Interview with Geoff Travis from Rough Trade

Geoff Travis opened his first Rough Trade store in Notting Hill in February 1976 and has been setting music trends throughout the world ever since. Two years after the store launch, Rough Trade Records (RTR) was established and paved the way for greats such as The Smiths, The Fall and The Libertines. But as the internet rapidly expands with an influx of digital downloads, blogs and networking sites, how will the almighty record label cope?

 

They may become redundant but I think we’ll still need gate keepers to filter out the music because there’s so much online. Even with the internet you’re still going to need money to pay for an advert on a billboard, for a banner on iTunes, for someone to protect the copyright throughout the world. 

Do you think free records are the future? 

The people giving away their records for free are people who have made their money. I think it’s really about driving their live shows merchandising. If Led Zeppelin made a new album they could probably give it away. If The Stones made a new album they probably couldn’t give it away. 

How do you feel about bloggers and the press? 

The thing with the press, especially the NME now, is that it’s so narrow. The editor [Conor McNicholas] said once ‘We would never have someone like that on the cover of our magazine’. That really upset me. He said he’d put Elvis Presley on the cover but not Little Richard. I think Little Richard is every bit as good as Elvis. I mean, who’s on the cover now? The Twang?” But they love The Libertines and The Strokes and that’s great. 

And bloggers? 

Well, you can read David Byrne’s blog and his love of the Arcade Fire, I think that’s very interesting. When we started it was the fanzines that were the vital reads. 

Why did you start Rough Trade? 

We [Travis and his partner Jeanette Lee] were just frustrated that places like W H Smiths weren’t selling feminist magazines or other independent magazines and we wanted a store that would have those things. Whereas, you walk into a record store now and it’s like walking into a Wimpy Bar – it’s so dry. The staff behind the counter don’t care. That’s mainly why I think Rough Trade East is such a success. It’s very overwhelming going into a huge store and not having anyone to help you. 

Do you think major labels will survive? 

Major labels waste so much money. Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong signed for a lot of money, but are they going to be any good? To have a major label you have to know what it’s like to have an independent label. You’ve got to have someone who believes in you, who will stick with you. Mark E. Smith [The Fall] once said to me, ‘It’s not a career’. It’s not intellectual, it’s emotional. We don’t think ‘What’s the next big thing?’ we think ‘Wow that sounds incredible’. You’ve got to be able to know if it’s going to last. Record labels now days seem to ignore that. You can’t hear two songs and know if it’s going to last, you just hear two songs and know that you like it. 

And how do you deal with the bands that are trying to get one over on their record label? 

The Smiths left us for a couple of weeks. They ended up writing a song about me [‘Frankly Mr Shankly’] but they didn’t name any names so I let it pass. I think their beef with Rough Trade was that they thought they should be selling more records and riding around in limousines and helicopters. But once they left they wanted to come back. It’s like being young, when your parents ask you to tidy your room, you think ‘Fuck that,’ but when you get older and move out you think ‘Oh, perhaps it wouldn’t have been that bad to just tidy my room.’