This Saturday, the bosses of most of the UK’s independent labels are heading down to Berwick Street rolling up their sleeves, and settling down to a hard day’s selling records at the first even Independent Label Market. Richard Russell from XL, Geoff Travis of Rough Trade, Laurence Bell of Domino Records, and Daniel Miller of Mute are among those who’ll be displaying their wares at the market, which was the brainchild of friend of the Quietus, Joe Daniel of Angular Records. Just like at Record Store Day, there’ll be all sorts of rare records and bargains available from the aforementioned labels, along with Bella Union, Chess Club, Fortuna Pop!, Heavenly, House Anxiety, Merok, Moshi Moshi, Peacefrog, R&S, Transparent, Tri-Angle, Wall Of Sound, so get your collecting and investing hats on. Full details of Independent Label Market can be found over at their Facebook page, along with an exhaustive list of all the good rare stuff you’ll be able to get your hands on. We talked to Joe Daniel about the philosophy behind the market. So Joe, what inspired it?
Joe Daniel: I went to Berlin to see These New Puritans at the end of last year and ended up doing their merch stand. It was such fun selling their records because I’d made them. I knew what was special about that b-side, or the fact that there was only twenty copies of this one left. It was fun meeting the people who liked the band, and having been caught up in distributors and press and marketing for a few years it was nice to remember that when Angular started we were approaching people in pubs and trying to push cds on them, saying ‘Come on mate, it’s only three quid, less than a pint!’. I wanted to do that again.
We witnessed Joe’s sales patter, and very good it was too. He fixed the punters with a gimlet eye, and money soon changed hands. Was Record Shop Day in influence?
JD: Well yeah, originally the plan was to have it as part of Record Store Day, but then we realised it would probably be better to have our own day. There should be lots of days celebrating records.
Hear hear! What’s the difference with what you’re doing, aside from the shop obvious.
JD: Well the fun bit is that it’s the head of each label, the main guys, the founders, the ones who signed the bands, made the decisions, put their money where their mouth is. I thought it would be cool to get them back to the essence of what a label is, which I suppose is sharing your taste with people. Investing in bands and then selling the product with your own fair hands seemed like the purest distillation of what it is to run a label.
How did you decide where to do it? Were the council helpful?
JD: Berwick Street was the first and most obvious choice, since it’s kind of a spiritual home to London’s record shops. I used to do all my record shopping down there when I first came to London. Yes the council were great, they went for it straight away. I think it will be a good thing for the existing market down there, which has dwindled over recent years, and so have the record shops. Hopefully our thing will bring some attention back to that part of Soho.
Do you know of any limited edition records being sold?
JD: Yeah, Heavenly are doing the first Manics single, ‘Motown Junk’ on 7" for the first time ever. It was only on 12" and cd before. Rough Trade are doing an exclusive called ‘Truth’ by Alexander from Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. Tri-Angle have got some hot new T-Shirts. Some of the newer labels are bringing ‘sold out’ releases, Merok will have Crystal Castles’ first EP, Moshi Moshi will have Florence and The Machine’s first single, Transparent will have the last copies of loads of their stuff.
What will be on the Angular stall?
JD: The new Gyratory System album, and we’re going to have Tim Key selling his album by way of megaphone. Also Klaxons first single, and These New Puritans are coming to sell their stuff too. Maybe some copies of our first release, ‘The New Cross’ as well, there’s about five left in the Angular safe.
Which label boss do you think is going to make the best salesman? Daniel Miller vs. Laurence Bell? Will it kick off?
JD: Geoff Travis has done it before so I reckon he’ll be good. Mark Jones from Wall Of Sound seems like quite a character too. Richard Russell is rumoured to be doing a rave themed stall, he used to have a pitch at Camden Market selling bootleg mixtures before he started XL. I’m hoping to see some tape packs, whistles and glow sticks. Laurence Bell and Daniel Miller will have some fun, not sure about it kicking off, I suppose it depends who can shout ‘TWO FOR A PAAAND!’ louder than the other.
Have you got any market cries planned?
Haha, not yet..! Hopefully Tim Key will take care of that side of things.
