ROUGH TRADE AT 50

THE UK'S FOREMOST INDIE LABEL CELEBRATES A HALF CENTURY AT THE SOUTH BANK CENTRE

2026 is punk’s golden jubilee, as UK music fans are repeatedly informed, but beyond overpriced vinyl editions of certain 45s and LPs from 1976 + the three musicians in the Sex Pistols (with their new singer) playing lucrative gigs, there’s little underway to mark half a century since a handful of London urchins, alongside a few astute figures on the fringes of the music industry, managed to launch a rock insurrection.

This July 17-19 weekend does see a 50th celebration of an institution connected to punk’s origins, yet one which grew far beyond it - while retaining the core values of independence and integrity that marked the best of punk - with London’s Southbank Centre celebrating half a century of Rough Trade, the label which has served all manner of “alternative” rock in the way Blue Note does jazz.

Rough Trade began as an independent record shop, opening in Ladbroke Grove in the summer of ‘76. Its founder was Geoff Travis, a 24 year old music fan who, wanting to work in the music industry but unsure exactly where, determined to open a record shop, which he initially stocked with LPs from his record collection (travels in the US ensured he bought many fine LPs at bargain prices). He lifted his shop’s name from a Canadian rock band whose lead singer was Dusty Springfield’s girlfriend, thinking it fitted what he hoped his record shop would sell.

Young Geoff in Rough Trade’s first shop - the Ladbroke Grove emporium is still trading.

Good timing and astute business sense (and enthusiasm) saw Rough Trade quickly establish itself as the UK’s first and foremost punk rock shop - stocking new releases from the UK alongside ensuring releases from the US, Australia (Travis imported The Saints’ debut 45), France and elsewhere were available. Plus he loved reggae - Ladbroke Grove was then a West Indian hub - so ensured RT stocked plenty of Jamaican new releases. Alongside lots of other non-mainstream rock/jazz/folk albums: Travis always had eclectic taste and continues to do so to this day.

Geoff launched the Rough Trade record label in early 1978, initially as French band Metal Urbain asked him if he would issue two songs they had recorded on 45. He did so, liking the idea of releasing music he believed in, the label quickly taking off when he released Suspect Device by Belfast punk band Stiff Little Fingers - DJ John Peel championed the abrasive banger on his BBC Radio 1 show and it sold over 30,000 copies: an indie hit! The band’s debut album Inflammable Material entered the UK Top 20, sold over 100,000 copies and Rough Trade was suddenly a contender.

The first RT 45 I purchased is this banger. All these years on I still own it!

Where a more conventional record label magnate would have signed lots of soundalike punk bands, Travis directed Rough Trade towards more interesting waters - Young Marble Giants, Swell Maps and The Raincoats, bands born out of punk’s flux but determined to find their own way, while securing a UK release for US avant jazz guitarist James Blood Ulmer’s 1980 album Are You Glad To Be In America?

By the early 80s Rough Trade was the foremost UK indie label for what was then labelled “post-punk” music. It also developed into a distributor for smaller indie labels (so ensuring 45s by often unknown artists could be placed with record shops across Britain). Inevitably, the demands of running a hectic label led Travis to passing on the ownership of Rough Trade’s record shop to their staff - the RT record shops are now a chain with branches across England, in NYC and elsewhere.

Note: I interviewed Travis about his time running a record shop for my 2018 book Going For A Song: A Chronicle of the UK Record Shop - well worth seeking out if you are interested in the challenges and achievements of independent traders in the era (1890s - 2000s) when you had to buy your music in a physical format.

In May 1983 Travis signed Manchester band The Smiths to Rough Trade and, within a year, they would be the biggest indie band in the UK: their second album, 1985’s Meat Is Murder, topped the UK album charts. Their success made RT a bigger label and Travis signed many interesting artists - notably Lucinda Williams when no US label would touch her, releasing her eponymous album in 1989 so gifting the Texan an international audience.

Not that things were plain sailing: Travis ran Rough Trade as a workers’ cooperative and this, along with none of the new signings matching the now disbanded Smiths’ sales and the distribution network taking on debt, dragged Rough Trade into bankruptcy in the early ‘90s.

Everyone who has worked with Travis speaks of him with respect and affection (except creepy Morrissey), he being regarded as one of the few record men in the rock music industry who are there primarily for the music, rather than the money/drugs etc (Geoff remains a massive music fan).

After RT collapsed Travis picked himself up and went to work for other labels. His effectiveness there saw him resurrecting Rough Trade in 2000 with financing from, initially, Sanctuary Records, then Beggars Group (now the UK’s foremost independent group of labels - Adele and The Prodigy helping Beggars compete with the majors).

Here he and his business partner Jeannette Lee (who teamed up with Geoff to run RT in the early 80s after fleeing Public Image Ltd) have scored with The Strokes, Anohni and the Johnsons, The Libertines, Goat Girl, Lankum, Amyl and the Sniffers, Black Midi and Sleaford Mods, alongside being home to Pulp’s very successful second coming (Lee has managed Pulp since their Britpop heyday). Travis and Lee are music biz lifers – they’re in it to champion artists they believe in (I sometimes see them at gigs in crappy pubs, checking out bands).

RT lost its catalogue when it went bankrupt so there are no deluxe editions of Meat Is Murder and Inflammable Material forthcoming to mark the anniversary. No matter, Travis/Lee are not nostalgists and the three day celebration of RT at London’s South Bank Centre is a way of acknowledging the label’s continuing relevance.

For RT is an exemplary label, demonstrating how to champion new music without relying on hype/expensive promo, never fleecing its customers (by trying to entice them to buy overpriced “special” editions/box sets etc), often issuing wonderful 45s in small pressings, always demonstrating an enthusiasm for new, often seemingly uncommercial music.

The weekend features concerts by Pulp, Scritti Politti and Caroline, alongside Jarvis Cocker hosting a screening of Ken Loach’s Kes with a live soundtrack, Rough Trade Books hosting events featuring their authors etc.

I was fortunate enough to be gifted a ticket for Pulp’s concert at the Royal Festival Hall. Opening performer was SOAK, a young Northern Irish singer songwriter (yes, a Rough Trade artist), who gracefully did the unenviable task of playing to an audience only there for the headliner. And the headliner? I’ll write up Pulp’s performance on a later Yak, only noting here that the core quartet had a 12-piece string section, 4 additional musicians and 2 backing singers on stage so, as you can imagine, they sounded fulsome. And Jarvis thanked Rough Trade for all their support then got the audience to sing happy birthday to RT!

Long may Rough Trade thrive - I admire Travis for never losing his hunger to sign new talent, go forward and inspire others. And for treating his staff, artists and customers with kindness and respect. Thank you for the music, Geoff.

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THE YAK’S TOP 5 ROUGH TRADE RECORDS

1. STIFF LITTLE FINGERS - ALTERNATIVE ULSTER (45 1978)

   An anthem for then (and for now) from the streets of Belfast as the Troubles raged, this is one of the great punk 45s and one of Irish rock’s high points.

2. LUCINDA WILLIAMS - LUCINDA WILLIAMS (LP 1989)

   Prior to this album, Williams had released two LPs on Folkways where she largely sang old blues tunes. While they were politely received no US label showed any interest in an album of her original songs. Travis got to hear her tape and realised Lucinda’s songs were gold - once the world got to hear this album they agreed (being on RT, while not a label associated with US country/roots, it attracted a lot of media coverage and launched her career). To my mind this remains Lu’s best album.

3. THE SMITHS - HOW SOON IS NOW (12 INCH 45 1985)

   I wasn’t convinced by The Smiths when they first broke through - solid enough indie band, nice guitar work, but the singer sang flat and took himself very seriously indeed. Then I heard this tune and was staggered at how good it was. Johnny Marr creates a shimmering riff that builds and builds, the rhythm section throb, while Morrissey delivers surely his finest vocal. I owned this 12 but it went walkabout at some point - frustrating as NZ pressings are now very collectable.

4. SWELL MAPS - A TRIP TO MARINEVILLE (LP 1979)

   Swell Maps were offbeat, inventive, funny, odd and very engaging. This album being very popular when I was a teen in Auckland, the Maps’ minimalist lo-fi punk(ish) rock inspiring many. Midget Submarine is a particular favourite,

5. LANKUM - BETWEEN THE EARTH AND SKY (LP 2017)

   Dublin’s Lankum brought together two punk rock brothers with two musicians versed in Irish trad’, together they created a psych folk that’s heavy and hypnotic, Between The Earth And Sky being their definite statement. Lankum’s success inspired a back-to-the-roots movement in young Irish music making.

   

   The wonderful Radie Peat of Lankum.