50 years of Rough Trade
“I will always keep coming back to Rough Trade… because it’s a place that truly understands just how important music is.”
As Rough Trade celebrates its 50th anniversary, we're looking back at five decades of independent music, vinyl culture and the community that has made our record stores what they are today. From London to Bristol, Nottingham, Berlin and New York, music lovers share the memories that have kept them coming back.
Fifty years is a long time for anything to survive. For an independent record store, it borders on the miraculous.
Rough Trade opened its doors in 1976 on Kensington Park Road, and the world of music has changed almost beyond recognition since then. Formats have died and been reborn. Streaming has changed how we listen. Entire genres have come and gone, returned and evolved. But through every shift and evolution, the people kept coming back.
We didn't make it to fifty years alone. You got us here.
So who are you, exactly?
Some of you have been here from the beginning - or close enough to it. Saturday afternoons spent flicking through LPs, letting the afternoon dissolve into a B-side you'd never heard before. You remember the specific records you bought the day they came out, and where you were when you first played them.
Some of you arrived before you even had a choice in the matter, brought along by someone who loved this place before you.
And for some of you, you stumbled in not knowing what you were looking for, and ended up somewhere you could be entirely yourself - respected, simply, for your love of music.
Here are some of your stories.
"Rough Trade has and always will be the schooling ground for my love of music."
Tony, friend of Rough Trade East
Rough Trade has been a big part of my life for well over 40 years! I go back all the way; to Ladbroke Grove, then pilgrimages to Neals Yard, Covent Garden, to check out the shop in the basement, under Slam City Skates.
As an 'east-ender' and long-time Brick Lane lover, I was so glad they set up shop in 2007 and injected such new life into the Truman complex. My daughter was born in 2008, so she has spent a lifetime in that shop!
The most special thing about 'our' local, our Rough Trade East, is the staff: their knowledge and their bucketloads of kindness. Between them, they all know so much and have so many great music recommendations to make.
Gigs at the East shop are great too. Experiencing many, with my now 18 year old daughter, has helped make her who she is today: a bass and guitar player, and a DJ with tons of musical influences.
Thanks Rough Trade. For keeping music real, for creating such brilliant local shops (I regularly visit Bristol and it too is great), for selling vinyl better than any, and for truly supporting up-and-coming gigging musicians. Don't stop the music!
Sylvie, friend of Rough Trade East (and Tony's daughter)
Rough Trade has and always will be the schooling ground for my love of music. From my dad bringing me into the East store - before I can even remember - in a pram, to building my vinyl collection and going to some of my first gigs, all the reasons as to why I am such an obsessive (and unashamed nerd) about music can be traced back to looking through the racks and scouring the books and magazines in Rough Trade stores.
I’ve met some of my best friends today at the International Women’s Day show with Pussy Liquor and Gina Birch from The Raincoats, I got to hear Wet Leg’s debut album on release day and see Bob Vylan start their set with a guided meditation before launching into full-on mosh pits.
I will always keep coming back to Rough Trade, not only for the lovely staff who will always amaze me at how genuinely cool and kind people can be, but because it’s a place that truly understands just how important music is.
Mark, friend of Rough Trade Berlin
I wish you a very Happy 50th Birthday, Rough Trade!
Undoubtedly, you have been the most important distributor for all kinds of independent music over the past five decades. Not only have you supplied and supported a craving indie scene, you have also been a great inspiration for others around the globe, who have followed in your grooves.
The Rough Trade stores around the world have meanwhile become beacons for those seeking specialist sounds from all corners of the independent music scene.
Certainly an incredible legacy.
Without you, the musical landscape would sound very different today.
Brian, friend of Rough Trade NYC
Music is my biggest passion. I am an avid vinyl collector (over 11,000 records) and
huge concert goer (almost 4,000 concerts) and Rough Trade is my #1 go to for both of these passions (229 Rough Trade NYC performances starting in 2014 plus dozens of signings and almost 1,600 vinyl purchased). I am at Rough Trade NYC at least 2 days per week and often many more to look for new vinyl (and sometimes old) and attend their incredible performances/events.
I love Rough Trade for its incredible diversity in vinyl and performances/events as it has artists and bands from all genres and supports both the biggest artists/bands in the world as well as emerging artists/bands. I also love the people who work at Rough Trade NYC as they are always friendly, engaging and very helpful and they all have such passion for music and many are excellent musicians in their own right (Rough Trade Staff Fest was so great).
Huge congrats on Rough Trade’s first 50 years and so excited for the next 50.
"Rough Trade Bristol was the first place my brain was like ‘oh I’m a musician here’ and the first place I was treated as such. It’s not particularly easy as a disabled artist finding spaces like that. Yeah, it was home."
Zach, friend of Rough Trade Bristol and member of The Outlines
I'm part of the furniture. Rough Trade Bristol was the first place my brain was like ‘oh I’m a musician here’ and the first place I was treated as such. It’s not particularly easy as a disabled artist finding spaces like that. Yeah, it was home.
My favourite memory is when Self Esteem did an in-store and it was one of the first gigs I went to on the recommendation of a mate who used to work at Rough Trade Bristol. He promised that his mate was good. I was watching the gig and I was like 'wow his mate is insanely good', and it was really surreal having a lovely chat with her and now we're at the point where we're mates and she is HUGE. Like Madonna goes to see her! It's mad getting to see her go from there to where she is now.
Jeff, friend of Rough Trade Bristol and member of The Outlines
For a long time it was a central safe space for people like me and Zach. So it feels very much like a home from home. It gave us a place where we could just be ourselves.
I’ve seen everyone from Black Midi through to Idles. I’ve seen loads of different really cool and interesting people.
Sonia (AKA Stiff Kittens), friend of Rough Trade Nottingham
I keep coming back to Rough Trade because you can get any kind of music you want. I don’t even come in here with an idea; I just come in and have a root around and see what’s about. I’ve never walked out of Rough Trade without buying at least two or three albums. It’s amazing.
My favourite memory was on the day Rough Trade Nottingham first opened. I was here for probably about three hours. I came across Half Man Half Biscuit and Nigel House clocked me getting this album so we had a really good chat about the band. It was so great to have Rough Trade in Nottingham and be able to meet the person who helped make it happen…and buying one of my favourite band's records at the same time! I thought it was wonderful.
I went to see Matt Berry interview Sleaford Mods at Rough Trade Nottingham. The interview was fantastic, but afterwards, when everybody had dissipated, Stuart Lee was still at the bar having a beer on his own, and I just ended up having a beer with him at the bar talking about… this is going to sound really weird… this haunted table in my house. It’s just not your normal experience of a music venue.
Chris, friend of Rough Trade West
I keep coming back to Rough Trade because it’s the centre of the universe. You walk in and leave with something magical.
And maybe that’s the best way to put it. Fifty years of people walking through the door and leaving with something they didn’t expect, be it a record, a community or a sense of themselves. That’s so much more than a record store.
Here’s to the next fifty.