Rough Trade Records is an
independent record label,
based in London
, England
. It
was started in 1978 by
Geoff
Travis.
History
Geoff Travis was traveling in North
America and amassed a huge record collection as he moved from coast
to coast. He then shipped these records back to the UK which became
the basis of the
Rough Trade Shop.
The label grew out of the Rough Trade Shop, founded by Travis in
West London in 1976. The Label was set
up in 1978 and also went into the distribution business.
Distributing amongst others "
Joey
Parratt's" first band
The Flying
Brix. It became independent from the shop in 1982, then went
bankrupt in 1991, ruining quite a few smaller record labels to
which money was owed. Rough Trade was relaunched in 2000.
Rough Trade specialised primarily in
European
post-punk and other
alternative rock of the late 1970s and
early 1980s. In the late 1980s Rough Trade branched out by issuing
an eponymous album by
Lucinda
Williams. Other early signings included
Agitpop,
The Raincoats,
Young Marble Giants,
The Smiths and
Scritti
Politti (the latter re-signed to the label in the mid 2000s).
Geoff Travis later launched
Blanco y Negro Records in partnership
with
Warner Bros. Records.
Rough Trade was an independently owned entity — a partnership
between Mr. Travis,
Jeanette
Lee, (a former member of
PiL), and minority
partners,
Sanctuary Records, as a
part of the
Zomba Group
until
June 11,
2002 when
BMG bought out this business. In July 2007
Sanctuary Records then sold Rough Trade to the
Beggars Group making Rough Trade independent
once again
Since its re-birth, Rough Trade has released albums by
high-charting artists such as
The
Strokes,
The Libertines,
Babyshambles, and
Belle & Sebastian. A 192-page
illustrated history of Rough Trade, written by
Rob Young of
The
Wire, was published in September 2006 by the UK-based company
Black Dog Publishing.
Artists
See also
References
External links
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