Document And Eyewitness: The Rough Trade Story
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Document And Eyewitness: An Intimate History of Rough Trade: The Rough Trade Story for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Document and Eyewitness is an essential purchase for anyone who was involved in or influenced by the punk maelstrom of 1976, a riveting evocation of a period in musical history that becomes more important the further we get away from it... Taylor's book is a joy... If you read one music book this summer, make it this one.' (Dylan Jones INDEPENDENT )
DOCUMENT AND EYEWITNESS's treatment of its main players is affectionate-going-hagiographical, but the implication of that end-point is inescapable. The journey from the mid-70s to now denotes the arrival of an altogether duller world: music that tends to be reverential rather than iconoclastic.' (GUARDIAN )
'Taylor knows his stuff, painting a picture of a chaotic organisation with a good heart... a story that's fascinating and entertaining in equal measure.' (BIG ISSUE )
'The Fall and the Smiths - even if these were the only bands Rough Trade had signed it would be worth a 400-plus page book like this.' (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS )
'The journey from the mid-70s to now denotes the arrival of an altogether duller world: music that tends to be reverential rather than iconoclastic.' (GUARDIAN )
'Long overdue... The type of reader who buys rock biographies will crave the detailed information that spans the late 70s to 1991 - and they will not be disappointed ****. (RECORD COLLECTOR )
DOCUMENT AND EYEWITNESS's treatment of its main players is affectionate-going-hagiographical, but the implication of that end-point is inescapable. The journey from the mid-70s to now denotes the arrival of an altogether duller world: music that tends to be reverential rather than iconoclastic.' (GUARDIAN )
'Taylor knows his stuff, painting a picture of a chaotic organisation with a good heart... a story that's fascinating and entertaining in equal measure.' (BIG ISSUE )
'The Fall and the Smiths - even if these were the only bands Rough Trade had signed it would be worth a 400-plus page book like this.' (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS )
'The journey from the mid-70s to now denotes the arrival of an altogether duller world: music that tends to be reverential rather than iconoclastic.' (GUARDIAN )
'Long overdue... The type of reader who buys rock biographies will crave the detailed information that spans the late 70s to 1991 - and they will not be disappointed ****. (RECORD COLLECTOR )
Product Description
Rough Trade is practically a byword for the history of independent music over the last thirty years. The Rough Trade Story: Document and Eyewitness tells the story from the inside of a phenomenally influential record label, through the voices of Geoff Travis, Jarvis Cocker, Robert Wyatt, Green Gartside and many many more. From the early records of Cabaret Voltaire, Kleenex and the Swell Maps, through to groundbreaking releases by The Fall, The Smiths and Scritti Pollitti, on through the collapse of the independent collective and the rebirth of Rough Trade at the turn of the century, this will be the definitive, essential account for any serious music fan.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The author has done a good job of collating the memories of most of the protagonists behind Rough Trade. Given the nature of the subject - the idealistic vision of an independent music culture that would not only take on the major record companies but often beat them at their own game - this is a fascinating and important story that by default sheds considerable light on the way things have ended up now in "musicland".
One revealing aspect is to be found in the book's account of how Rough Trade's audience was so central to the success of their early years - by the mid 80s, the focus had switched to the perceived need to pander to the ambitions of The Smiths at the same time as seeing this one band as the solution to all RT's problems in terms of their dichotomy between the worlds of brown rice and white bread. There's a revealing passage just before the slippery slope of RT's financial problems really kicked in, where The Smiths are revealed to be a bunch of primadonnas on a European tour, and still the penny didn't drop for either the author or his subject(s).
The book briefly records how many small labels went under in the 1991 meltdown. We were nearly one of them, having been closely involved with RT for 10 years. What the book cannot record, because you cannot talk to everybody, is the day-to-day level of incompetence that one experienced. It's a bit like the Tony Wilson Factory maxim that the author mentions between fact and legend, but this is actually a boring conceit that gets no further than Pere Lachaise.
There ought to be a chapter on the phone, because you could never get through to them. For a good long time RT "got away with it", because in terms of the culture and the record sales of independently produced and distributed music, it was all about <what would happen next>. We didn't realise we were making hay while the sun shined.
It's interesting to read that RT spent £700,000 on a computer system that didn't work. A bit like the NHS and numerous others. Why so many organisations balls this up is quite another story not covered by this book - I'm only saying that because Rough Trade distribution went down the swanee just at the time when PC's became affordable.
I'm glad this book does tribute to Daniel Miller's patience. I was reminded of a lot of things reading it and I do recommend it, but more as an 'industry book' where you'd be best informed knowing something of the background.
One revealing aspect is to be found in the book's account of how Rough Trade's audience was so central to the success of their early years - by the mid 80s, the focus had switched to the perceived need to pander to the ambitions of The Smiths at the same time as seeing this one band as the solution to all RT's problems in terms of their dichotomy between the worlds of brown rice and white bread. There's a revealing passage just before the slippery slope of RT's financial problems really kicked in, where The Smiths are revealed to be a bunch of primadonnas on a European tour, and still the penny didn't drop for either the author or his subject(s).
The book briefly records how many small labels went under in the 1991 meltdown. We were nearly one of them, having been closely involved with RT for 10 years. What the book cannot record, because you cannot talk to everybody, is the day-to-day level of incompetence that one experienced. It's a bit like the Tony Wilson Factory maxim that the author mentions between fact and legend, but this is actually a boring conceit that gets no further than Pere Lachaise.
There ought to be a chapter on the phone, because you could never get through to them. For a good long time RT "got away with it", because in terms of the culture and the record sales of independently produced and distributed music, it was all about <what would happen next>. We didn't realise we were making hay while the sun shined.
It's interesting to read that RT spent £700,000 on a computer system that didn't work. A bit like the NHS and numerous others. Why so many organisations balls this up is quite another story not covered by this book - I'm only saying that because Rough Trade distribution went down the swanee just at the time when PC's became affordable.
I'm glad this book does tribute to Daniel Miller's patience. I was reminded of a lot of things reading it and I do recommend it, but more as an 'industry book' where you'd be best informed knowing something of the background.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A very readable- if some what chaotic, just like the label account of the rise and fall..and rise...and fall and rise again of the seminal indie label.
The problem is it's focus on the staff of Rough Trade itself, rather than the artists signed to the label, after a while the cast of characters just becomes bewildering, especially since the vast majority of readers apart from the staff themselves aren't going to know who most of these people are, the book may have done better shifting more of the emphasis over to the artists themselves. A the avergae reader is going to spend a lot of time having ti flick back through the pages working out who is who.
Stiff Little Fingers who gave the label their first chart success are rather glossed over, I would have also liked to have heard more about Rough Trades answer to the constant accusations from Morrissey and Marr that the label never shifted as many copies of Smith recors as the band though they should have. It's also a bit strange that the shop- the one part of the Rough Trade brand that has continued throughout all the chaos rather disappears from the story at the point the staff bought it out from the rest of the company.
Still if you have any interest in the history of British Indie music, this is an enjoyable (up to a point) read.
P.S the lack of an index for a book like this is somewhat unforgiveable.
The problem is it's focus on the staff of Rough Trade itself, rather than the artists signed to the label, after a while the cast of characters just becomes bewildering, especially since the vast majority of readers apart from the staff themselves aren't going to know who most of these people are, the book may have done better shifting more of the emphasis over to the artists themselves. A the avergae reader is going to spend a lot of time having ti flick back through the pages working out who is who.
Stiff Little Fingers who gave the label their first chart success are rather glossed over, I would have also liked to have heard more about Rough Trades answer to the constant accusations from Morrissey and Marr that the label never shifted as many copies of Smith recors as the band though they should have. It's also a bit strange that the shop- the one part of the Rough Trade brand that has continued throughout all the chaos rather disappears from the story at the point the staff bought it out from the rest of the company.
Still if you have any interest in the history of British Indie music, this is an enjoyable (up to a point) read.
P.S the lack of an index for a book like this is somewhat unforgiveable.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an enthralling book with a keen eye for period detail, with a profound narrative arc that goes into just the right amount of detail throughout. There are literally hundreds of wonderful stories, all related by the protagonists themselves, both staff and musicians. I can't imagine a more thorough, entertaining or absorbing account of this unique, at times almost unbelievable story. Document & Eyewitness is surely destined to take its place in the list of all-time great music books. Very highly recommended.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
more music, less business
... my rating breaks down as an average from 4* for the first part of the book, 2* for the second.
The Rough Trade story is a fascinating one, & well worth telling. Read more
The Rough Trade story is a fascinating one, & well worth telling. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. Denis A. Browne
Lacks a spark...
Very detailed on the business side of things but something is lacking when dealing with the actual music. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Ralph
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
