Hearing the earliest Rough Trade singles and EP's is a window into the world of Kensington Park Road circa 1978-79. The sounds of reggae and the spirit of punk were in the air. These were also the early years of industrial music and what would soon be labeled post punk.
DIY discoveries arrived from far-flung cities: Kingston, Paris, Zurich, New York, Belfast, and Cleveland. Kindred spirits in London, Sheffield, Manchester, and Leamington Spa found their way to the Rough Trade shop. Members of The Raincoats and Swell Maps became coworkers as Rough Trade grew.
Here are two sets of songs from the beginning of the label. The singles and EP's are presented in catalog order, starting with RT 001. This is not the same as the chronological order of release, but close enough to paint the picture.
Vol. 1 (RT 001-011) includes Metal Urbain, Rockers All Stars, Cabaret Voltaire, Stiff Little Fingers, The Monochrome Set, Subway Sect, The Electric Eels, Kleenex, Swell Maps, and File Under Pop.
ReplyDeleteVOL.1 LINK: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZRxnokZ49H1nab1ImfPpF2OQRuK57JlNSqV
Vol. 2 (RT 012-022) includes more Swell Maps, SLF, Kleenex, Metal Boys, and Monochrome Set; plus The Raincoats, The Cult Figures, The Last Words, and Doctor Mix And The Remix.
VOL.2 LINK: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZDxnokZg3h22gIToJH4ExzB7xf6SugpmucV
RT 002 was a co-release (in association with the Rockers label from Jamaica), and the b-side is a youtube rip. Everything else is in as high a bitrate as I could find.
Thanks to dieordiy2.blogspot.com (for The Cult Figures), pukekos.org (for File Under Pop), and disorderareyouexperienced.blogspot.com (too many to name).
yay! this is going to be fab! ta
ReplyDeleteWow wow wow wow wow!!! I had hoped for this, but didn't expect you'd go thru with it. Kudos on the undertaking!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the encouragement! I've got about ten more sets ready to go, and I'm just past RT 100. Nearly everything Rough Trade released back then was brilliant, and remains influential today.
DeleteA Good Idea, A Big Project & finally a great entertainment...
DeleteI have been raiding your archives, Mythkoz! Your blog is a treasure.
DeleteThanks! These look great.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for these - & if I remember correctly it was a big arch window as well :)
ReplyDeleteYour memory serves you well! A big arch window, with a sign hung from a wagon wheel that said RECORDS. I wish I could have seen it in person.
DeleteGreat stuff Jonder, cheers!
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Thanks. I had the pleasure to frequent the San Francisco ROUGH TRADE Record Store before it folded, and got an autographed copy of Lucinda Williams ROUGH TRADE LP there for a mere $10! - Stinky
ReplyDeleteWoW, what a mammoth undertaking. Total respect for all the time taken to achieve this. I wonder if it's possible to recreate this with Small Wonder Records...
ReplyDeleteI'm not doing the vinyl rips myself (total respect for those who do!) and I haven't decided yet where to stop. I'm thinking right around the early Smiths' singles, just out of spite.
DeleteIt was easy, it was fast, go and do it AJ -- you've got a great idea there with Small Wonder! The Carpettes, Crass, Cravats, Patrik Fitzgerald, Punilux... "Mucky Pup", "Flares & Slippers" "Killing An Arab", and "Bela Lugosi's Dead"! "When Lightning hits Small Wonder, it's Fast Rough Factory Trade!"
Funnily enough I was thinking that The Smiths singles would be the place to stop with Rough Trade. I'm going to investigate the Small Wonder catalogue and see what I have.
DeleteHitsville UK ;-)
DeleteWill probably stop around RT 150, or at the end of 1984 so I can include "Animal Rhapsody", "That Summer Feeling", and "We Hate You South African Bastards". The Fall, the TVP's, Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera and The Virgin Prunes all left. After that it's Smiths, Woodentops and Easterhouse all the way down.
DeleteMythkoz at disorderareyouexperienced.blogspot.com and Jonny Z at dieordiy2.blogspot.com probably have everything you need for a Small Wonder anthology!
NEW LINKS (pCloud has monthly limits)
ReplyDeleteVol. 1 https://tinyurl.com/y3bj7hk3
Vol. 2 https://tinyurl.com/y2rfm8u8
Thanks Jonder -- this is awesome!
ReplyDeleteWow this is really getting on for perfection....Now if they were in flac I`d be on cloud 9.
ReplyDeletethanks
Yeah, lossless would be great, but some of the singles have never been reissued in any format. I apologize for the variable bit rates and various sources. A couple of the Essential Logic a-sides (for example) are taken from the excellent Kill Rock Stars retrospective, but the compilation didn't include the b-sides of those singles. Hopefully whatever the collection lacks in fidelity, it makes up for in historical interest and entertainment value. And the price can't be beat!
DeleteI don't think Rough Trade (or any label) could do an official compilation of these singles. With so many one-off contracts, it would probably be a legal nightmare to secure the rights.
Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis has always been my dream box set and you went and did it you magnificent bastard. I bow down down to all the time and effort it took to do this. Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteHa! I don't think I've ever been called a magnificent bastard. It has been my pleasure to compile these singles, so much so that I've decided to extend the series through RT 249 (Galaxie 500's 1990 single "Fourth Of July"), which was the last single issued before the bankruptcy.
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