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“There wasn’t much commercial thinking behind starting a label out of the first Rough Trade shop, not much planning,” said Travis in a statement released alongside the announcement. “We were just doing things out of love really.” It was this enthusiasm and love for their craft that shaped Rough Trade into a forward-thinking, progressive record label that would split revenue 50/50 with artists, when other major labels would take 80%. According to Davy Reed of Cracked, their business practices were informed by the DIY ethos of punk, and feminist and left-wing politics.

The box set is limited to 1000 numbered copies worldwide, and contains some classic singles. Among the eight singles are Augustus Pablo’s ‘Pablo Meets Mr Bassie’, Stiff Little Fingers’ ‘Alternative Ulster’, and The Pop Group’s ‘We Are All Prostitutes’, which reached No. 3 in the UK charts in 2016. The full tracklist is below.  

Augustus Pablo – ‘Pablo Meets Mr Bassie’  

Stiff Little Fingers – ‘Alternative Ulster’  

The Pop Group – ‘We Are All Prostitutes’  

Subway Sect – ‘Ambition’  

Swell Maps – ‘Read About Seymour’  

The Raincoats – ‘Fairytale in the Supermarket’  

Cabaret Voltaire – ‘Nag Nag Nag’  

Young Marble Giants – ‘Final Day’  

Included in the box set will be some promotional material such as posters and artwork, as well as an exclusive interview with Travis and Lee, conducted by music journalist Paul Stokes. Speaking on X, Stokes said of the pair, “both are as visionary as the artists who make up this brilliant collection.”  

The Rough Trade Records website has the preorder listed at £99.99, a hefty price tag for eight singles. One Reddit user said, “In 2025 it’s clear people will pay a premium for rare and hard-to-find releases in unique formats, pressings, etc., but this feels way more Record Store Day than Acoustic Sounds. Those are two totally different segments of the market, and this set looks to be giving customers the worst of all worlds.”

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This isn’t the first retrospective for Rough Trade Records, having released another compilation, ‘Recorded at The Automat’, in 2015. That album earned four stars from The Guardian’s Phil Mongredien, describing the label as “​​an early champion of post-punk before becoming synonymous with jangling indie in the 80s.” This upcoming release, however, focuses solely on the formative years of the label, and the NME reports that a Volume 2 should be expected on September 26, this time focussing on tracks from 1980-1993.

With this first collection, Rough Trade Records has kept the punk spirit of those early days with a selection of worthy, but possibly under-appreciated tracks, and reaffirming their importance to the music that would follow. With a steep price tag, the collection is for hardcore fans, though a digital release would introduce a new generation to these landmark tracks.

RECORD STORE DAY 2025

A blockbuster weekend of record shopping, live music, DJ sets and all the best that indie record store culture has to offer. Record Store Day returns Saturday 12th April!

Hit the link for everything #RSD25 at Rough Trade.@RSDUKhttps://t.co/X4ahhEl35J pic.twitter.com/fVzumkYLDQ

— Rough Trade (@RoughTrade) March 24, 2025

This year’s RSD boasts an impressive lineup of limited-edition vinyl releases from a diverse array of artists:

Oasis: The Britpop icons reissue ‘Time Flies… (1994-2009)‘, featuring remastered audio and new packaging. This numbered box set includes four colored LPs, marking its first vinyl release since 2010.
Taylor Swift: Fans can look forward to a special 7″ white vinyl of ‘Fortnight‘, featuring Post Malone, from her Grammy-nominated album ‘The Tortured Poets Department‘ (2024).
The Cure: A picture disc edition of their sixth studio album, ‘Head on the Door‘ (1985), will be available, offering collectors a visually distinctive version of this classic record.
Adam Ant: ‘Prince Charming‘ (1981) which has been long out of print is coming back in a special gold vinyl edition.
The Charlatans: The reissue of ‘The Only One I Know‘ as a 12” picture disc features their iconic 1990 single, newly remastered at Abbey Road Studios by Frank Arkwright. It’s the first time the track is available as a picture disc.

For a full list of exclusive releases, visit the official RSD UK website.

Beyond exclusive releases, RSD 2025 features a variety of events and live performances:

Rough Trade East (London): Performances by Swamp, Heather Nova, Fiona-Lee, Gewalt, The Nightinghales, Panchiko, Tough Cookie, Raining Blue, and Sam Akpro. DJ sets include Kate Goodrum, MRCY Soundsystem, Emanuel Pavlova, Mr Bongo, Shame, and DOTWAVNOTWAVE.
Rough Trade West (London): Featuring Sarabeth Tucek, mini-Mekons, The Limiñanas, and Martin Luke Brown.
Rough Trade Nottingham: Hosting Bored Marsh, ronnietoldus, The Housecat Collective, Chloe Rodgers, Sancho Panza, Gigi Gold, Airport Dad, and PASTE.
Rough Trade Liverpool: Performances by The Molotovs, Remée, Hank Bee, Cruush, and Sara Wolff.
Rough Trade Bristol: Featuring Krooked Tongue, a secret set (TBA), Split Chain, DYE, Seneca, and Mass House, with DJ sets by Des Lennis, The Vibe, and Stevebob.

ROUGH TRADE WEST

Live music will return to Talbot Road with some very special acoustic performances from Sarabeth Tucek, @TheMekons, @theliminanas and @martinlukebrown, playing outside the Rough Trade West shop.

FREE ENTRY RSVPhttps://t.co/D6GWeOVoID pic.twitter.com/MfUta5CnGL

— Rough Trade (@RoughTrade) March 24, 2025

Aside from the Rough Trade stores, other indepedent record stores will also participate, including:
Sister Ray (London)
Banquet Records (Kingston Upon Thames)
Resident (Brighton)
Spillers Records (Cardiff) - the world’s oldest record store
Crash Records (Leeds)
Piccadilly Records (Manchester)

hundreds of people queuing to get into our record shop for Record Store Day #RSD24 pic.twitter.com/R4gl8l6yUS
— Banquet Records (@BanquetRecords) April 20, 2024

Each of these stores will have their own exclusive vinyl releases, live performances, DJ sets, and special events to celebrate RSD. As RSD 2025 approaches, fans are encouraged to support local record stores, enjoy live performances, and explore exclusive releases, celebrating the vibrant culture of independent music retail.

The combination of Anna B Savage, a London-born singer-songwriter renowned for her introspective and emotionally resonant music, alongside acclaimed poetic prose writer Max Porter, is both unexpected and yet, simultaneously, the most natural duet in the world. 

The main event of the night drew open as Savage finished playing a haunting rendition of Elliott Smith’s ‘Between the Bars’ and slipped into the acoustic strum that would become the emotional scaffolding of the evening. Her voice—at once velvet and mournfully elegiac—was the band, the rhythm section, and the atmosphere. With the mastery of a seasoned architect, she wielded a loop pedal to build and layer textures, creating an immersive sonic landscape. 

Soaring and cracking above Savage’s soundtrack trod the arresting honesty of Porter’s poetry. He began a live reading of his latest work: ‘All of this Unreal Time.’ A writer known for his lyrical prowess, Porter brought raw candour and piercing insight to the stage. 

His spoken words intertwined with Savage’s music, their voices bleeding into one another with a beautiful synchronicity. Her looping and layering became a counterpoint to his prose—a dialogue that felt both well rehearsed and yet never manufactured. At one point, Porter’s voice cracked with an apology: “I AM SO VERY SORRY.” The vulnerability was palpable, yet never mawkish. The performance was both an exploration and an exorcism of personal history. 

One of the standout moments came around at the final moments of the night when Savage’s performance of “Lighthouse Keepers” brought the room to a hushed reverence. The song felt universal in its sentiment. “I know that he is home,” she sang. “I know he’ll guide me home. He’s my lighthouse, he is home.” Her delivery was mournful yet tinged with hope, a counterpoint to Porter’s often raw and traumatic prose. Together, their interplay balanced the evening’s emotional weight, offering moments of light amidst the shadows.

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The sentiment was a benediction. It was an appropriate ending for a night steeped in the complex feelings Christmas evokes: the nostalgia for childhood, the yearning for home, the trauma that can linger in the season’s corners. Porter and Savage’s collaboration was, at its core, a reflection of those complexities—a mirror held up to the audience’s own tangled emotions.

The working relationship between the two was evidently profound. They weren’t just two friends on stage; they were co-conspirators in an artistic endeavour that blurred the lines between performance and catharsis. It was an evening that lingered, not just as a memory, but as a feeling.

The announcement comes after it was revealed in March this year that independent record stores in the UK are at a ten-year high. The Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) said there are now 461 indie record shops in the UK – 122 more than 10 years ago. However, just 8% of UK music sales are currently in physical form, ERA finds.

The shop will also open at a time when Denmark Street itself – which has lost much of its musical heritage in recent years to surrounding development and which has sparked the Save Denmark Street Campaign – is also on the up once again, having seen a handful of music shops return to the street in the last year.

“Over two floors the state of the art store will carry a huge selection of curated vinyl across all genres for avid collectors. As customers are welcomed in, they will find alongside the vinyl offering books, clothing, merchandise and limited edition one offs,” Rough Trade said in a press release. “Although the Denmark Street store will not offer a live performance space, it will host album signings and work in partnership with neighbouring venues HERE and The Lower Third to contribute to Rough Trade’s existing out-store events programme.”

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Denmark Street – also known as Tin Pan Alley – played an indispensable role at the cutting edge of UK and world music throughout the second half of the 20th century, and took on almost mythical status as the focal point guitar-based music worldwide. The street was most prominently home to an array of guitar shops, many of which hosted recording studios in their basements, as well as record company and promoters’ offices on their upper stories. Many music stores still dominate the small street, although their numbers have fallen in the last decade. Among the famous shops on the road to this day are Regent Sound Studios, Hank’s, and Wunjo’s, which have been joined by newer entrants in recent years. Artists who have recorded in the street’s studios include The Rolling Stones, The Jimi Hendrix Experience (cutting some rough demos and rehearsing), The Kinks (early demos), The Who (part of ‘A Quick One’). Elton John (playing sessions), The Lower Third with David Bowie (demos), Black Sabbath’s first two albums, and early albums and singles from The Bee Gees, The Troggs, Slade, Tom Jones, Sandie Shaw, The Equals, John Martyn, Davy Graham, The Yardbirds, Herman’s Hermits,, Mott The Hoople and countless others.

 

 

 

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The now closed La Giocanda Cafe on the street was the location of David Bowie’s recruitment of his first backing band, and also welcomed regulars including Elton John and Thin Lizzy. While some parts of the street are listed, development throughout the 2010s saw several beloved  stores and venues, such as the 12 Bar Club, close or move locations.

But in announcing the new store, Rough Trade paid homage to the immense weight of musical history that is palpable on the street, saying in its press release: “We can’t wait to welcome you to our beautiful new central London store in a location that holds such a profound place in the capital’s music history”.

On morrisseycentral.com, The Smiths’ frontman’s personal blog, Morrissey stated that, “I invented the group name, the song-titles, the album titles, the artwork, the vocal melodies, and all of the lyrical sentiments came from my heart … and so it’s a bit like saying Mick Jagger had nothing to do with the Stones.” Grandiose comparisons to Mick Jagger aside, Morrissey believes that other ex-Smiths members are taking credit for his work. In reference to the Smiths’ 1983 signing to Geoff Travis’ Rough Trade records, Morrissey said: “Several news sites now claim that the initial meeting at Rough Trade Records was with “Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke,”. Morrisey’s website lacks any citation or direct reference to the “several news sites” he mentions. A quick google search will reveal that Wikipedia and several major news publications credit both Morrissey and Marr with the signing.

While the specific claims made by the 64-year-old singer may be unverified, it is true that many fans and industry veterans have turned their back on Morrissey. However, rather than a result of greedy ex-band-members, Morrissey’s poor reputation is the result of his right-wing political opinions. Although The Smiths’ original material expressed relatively progressive messaging around class, the monarchy, and organised religion, Morrissey’s more recent affiliations with far-right politics has pushed him away from the mainstream.

In a 2019 performance on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, the singer wore a badge that featured the logo of the now-defunct For Britain Party. For Britain was a far-right fringe party led by Anne Marie Waters that promoted an anti-Islamic, anti-immigration policies which was host to ex-members of the British Nationalist Party (BNP) who were deemed too extreme for the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Speaking with Fiona Dodwell on blogsite Tremr in 2018, Morrissey expressed sympathy for Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, saying: “it’s very obvious that Labour or the Tories do not believe in free speech… I mean, look at the shocking treatment of Tommy Robinson”. For those who don’t know, Tommy Robinson is the far-right nationalist founder of the English Defence League (EDL), who has been convicted of multiple crimes that include assault of a police officer, ownership of a false passport, and the stalking of a journalist.

Morrissey has an esteemed past and a solidified position in British music cannon which will never change however, Morrissey’s claim of “cancel culture beings at home” mirrors that of many allegedly disgraced celebrities whose politics frequently land them in hot water. It is not ex-band-members who are tarnishing the legacy of the Smiths, but it is instead the reactionary far-right politics which he continues to promote.

The alternative rock outfit, dreamed of and fronted by Kate Stables, who also uses the name This Is the Kit as a musical alias, recorded the album back in December and are now ready to share with the world this LP, their sixth studio album to date.

The record, produced by Welsh musician and producer Gruff Rhys, is laden throughout with the subtle musical intricacy the group have become associated with through previous releases. The single that shares its name with the album perfectly epitomises such subtlety, with the bass floating to the top and the hints of piano lurking behind luscious guitar licks that all blend wonderfully with Stables’ effortlessly invigorating vocal delivery.

Listen to “Careful Of Your Keepers” below:

This Is the Kit was formed by brainchild Kate Stables in 2003, and released their debut album, Krülle Bol, eight years later in 2008. This, along with their second album, Wriggle Out the Restless (2010), failed to attract a significant amount of attention. It wasn’t until the release of their third album, Bashed Out, did the group start receiving praise for their musical output, with this LP widely considered as their breakthrough record.

Listen to “Krülle Bol”, from the group’s debut album, below:

Watch the music video for “Bashed Out“, from the group’s third album of the same name, below:

With the release of the folk rock group’s fourth album came a change in record labels; Moonshine Freeze was released via Rough Trade Records, the label their still with to this day, in 2017 to widespread critical acclaim. This was followed by Off Off On in 2020, marking the group’s fifth collective release.

Careful of Your Keepers will therefore be the group’s sixth studio album, and lead vocalist, guitarist and banjoist Stables seems in no mood to be slowing down any time soon. The rest of the band consists of Rozi Plain on bass and vocals, Neil Smith on guitar, and Jamie Whitby-Coles on drums.

You can get your copy of Careful of Your Keepers here.

See below for This Is the Kit tour dates:

10/06/2023 – Rough Trade East – London
12/06 – Pryzm – Kingston Upon Thames
16/06 – Black Deer Festival – Eridge Park, Tunbridge Wells
18/08 – Rough Trade – Bristol
16/07 – Folk By The Oak 2023 – Hatfield House, Hatfield
27/07 – Warwick Folk Festival 2023 – Castle Park, Warwick
28/07 – Deer Shed Festival 2023 – Baldersby Park, Thirsk

Purchase tickets for the live shows here.

Daughter’s seven year hiatus has come to an end.

Eerie and elegiac, @ohdaughter seep into the modern day rock canon with a fascinating unworldliness, continuing to evolve on ‘Stereo Mind Game’.

Our April Album of the Month.@4AD_Official https://t.co/wZDEYDUcM1 pic.twitter.com/BZmqKR9PaJ

— Rough Trade (@RoughTrade) April 11, 2023

Bittersweet longing colours the 12-track album with lead singer Elena Tonra’s soft anxious vocals layered delicately over melancholic post-rock guitar riffs. The spacey album has received critical acclaim from NME, Pitchfork, Far Out Magazine, and the Guardian.

To celebrate the album’s launch, record stores around the world held listening parties for the public to get a sneaky preview of the record the day before its release. A pop-up shop also opened on Quaker Street in London selling Daughter merch on the album’s release day. The band debuted songs from the album live during their at Rough Trade East on Brick Lane, London on the same evening.

Pastel film kaleidoscopes together in the three music videos released for “Party”, “Swim Back”, and “Be Your Own Way”.

Watch the video for “Swim Back” below:

Daughter is comprised of North London singer Elena Tonra, Swiss guitarist Igor Haefeli and French drummer Remi Aguilella. The trio formed in 2010, after Haefeli attended one of Tonra’s acoustic shows in London. Their debut album, 2013’s If You Leave, received positive reviews from critics and charted at number 16 on the UK album charts. Some of the lyrics deal with Tonra and Haefeli’s break up, which happened shortly before the album’s release.

Stereo Mind Games is the band’s first studio album in seven years and follows on from 2016’s Not to Disappear. Daughter released one soundtrack in 2017, Music From Before the Storm, the soundtrack for the video game Life Is Strange: Before the Storm. The album is 13 tracks and is largely compromised of instrumentals.

After Music From Before the Storm, the band announced a temporary hiatus with Elena telling Guitar Magazine: “We decided to have a little break, because we realised that we’d been together and working together for about eight years, so we decided it would be nice – in a friendly way! – to spend some time apart”.

During this time, Elena released her debut solo album Ex:Re (2019). The album explores Elena’s fresh heartbreak. She further explained to Guitar Magazine the decision to work on the project solo: “All the Daughter songs are personal but it just felt like another level. I was like no, this is too much, this is like handing Igor and Remi my personal diary and being like, ‘Have a flick through guys! Let me know if there’s any good stuff!’”.

At the moment, the band has yet to confirm any plans to tour in support of Stereo Mind Game.

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Ever since their joining back in 2019, Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye – otherwise known as one of the most underrated and creative bands of the post-brexit-new-wave era Jockstrap – have continually pushed the boundaries of what it means to be in a band in today’s day and age. The amalgamation of Ellery’s classical training in vocals and violin, and Skye’s immensely idiosyncratic production style has allowed for some unique, and quite challenging electro-pop out today. While the 2-piece setup is nothing new, until now it seemed impossible to be in one without seeming like you’re just copying The White Stripes and just doing it worse (I’m looking at you Royal Blood). But Skye’s production and performance style almost seem more reminiscent of a band like The xx, which lends itself perfectly to the incredibly technical and clearly well-rehearsed style of Ellery. You can hear the musicianship particularly well in their most recent single. See the video for the most recent single ‘Glasgow’ below.

Tickets to the second UK tour have already gone on sale, but you can try and bag any remaining tickets here. The tour really ensures that Ellery is going to have a busy year, Black Country, New Road have also set themselves up for a massive EU/UK tour, the group’s first since the departure of lead vocalist Isaac Woods back in February. BC,NR started touring in May, and they had this to say, “We’re looking forward to sharing what we’ve been working on with you. The six of us will be performing a set of brand new music. We will not perform any music from ‘For the first time’ or ‘Ants From Up There’.”

Recently, it was discovered that I Love You Jennifer B almost didn’t make it to the public after the only copy of the album was stolen at a restaurant in London. Fortunately for us all, iconic London rapper Slowthai was there to chase after the thief and retrieve the stolen Laptop containing the album.

Jockstrap instore tour dates:

9/11/22 – Rough Trade East – London
11/11 – Rough Trade – Nottingham
12/11 – Banquet Records – Kingston
13/11 – Elsewhere – Margate

JUST ANNOUNCED@buckleyxbutler UNPLUGGED + SIGNING

The vital folk duo of Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler will perform songs from their Mercury Prize shortlisted album ‘For All Our Days That Tear the Heart’, out June 17th via @emirecords.

TICKETShttps://t.co/ABeMIiRiku pic.twitter.com/aLZF2IfTiJ

— Rough Trade (@RoughTrade) August 18, 2022

Their album was nominated along with offerings from Little Simz, Sam Fender, Harry Styles, Nova Twins, Self Esteem, Wet Leg, Joy Crookes, Fergus McCreadie, Gwenno, Kojey Radical and Yard Act. Asked what it was about All Our Days That Tear the Heart that got them shortlisted for the prize, Buckley told NME: “I don’t think you can ever be objective from the inside out. It’ll probably be 20 years down the line and we’ll put the album on for the first time in 20 years and be like, ‘Oh, that’s what it was!’ But I don’t know – it’s nothing to do with me!”

In a statement reported by NME at the time of the release of the first single from the album, “The Eagle And The Dove”, the duo revealed the genesis of their collaboration: “It all started with a FaceTime call from Butler’s North London kitchen to Buckley’s mountaintop residence in County Kerry, with their friendship growing from an unlikely shared love of Killarney and the small island of Valentia where Butler would go on holiday as a boy.

The statement continued: “Buckley had been listening to ‘Old Wow’ by Sam Lee, produced by Bernard, in the downtime between rehearsals for the National Theatre’s production of Romeo and Juliet. Butler had seen Jessie perform a song on an American chat show in promotion of 2018’s Wild Rose”.

Talking about hearing Buckley singing, Butler told NME, “I remember clocking just how much character there was in her voice and how freely she expressed it.” The musician finished talking about the album, “More than anything, I wanted it to be joyous – properly joyous – because there is such joy in Jessie, there really is. In spite of the darkness and the intensity in these songs, I’m just flying when I listen back to them.”

Buckley chimed in: “Right now, I feel like I’ll never make another album again, because I can’t imagine another album happening the way this one did. It’s amazing that it even happened once. This obscure, organic, odd little thing that just found us.”

Butler and Buckley will also be playing at Whitley Bay Playhouse on August 25, tickets are available here.

Upcoming shows:
24/08/2022 – Rough Trade West – London
25/08 – Whitley Bay Playhouse – Whitley Bay

Sometimes, Forever will act as a follow-up to 2020’s critical success that was color theory. The critical success of that album confirmed Soccer Mommy to be slightly more than the bedroom indie staple that her other albums like Clean may have led us to believe. In a conversation with NME, Soccer Mommy – this time less popularly known by her offstage name Sophie Allison – commented that ‘Bones’ was initially drafted to be a part of a rom-com. But since the song’s creation, Allison decided to keep it for herself. When questioned about the song’s meaning she explained it was basically, “about struggling with the parts of yourself that you don’t like in a relationship.” Before lightening the mood a little with, “It’s about wanting to become better for someone and feeling like you’re standing in your own way.”

presale happening now at https://t.co/zYBDTREugs use code: FOREVER

portion of proceeds from presale tickets sold via our website go to @PPFA.

can’t wait to have lightning bug, @helena_deland and @tttopsss out on the road with us for select dates.

flyer by justus proffit pic.twitter.com/7N1LPZa0Yj

— soccer mommy (@sopharela) May 19, 2022

Allison will also be taking the new tunes to a few UK in-store gigs shortly after the release of the album. Fans in Leeds, Liverpool, Brighton, and Bristol could get some of the earliest tastes of the new sounds this June before the tour kicks off in the states in October. It was also announced that the pre-sale for the rest of the tour (which unfortunately already kicked off this morning (May 19^th)) would donate a portion of its proceeds to Planned Parenthood. While the presale has already come and gone, the remainder of the tickets go on sale tomorrow morning (May 20^th) at 10am. You can try and bag yourself a few here. With additional support on the US leg from a pair of Canadian artists – Singer-songwriter Helena Deland, and indie rock outfit TOPS – the UK’s support slots are yet to be filled.

See below the full list of Soccer Mommy’s UK tour dates below:

20/6 – Crash – Leeds
21/6 – Jacaranda – Liverpool
25/6 – Resident – Brighton
26/6 – Rough Trade – Bristol (Matinee)
31/8 – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham
1/9 – Chalk – Brighton
3/9 – Trinity – Bristol
20/9 – O2 Ritz – Manchester
21/9 – Tramshed – Cardiff
22/9 – O2 Forum – London
23/9 – The Castle & Falcon – Birmingham
24/9 – Queen Margaret Union – Glasgow