1970:
- Rough Trade was created by Geoff Travis and started off in 1956, on the 20th February. It was a small small shop in West London.
- At the time, it was Punk rock that was the popular trend for Rough Trade.
- It started off as a small record shop, which wanted to be like a place in San Francisco. It eventually grew into a music distribution company for bands that no one had heard of.
- They used different techniques to expand the independent music scene. They played music of the unknown bands in the shops for people to hear. If they felt that the band had a good sound, they bought a set number of copies to sell to customers. They also mixed things up by introducing reggae music into the store. This attracted a wider range of customers. This was effective due to the are they were in.
- Due to good reception from previous bands by the public, more unknown bands stepped up to be with Rough Trade. This eventually lead to Rough Trade become the best independent music label around.
1980:
- Rough Trade never had contracts for the band to sign. This meant that bands could come ond go as they pleased.
- If the bands became a big hit with the public, this aroused interest form the major music companies. This meant that bands were getting a better offer that they could not turn down. This lead to Rough Trade losing out on money. This may have been to the fact that they were no contracts enforcing their control on things.
- They then had to introduce contracts to insure they could keep the band and make a profit with records sold. There were not many demands on the contract at the time, but enough to insure they could bring in s profit.
- Rough Trades ideology was to never be like the main music industries. Though this changed when they had to bring in contracts. As much as they did not like the idea of this, it was what they had to do to progress for the future.
- Many bands helped lead to the success of Rough Trade. Stiff Little fingers was the first independent album to sell over 100,00 copies post its release. Also with bands such as Scritti Polliti, The desperate Bicycles, Buzzcocks and of course the Smiths, Rough Trade label was put on the map.
- Towards the end of the 80's, the independent music scene became obsessed with the rave scene.
- One factor that helped Rough Trade stand out from the other independent companies was the international widespread of Rough Trade offices.
1990s:
- The main problems that occurred at the start of the 90's, was when Administrators were called in. With the loss of their biggest act at the time, the smiths, Rough Trade were not making money. Many staff had to be axed due to them not being able pay. On June 1st Rough Trade stopped trading.
- Major record labels branched out to the independent labels by offering bands a contract to join. This was because Independent record labels were doing well and had a combined total of 40% of the music being released.
- Geoff Travis teamed up with Jeanette Lee to help bring back the Rough Trade name. They became managers of bands to start off with. It was when Pulp wanted to work with Rough Trade that they decided to bring Rough Trade records back to life. They helped Pulp get 5 top 10 singles when working with them.
- It was not until 2001 when Rough Trade signed new indie rock band from America, The Strokes. This lead to Rough Trade having one of the best new coming bands in the 21st Century. This marked the return of Rough Trade records.
21st Century:
- Rough Trade evolved by bringing in their biggest signing since The Strokes. When Duffy signed onto Rough Trade, she gave them their first number number one single in March, with her song 'Mercy'.
This is an idea of how our name would look if we had it printed onto t-shirts. We would have the font of our logo on the shirt for the real version. A way to progress this piece of advetrisement would be to do different images on the shirts. For example, we could have a band image on the front. Or have indivisual band members on the front.
