Rough Trade

Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England.It was founded in the late 70s'('78) by Geoff Travis.

It started off as a record shop. As Travis was travelling all over North America he built up an impressive collection of records. His friends suggested he start a shop. Once he has his records shipped over to England, Rough Trade was born.

The label grew out of the Rough Trade shop, as it went into distribution business. It became indepdendent in 1982, then went bankrupt in 1991. Rough Trade was relaunched in 2000. It specialised primarily in European post-punk and other alternative rock of the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the late 1980s Rough Trade branched out by issuing an album by Lucinda Williams. Other early signings included The Raincoats, The Smiths and Scritti Politti. Later, Geoff Travis late launched Blano y Negro Records in partnership with Warner Bros. Records.

Rough Trade was an independently owned entity - it was a partnership between Travis, Jeanette Lee (former member of PiL), minority partners, Sanctuary Records, Zomba Music Group until June 11, 2002 when BMG bought out the business. In July 2007 Sanctuary Records then sold Rough Trade to the Beggars Group making Rough Trade independent once again, yay!

Since its re-birth the label has released albums by artists such as The Strokes, The Libertines and Babyshambles .