Rough Trade

1970's:

In 1976 a man called Geoff Travis opened a shop in West London. He started a record store selling second hand records that he bought over from the USA. He named his shop Rough Trade.

The music genre he specialized in was Punk Rock which was popular at this time; rock music dominated the music business. As there were many West Indians living around West London reggae was popular also. He started to sell reggae records with the help of Austin Palmer which attracted many to Travis' shop.

The ethos for Rough Trade was for new artists to 'Do it themselves'. Travis and punk rockers wanted to revolt against mainstream music. This is what made Rough Trade different to large corporations. They did not want to control the artists and tell them how to make music. They wanted them to be free and creative on their own.

Rough Trade signed many artists such as The Desperate Bicycles which Travis quoted 'were a homemade revolution'. In 1978 Scritti Politti visited the shop of Rough Trade and played a demo for Travis. Travis agreed a £98 recording and still believing in the ethos they made at home the sleeves for the records. Richard Scott joined Rough Trade and helped make the independent distribution nationwide.

By expanding nationwide they found in 78 bands like The Normal and French Punkers which allowed the bands to have many records released. Stiff Little Fingers were a new band that got number 14 in the charts. This allowed Rough Trade to sell around 100,000 copies which was a huge positive for their company.

The business structure in the 1970's changed because of a speech Margaret Thatcher gave about against socialism and the idea of a community. This means that she believed business should care about how much they make. However, Rough Trade did not follow this as they always put their principles before profits.

1980's:

In the 1980's Rough Trade had to spend a lot of money on expensive studio equipment for Scritti Politti because they radically changed into creating a pop song. They believed it was going to be a great hit however, it was not as it came 64 in the charts. It was not the norm for Rough Trade to compete in the music industry so this was new to them. Once Scritti Politti got a top ten hit they left for Virgin records. Some hits were created through Rough Trade from Aztec Camera and Robert Wyatt in 1981 which gave them a turnover which was huge.

However, in 1982 Rough Trade was close to being bust so they had to sell their shop to staff that worked there. Issues occurred between the Record Label and distribution because the distribution were taking more power over the label. This all caused conflict because the distribution company cared more about the money than music.

The structure changed of the company and Geoff's ideology of the company changed because of money being much more important than the music. They opened a new headquarters with qualified professionals working there. It was a whole new way of working for Rough Trade.

Rough Trade did find 'The Smiths' which quoted by Geoff 'the best thing I've heard for ages'. They were perfectly timed even though they were a band that had strange music but commercial at the same time. Indie music was a new craze and Rough Trade decided to spend more money and hired a bit Marketing company called London Records to market 'The Smiths' well. The Smiths became very popular and earned a lot of hit records. However, they wanted and demanded more from Rough Trade. Rough Trade had protection over losing them because of a contract. The Smiths had to give them 1 more album which they did before leaving; the sales rolled in for the last album with Rough Trade.

At the end of the 1980's Indie music was becoming mainstream however, there was a huge rave music expansion. More independent record labels were taking a piece of the dance acts and Rough Trade were to late to take this opportunity.

1990's:

At the beginning of the 1990's, Rough Trade incurred many problems. As they moved to a bigger premises, the decision created a financial crash. Geoff was incompetent therefore Senior Sales people left. The cash flow came to a halt leading two thirds of staff to be axed and any assets of Rough Trade were frozen. Rough Trade record label demanded 40% of the profits, but as the money was frozen it was hard for Rough Trade to co-operate with a fair share in distribution and the record label. Rough Trade had to move to a shop which was not far from their original in West London. Jeanette Lea joined Rough Trade wanting to reinvent them.

They found Jarvis Cocker in PULP which they gave faith in. They believed he was a new level of major success whilst working and learning new skills in a management team of a major record label. Rough Trade were now working with Pop music which was a new thing for them.

Major record labels were branching worldwide into the independent music scene.

21st Century:

Rough Trade has come a long way from all the ups and downs. In 2001 Geoff and Jeanette decided that they wanted to bring Rough Trade back to life signing a band from New Jersey and bring them back to England. Rough Trade used the marketing skills they learned from PULP to promote The Strokes. This new marketing skill has helped them create a winning formula to release more artists. These bands include: The Libertines, Arcade Fire and now are managing Duffy. Duffy awarded Rough Trade with their first number one single. Rough Trade has attracted more artists because of their interesting past and they carry on working towards a good future.

Their working practices are very different to the music produced through programmes such as X Factor because of not holding the artists hands. Geoff believes X Factor patronizes those that have talent because they should not be controlled. Rough Trade simply lets their artists explore their own talent and what they want to record as music.