Do it Yourself: The Story of Rough Trade

If I was in a band and had any semblance of musical talent, then I’d be angling for a record deal at Rough Trade like no-one’s business. The heritage of this label alone is pretty staggering, join its roster and you’ll be sitting pretty alongside the likes of The Smiths, Belle & Sebastian, The Strokes, The Libertines and Arcade Fire. Even today it plays host to the less illustrious, still notable Mystery Jets, 1990s and Jarvis Cocker. So imagine how excited the uber-geek in me became upon learning BBC Four was to broadcast a documentary on the Rough Trade story from its origins to the present. If you want a clue, the answer begins with ‘doo’ and ends with ‘lally’.

However, despite having struck a vein of good form in this programming arena recently, given the lavish treatment accorded to the ‘Seven Ages Of Rock’ and ‘Blondie: One Way Or Another’ programmes, ‘Do it Yourself: The Story of Rough Trade’ turned out to be a crushingly dry. Clocking in at one and a half hours and concentrating heavily on the early days leading up to bankruptcy, before skipping through the wilderness years at a breakneck pace that was not abated for the story of their twenty-first century incarnation, I certainly wouldn't describe the show as easy viewing.

Nevertheless, if contributions from a myriad of figures associated with the label from Johnny Marr to Albert Hammond Junior still floats your boat, you can check out the documentary on the Beeb’s own iPlayer here. For those of you with better ways to spend your time, I’ve made a blaggers top ten of facts from the Rough trade story that can’t be found on wikipedia.

1. Rough Trade’s original incarnation came as an independent record store founded in 1978 on Portobello road in West London. It quickly became the HQ for the DIY punk ethic, providing the distribution for Buzzcocks’ influential ‘Spiral Scratch’ EP.

2. This aspect of the business rapidly expanded nationwide with Head of Distribution Richard Scott offering the chance for labels such as Mute, Postcard, Factory and Beggars Banquet the opportunity to sell their artists up and down the country.

3. On the back of this success the Rough Trade record label was founded. Each contract between band and label had only two clauses. Profits would be split 50/50 and either party could opt out at any point.

4. Belfast punk-rockers Stiff Little Fingers became the first big signing to Rough Trade, their debut album ‘Inflammable Material’ sold over 100,000 copies and was the first independent album to chart in the UK.

5. By the end of the 1970s over 800 independent record labels were in operation in the UK compared to the meagre 12 when Rough Trade was originally founded. Despite such success though, in 1982 monetary troubles forced an annexation between label and shop.

6. Johnny Marr initiated the signing of The Smiths to Rough Trade by hanging around in the label offices until founder Geoff Travis appeared. Upon seeing Travis, Marr thrusted his band’s demo cassette into the svengali’s hands stating, “I’m from Manchester, this is my band The Smiths. You won’t have heard anything like this before”. Such initial enthusiasm did not stop The Smiths attempting to sign to EMI in the midst of recordings for their landmark album ‘The Queen Is Dead’.

7. By March 1991 the label found itself in dire financial turmoil leading to the axing of two-thirds of its staff, the freezing of its assets and eventual administration. At this point in time the distribution arm of Rough Trade represented 90% of the company’s total turnover.

8. Throughout the 1990s Travis acted alongside Jeanette Lee, of Public Image Ltd. fame, providing a management team for artists. Their most notable success came with the release of ‘Common People’ by Pulp which shot to no.2 in the UK singles chart.

9. Eventually in 2001, this team went on to revive the Rough Trade name with their first signing to the re-established label being The Strokes. A band who they travelled all the way to New York to see play a dead end bar before bringing them back to the UK.

10. However, Travis and Lee consider their greatest success to this day to be Duffy, who is signed to the label's artist management branch, bringing the label their first no.1 single with ‘Mercy’. As of today though, the single to have charted highest on the Rough Trade coplete with the RT badge remains ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ by The Libertines which hit no.2 on Sunday 15th August 2004.


Rough Trade's label website can be found here.
You can shop online with Rough Trade Shops here.