Rough Trade

Rough trade是一個獨立的唱片公司，於1976年由Geoff Travis創立於西倫敦。

倫敦人最喜歡的唱片店Rough Trade，1978年，迎來了三十歲華誕。Rough Trade的兩家門店催生了創記錄的獨立唱片公司Rough Trade Records。智識淵博的夥計、如期而至的演出和琳琅滿目的歌風引得無數忠誠的顧客競相光顧公司門店。

Rough trade的老闆geoff travis不禁想到或者他可以自己為這些樂隊發行唱片，於是在1978年的時候，以rough trade為廠牌的第一張EP出版了。這張EP是法國樂隊Metal Urbain，從這張EP開始rough trade的音樂之樹開始萌芽。對rough trade來說，真正具有里程碑意義的事件是the smiths的發現。在簽下the smiths之前，rough trade僅僅是一個人云亦云的后朋克廠牌。the smiths的推出，使rough trade逐漸躋身主流音樂圈，而the smiths則最終成為了歷史上最偉大的搖滾樂隊之一。在80年代中期以前，rough trade的運營狀況都很不錯，直到geoff成立了同名的發行公司。這間公司勉強支撐到80年代末，終於關門大吉，與此同時唱片公司也被拖垮了。在這之後，Geoff改換門庭，先後使用了trade 2和rough trade recordings成立了新的唱片公司，然而，the rough trade racords以往的輝煌卻始終難以再現。沉淪了將近10年之後， the rough trade records終於回來了，同樣的名字，同樣的老闆，同樣的前衛。

The rough trade records的音樂風格龐雜多變，雖然在早期它以後朋克和雷吉為標誌，但發展到后rough trade時代，geoff已不再局限於選擇某一類別的音樂。The rough trade records的音樂格言：“我們只做最好的音樂，我們儘力使人們理解這些音樂，然後掏錢”。早期的rough trade的代表樂隊毫無疑問就是the smiths，絕對的一支獨秀。進入后rough trade時期，整個廠牌則顯示出繽紛多彩的姿態，一如geoff所言，風格不是問題。在這些樂隊里，有我們熟悉的the libertines，the strokers，近兩年來在中國紅得發紫的indie pop樂隊belle and sebastian，還有那個另類詭異的亦女亦男的Antony and the Johnsons。同樣要求旗下的樂隊專心努力的做音樂，但是geoff不排斥那些抱有功利思想的年輕人，想要出名不是一件壞事，只要不把它唯一值得努力的事情。其實，從geoff的隻言片語間，the rough trade的音樂氣質已經漸顯輪廓。the rough trade沒有太過另類的藝人，他們的音樂更傾向於主流，也許比主流音樂略深刻，也更前衛一些，但是仍然在非常有限的範圍里。

GOUGH TRADE 25周年的紀念時，值得購買的唱片:

elebrating 25 years of the cutting edge independent label, Rough Trade, this budget-priced collection finds a

disparate collection of Rough Trade artists tackling songs by, well, other Rough Trade artists.

The novelty lies in hearing such unlikely pairings as Royal City performing a Strokes song; British Sea Power

tackling Tugboat (one of three Galaxie 500 covers they recorded, apparently), and Delays getting their teeth

into the Mazzy Star track, Ride It On.

Although such albums can pall after a couple of listens, such is the breadth of material on offer here that

you are likely to discover new treasures with each listen. Alasdair Roberts manages a take on the Ivor Cutler

track I Had A Little Boat that preserves much of the original抯 melancholic eccentricity and Jeffrey Lewis'

version of The Television Personalities' hit Part-Time Punks has a suitably quirky, playground charm.

Two tracks are, on their own, worth the price of admission (not much more than a fiver), these being Elizabeth

Fraser's take on the Robert Wyatt song At Last I Am Free (her first commercial recording in five years

excluding the Lord Of The Rings soundtracks) and the aforementioned British Sea Power track, Tugboat. Both, in

their different ways, retain the integrity of the original songs while adding distinctive interpretative

twists.

Inevitably, with an ambitious undertaking such as this, there are a couple of cuts that misfire badly. It was

brave, or perhaps foolhardy, of the Fiery Furnaces to take on a Fall track, especially as, to paraphrase an

old Bob Dylan ad campaign, no one sings Mark E Smith like Mark E Smith. Also, Belle And Sebastian's version of

the Young Marble Giants' song Final Day is an uncoordinated mess.

Nevertheless, these are the only real disappointments from an album that mostly beguiles and delights.