Independent music we lost in the fire

Some 165 independent music labels are struggling to restock after rioters burned a London warehouse to the ground last week – but back-catalogue gems are feared lost forever

IN THE MIDST of last week’s rioting in the UK, plenty of things were destroyed. But along with the British media asking questions of its society, and victims of looting, criminal damage and arson surveying the damage, the independent music industry was thrown into turmoil, as a Sony DADC warehouse, used by Pias – a large marketing, sales and distributor of stock for independent labels – was burned to the ground in London. With it, millions of CDs went up in flames, entire back-catalogues of labels were destroyed, and right now, around 165 labels are still working flat-out to pick up the pieces.

In terms of profile, distributors aren’t exactly up there with glitzy labels or artists, but just because Pias mightn’t ring any bells with average music fans, doesn’t mean that its role isn’t hugely important.

Pias used the three-storey Sony DANC warehouse as a distribution hub for its marketing and distribution operation. Independent labels stored their latest releases for the UK and Ireland, and also their back-catalogues. Everything that any label had stored there was lost. The only thing that survived were 20 Quasi albums, an indie rock band from Oregon signed to Domino in Europe.

Record Of The Day, a music industry newsletter, estimated that up to 25 million units of stock were destroyed; CDs, records, and also DVDs as part of Pias smaller film distribution arm.

Labels that lost stock include Matador (Interpol, Sonic Youth), Warp (Aphex Twin, Grizzly Bear, Maximo Park), 4AD (Bon Iver, The National), Rough Trade (Jarvis Cocker, Antony and the Johnsons, Morrissey, The Strokes), Young Turks (The xx), Domino (Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Wild Beasts), Wall of Sound (Grace Jones, The Human League), Drowned In Sound (Kaiser Chiefs, Bat For Lashes), XL (Radiohead, M.I.A. Sigur Ros, Adele), Sub Pop (Beach House, Foals, CSS – the list goes on.

It's hard to comprehend the impact given the number of artists involved, but the destruction means CDs and vinyl records simply won't be there to restock record stores. Most of the Arctic Monkeys' new single, The Hellcat Spangled Shalalalawas wiped out, forcing Domino to sell it online only.

When the statements from record labels started to filter through, it became clear how bad things were.

All of Warp’s UK stock was destroyed. Some labels had stock waiting to be shipped to international markets which was also destroyed. Thrill Jockey’s entire stock, including a back-catalogue of 280 titles was destroyed – worth an estimated €200,000. Beggar’s Group (an umbrella group for seven labels) saw 750,000 of their CDs go up in flames. Martin Mills, chairman of Beggar’s Group, estimates it will take three months to manufacture and replace the burnt vinyl stock.

In Ireland, Rubyworks and its subsidiary Model Citizen had 10,000 CDs destroyed. Irish bands on other labels affected include The Divine Comedy, Villagers, and Two Door Cinema Club. Luckily for Rubyworks, its latest release, a live album from Rodrigo Y Gabriela, had shipped to shops one week before the fire.

“It’s one of those catastrophic things that you’ll never imagine will happen to you,” according to Rubyworks and Model Citizen label manager Roger Quail.

“I’ve been in the business for 30 years and nothing like this has ever happened – the wholesale destruction of stock is unheard of,” Quail says, adding that he and his colleagues are “trying to focus on the positives”. He says labels such as Warp will now face tough decisions over whether to repress back-catalogues, or consign the physical copies to history.

There is an additional problem now with the turn-around times for pressing CDs and vinyl, given the pressure suppliers are now under. An order that would normally take 10 days will now take a month, and those times will get longer, according to Quail. “We’re coming into a very busy time, where people are pressing up Coldplay records for the autumn and so on, so resources are limited.”

Over the next 24 hours, Pias, which has been widely praised for reacting to the calamity so quickly, hopes to have a new warehouse as a destination for stock. Meanwhile, the big problem facing independent labels on the smaller end of the scale is cash flow.

How do you survive while you’re waiting for insurance to come through and when you have no stock to sell? Pias and Aim (Association of Independent Music) have established a contingency fund that smaller labels can draw from in order to keep afloat, which should help them replace stock and keep functioning in the short term.

As for the consumer, apart from delayed stocking times, music fans looking for certain back-catalogue gems might never find them again.

Burnt out

Some of the biggest acts affected:

Adele

Antony and the Johnsons

Aphex Twin

Arctic Monkeys

Bat For Lashes

Beach House

Bon Iver

CSS

Foals

Franz Ferdinand

Grace Jones

Grizzly Bear

The Human League

Interpol

Jarvis Cocker

Kaiser Chiefs

Maximo Park

M.I.A.

Morrissey

The National

Radiohead

Sigur Ros

Sonic Youth

The Strokes

Villagers

Wild Beasts

The xx