Rough Trade Records

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Rough Trade
Founded 1978
Founder Geoff Travis, in 1987 Jeanette Lee became an equal partner [1]
Genre Post-punk, Alternative rock
Country of origin United Kingdom
Location London
Official website Official site

Rough Trade Records began as an independent record label, based in London, England.

Contents

[edit] History

Geoff Travis was traveling in North America and amassed a huge record collection as he moved from coast to coast.[1] 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. 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 Music Group until June 11, 2002 when BMG bought out this business. In July of 2007 Sanctuary Records then sold Rough Trade to the Beggars Group making Rough Trade independent once again [2]

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.[3]

[edit] Artists

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[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Keynote Speech Music Industry Uncovered By Jeannette Lee & Don Letts (PDF). pub (Thursday 26 April, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-17. “Jeannette Lee is one of the co-owners of Rough Trade Records, one of the iconic record labels within the British Music Industry and a brief lists of bands that have been involved with this are The Smiths, Scritti Politti, the Libertines, The Strokes, it just goes on and on, but we are going to hear a lot more about that… Ladies and Gentlemen, Don Letts and Jeannette Lee.”
  2. ^ Paul Thompson (Tue: 07-24-07: 11:15 AM CDT). Rough Trade Bought By Beggars Group (HTML). pitchforkmedia. Retrieved on 2007-12-17.
  3. ^ Labels Unlimited is a series of books designed to give an illustrated overview of influential record labels.

    Publications