was also the very point at which a number of bad decisions and an adverse credit climate caught up with the label.  The company’s unwise move to a Finsbury Park premises in 1991 appeared to be the catalyst for the decline of Rough Trade.  The parent company Rough Trade International went into liquidation and everything connected to Rough Trade was sold off in an effort to pay creditors.  For the next ten years the story of Rough Trade was over.

In 2001, Travis and Lee, partnering with Sanctuary Records, reacquired the Rough Trade name and, testing the water in several small ways, decided that it was the right time to step back into the business.

The decision proved to be the correct one and one of the first releases on the reformed label was The Strokes The Modern Age.  The signing of The Strokes proved a masterstroke and the band became the most successful Rough Trade signing since The Smiths.

The 2000s proved to be a vintage decade for Rough Trade as a number of influential, innovative artists were signed.  The Libertines, British Sea Power, Arcade Fire and Belle and Sebastian were all added to the roster, meaning that Rough Trade managed that most difficult of tasks for any record label – being relevant, credible and successful at the same time.

Rough Trade and Sanctuary Records parted company in 2007 with Sanctuary’s share being sold to the Beggars Group.  Although Sanctuary’s influence was a loss, the deal with Beggars Group allowed Rough Trade a more robust presence in the U.S.  This is one independent British label that it would be sad to lose again.

Rough Trade is one of those enterprises that seems to have happened almost by accident.  Now a well established label with a history of more than 30 years activity behind it (with a few bumps and gaps), it has even been the subject of a BBC documentary titled Do It Yourself: The Story of Rough Trade.

The first Notting Hill shop

In 1978, Londoner Geoff Travis was criss-crossing the United States, buying up prodigious amounts of vinyl and shipping them back to the U.K.  These acquisitions headed straight for the record shop that Travis had opened in West London in 1976.  The shop was (as described by the official website) was “….trailblazing, farsighted, welcoming, radical – even revolutionary”. They didn’t just sell records, they sold all the paraphernalia associated with bands and the record industry and were in the right place at the right time to witness the emergence of various genres such as punk and reggae.

The Rough Trade shop soon became a venue for local bands to sell and distribute their wares and the next logical step for Travis was to set up as a fully fledged record label.  As with the early days of Virgin Records, this seems to have been a period when talented bands just turned up on your doorstep – Rough Trade soon had on its roster bands such as Scritti Politti, Stiff Little Fingers and The Raincoats.  The South Bank Show, an influential arts programme in the U.K, even featured the label in 1979.  In that year also Stiff little Fingers produced Inflammable Material, the first independent album to sell more than 100,000 copies.

By 1980, the venture desperately needed new premises and the record label was relocated to Blenheim Cresent.  In 1982, Rough Trade Records became an independent entity, splitting from the record shop.  It was in the early 1980s that The Smiths signed onto the label – possibly the biggest band ever to feature on the roster.  For several years they took the independent music scene by storm, adding to Rough Trades success.  Another addition to the behind-the-scenes effort was former Public Image Ltd member Jeanette Lee who would go on to become a partner.

Next – Downfall and Rebirth