Nick Hornby once wrote, “Sentimental music has this great way of taking you back somewhere at the same time that it takes you forward, so you feel nostalgic and hopeful all at the same time.”
The book was High Fidelity, an acclaimed semi-autobiographical tale evoking the essence of the quintessential record store and the huge part music plays in people’s lives. The novel was eventually adapted into a screenplay, with John Cusack and Jack Black speaking the voices of thousands of deadbeat and broke losers who share the mutual love for vinyl records.
This fairytale romanticism has seen a resurgence in the market of purchasing records, coupled with the blossoming of so many iconic record stores that have become Meccas for wax enthusiasts to indulge in.
The rather iconic Rough Trade logo has graced the underground of British music since 1978, and remains the key player within the vinyl records market. Focusing firmly on the attractive experience of visiting a space accompanied by like-minded lovers and full of genre spanning music, Rough Trade currently has four stores: New York, East London, West London and strangely, the relatively small city of Nottingham.
Stephen Godfroy, co-president of Rough Trade, is the man behind bringing one of the most recognizable crate-digging institutions to the city of Nottingham. With that particular store celebrating its first birthday since opening last year, we talked business, brass tax and Beastie Boys over an Americano Black.
Rough Trade is a rare established independent worldwide brand/ethos, with stores in London and New York. Why choose Nottingham, a virtually unknown city compared to the traditional powerhouses of Europe, to further the progression?
“We’ve had eyes moving out of London for a number of years now, and got pretty distracted opening the store in New York a while back, which took four years instead of the planned two. It’s been a long time in the making and we still are looking at other UK cities to further the Rough Trade ethos, as you say, however Notts has always been at the top of our list, given its independent music retail heritage from the likes of Selectadisc, so we knew if we were able to move to this city we’d be among friends and like-minded music lovers. As it happened we discovered the perfect location, so we went for it and we feel extremely at home here in Hockley, hopefully it’s just the start of a really exciting event.”
Personally, what made you strive to get into the record industry, particularly the supposedly dying art form of vinyl?
“I’ve been involved in Rough Trade now for a number of years, but my love of music started really passionately in 1989 with the release of Paul’s Boutique by The Beastie Boys. It came out as a complete flop and was shunned by everyone apart from me and my friends, who completely immersed ourselves and fell in love with deciphering every single beat and sample of the album. This was the pre-internet age where you had to find things out that hard way and that sort of kaleidoscopic, multi-genre area of music is what brought me into it. Since then I’ve always wanted to work in music in any form. From there I’ve worked with record labels and so forth, yet for me the phenomenal thing about Rough Trade is we’re fiercely independent and with that we’re able to faithfully represent the artists in a way there’s no bullshit and we celebrate music as an artform. The staff here don’t wear uniforms or name badges and none of that rubbish, we’re like-minded as one with our customers and to be able to do that on a commercial level is very exciting. Most retailers don’t have that kind of approach. It’s an on-going love affair with music and all things independent.”
Rough Trade prides itself on constant evolution and progression as not just a brand but a culture. What do you envisage for Rough Trade Nottingham for the next five years?
“Hopefully it will, or even it already has, started to feel like a home from home, which normally takes time. In some ways we’re relieved to be settled now with some amazing memories already, but at the same time we’re always looking a year ahead. I’m looking forward to the store having that lived-in feel to it, have some amazing bands play here, which it already has, but who knows what the future will hold. I wouldn’t want to prescribe it but what I want to do is simply build a metaphorical platform for the city and artists to revel in the opportunities and fun times to be had.“
