Music

Share your memories of London's greatest record shop

Standing at the counter of this venerable institution, it’s hard to believe it’s been going for 30 years. You’d think someone might have decorated during that time, for starters. Rough Trade’s walls are adorned with a collage of record sleeves and film posters you’d normally find concealing cracks in student digs. It’s a display that reflects the chaos of the shop, and neither customers, staff nor the karmic balance of the universe would have it any other way. We’re here to meet Nigel House, co-owner and manager, who’s worked in the shop (almost) since the day it opened. Feature continues

You might think, if you’re some kind of hideous snob, that spending 30 years in a record shop is a waste of a perfectly good life. Or at least harvestable organs. But House remains enthusiastic, tearing himself away from serving a father and daughter to speak to us. ‘Did you see that?’ he says with obvious glee. ‘Some stuff for her, some for him; father and daughter shopping together – that’s the sort of thing that makes me happy.’

The Rough Trade group, comprising the shop, publishing company and record label, is a mildly dysfunctional family, linked and severed more by a series of break-ups and bankruptcies than business arrangements, although relations between all parties apparently remain cordial. The shop was founded in 1976 by Geoff Travis as an outlet for his favourite punk and reggae records. Its first incarnation, at 202 Kensington Park Road, was shambolic – piles of records were left lying around for customers to dig through while the staff played tunes over an old reggae sound system.

Travis expanded his empire in 1978 by setting up Rough Trade Records, future home to The Smiths and The Strokes, but initially the nursery for Young Marble Giants and Zounds. Shortly after, financial considerations meant Travis urgently needed to contract his empire. The inspiring, fractious and costly history of the Rough Trade label is best told by a new compilation, ‘The Record Shop: 30 Years of Rough Trade Shops’, but House succinctly explains the problems of 1978: ‘They had spent shitloads of money on the Virgin Prunes, who did this box set – seven-inch, ten-inch, 12-inch and book – that just didn’t sell.’

Travis’s accountants suggested closing the shop to keep the label afloat, so he called House and co-workers Pete, John and Jude Crighton to a meeting to announce their impending redundancies. ‘We said “Hang on,” ’ recalls House, ‘ “we’ll buy the shop from you.” Of course, for us, it was perfect timing – just out of university, no kids, no mortgage, nothing, let’s do it! So we bought the shop from them for the value of the stock! And we did the stock check too, so it was [mimes hiding piles of records under tables] – “oh, that’s £2.50” ha ha! Geoff was really pleased, because it kept the shop going, and we paid ourselves what you’d get on the dole back then – 50 quid a week, I think it was. In those days, you didn’t need much more.’

There was a further blow in 1978 when the landlords at Kensington Park Road decided they didn’t want a shop full of ne’er-do-wells in their building and refused to renew Rough Trade’s lease. The team simply packed up and moved around the corner to 130 Talbot Road, the address the shop occupies to this day. The layout has been updated somewhat – much of the floorspace is now occupied by racks of CDs rather than vinyl – but its spirit of wilful anarchy remains the same. Records are still stored in no particular order beyond genre to enhance the customer’s browsing experience. ‘If you do it purely alphabetically, people never find anything different,’ House explains. ‘You look for The Beatles, and there they are, that’s it. I want people to lead on to things.’