Rough Trade

Rough Trade formed in 1978, the label grew from the record shop that Geoff Travis owned in West London in February 1976. The shop was revolutionary, it was brimming over with wonderful things: seven-inch picture sleeves whose market was about to exponentially explode, reggae LPs, punk fanzines, badges. By 1978, it had a distribution system and was taking and selling records from bands benefiting from an emerging DIY culture. It was logical that they should start a record label. Paris Maquis a french punk band was the first Rough Trade release and was followed that year by a further eleven singles. By the end of 1979, a number of bands now commonly associated with Rough Trade had started to release records on the label, including Scritti Politti and The Raincoats. The signing of The Smiths in 1983 drew Rough Trade into new territory. A stifled independent music scene was gradually giving way to what would go on to be recognised as ‘indie’ and The Smiths, although not entirely foursquare with the genre, found themselves at the forefront of the emerging scene. The intensity with which the media embraced them, and the ensuing parallel success of their records meant that the label had to learn how to promote a band in a way it had never had to do before. The outcome was an unprecedented run of sixteen chart singles beginning with ‘This Charming Man’ in 1984 and culminating in ‘Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me’ in 1987. All four studio albums reached the top two.