film is sadly no longer with us, it’s serious vindication for the faith he and business partner Jeanette Lee (formerly of John Lydon’s Public Image Limited) have put into the Rough Trade ideal. ‘It’s kind of a miracle we’re here,’ Travis reflects. ‘It’s been a very bumpy road. I was a kid growing up in the 60s during a time of real musical revolution. Rough Trade were a collective, and it was a really exciting time in London, when, through punk, there came this DIY approach and the idea that you didn’t need a corporation to make things happen, and we found ourselves in the middle of this big explosion.’
‘Geoff always had good ears,’ says music writer, chair of the Mercury Music Prize and Edinburgh University lecturer Simon Frith, who presented the South Bank Show film. ‘The shop became a focal point for a lot of things, and he cut 50/50 deals with artists, which gave access to people who might not necessarily know where they were going. But Geoff gets on with musicians, which means he’s always had the respect of the industry.’ An early high point was C-81, a cassette distributed free with the NME (after you collected six tokens, then waited 28 days for delivery), which took stock of Rough Trade’s roster, from the Ornette Coleman-inspired ‘harmelodic’ guitar of James ‘Blood’ Ulmer and the avant-fits of Pere Ubu, to the lover’s rock of Scritti Politti’s ‘The ‘Sweetest’ Girl,’ the label’s poppiest moment to date. After the label became distributor for the Glasgow-based Postcard Records, East Kilbride troubadour Roddy Frame’s Aztec Camera album, High Land, Hard Rain was similarly bright. This was nothing, though, to what happened when Rough Trade signed The Smiths, when the glory of huge crossover success turned out to be a poisoned chalice.
‘There were very dark days in the late 80s,’ Travis admits now. ‘We grew way too big, and when the distribution arm went bankrupt we lost the Smiths entire catalogue. But sometimes that can be healthy. You burn your house to the ground, go and live in a tent, then remind yourself why you do what you do. I’m kind of odd, because I live day to day, and all I really do is encourage the people who do interesting things, and act as a conduit.’
Jarvis Cocker is one such fruit of this approach. During the 1990s, with Travis divorced from Rough Trade entirely, he managed Pulp through the band’s commercial glory days and beyond. A revitalised Rough Trade also released Cocker’s debut solo album, Jarvis in 2006. By this time, supported by Sanctuary Records, the relaunched label was riding the crest of a typically eclectic musical wave, releasing records by Sufjan
ROUGH TRADE RECORDS
Stevens, British Sea Power, Belle and Sebastian, Eddi Reader, Antony and the Johnsons and The Libertines all in the thick of things. In 2007, they severed their ties with Sanctuary, and, under the auspices of the Beggars Group are themselves fully independent once again. While Mercury Music Prizes and the plethora of cottage industry labels that have sprung up in their wake show that the world has caught up with Rough Trade, but as a barometer of changing times, they’re still a prime example of the alternative’s alternative.
‘Geoff’s always stayed true to his original vision,’ says Frith, ‘which is that you could put something out that was interesting for its own sake, but which you could sell well. That DIY culture is the essence of the British music industry. In times like these, a DIY scene doesn’t so much emerge as all the other stuff on top disappears.’ The major economic recession about to bite recalls the winters of discontent of the late 1970s when Rough Trade rose. The label itself is booming, though; a new ninety minute TV documentary on Rough Trade, featuring archive clips from the South Bank Show film, is currently being produced by the BBC.
‘We’re still trying to be the best,’ says Travis. ‘ It sounds like a cliché, but we want to be more successful. You don’t get better than The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys, who were hugely successful, but most importantly made great music. That’s where Rough Trade is always aiming. It’s a good time to be independent, but we’re not complete yet.’
Looking Rough At 30, with Jarvis Cocker and Jeffrey Lewis, The Picture House, Edinburgh, Fri 28 Nov.
Clockwise from facing page: The Smiths, The Libertines, Belle and Sebastian, Jarvis Cocker, The Strokes, Geoff Travis
The Strokes ‘The Modern Age’ A blast of laconic cool from back when Julian Casablancas was vital and dangerous.
Belle & Sebastian ‘Piazza, New York Catcher’ Stuart Murdoch’s skilled wordsmithery is perfectly captured in this understated gem. Arcade Fire ‘Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)’ The beautiful bluster that opened arguably one of the best albums of the last ten years, Funeral.
The Libertines ‘Waster’ The song that started it all, a molotov of rambunctious, messy wit and energy.
British Sea Power ‘Remember Me’ A tense, fragile blast of eccentric indie rock fresh air blasted from the pebbles of Brighton beach. Antony and the Johnsons ‘You are My Sister’ Could have picked pretty much anything from I am a Bird Now, it’s that compelling.
The Hold Steady ‘Sequestered in Memphis’ Big, fat, teary indie boy anthems return to RT with America’s most poetic punks.
27 Nov–11 Dec 2008 THE LIST 15