Nigel House - Rough Trade and its Album Of The Month selection
BRDCST is AB’s brand new indoor spring festival, one whereby we focus on musical limitlessness. The name is a direct reference to the retro futuristic electronica-pop of English band Broadcast, which has released inspiring albums like ‘Haha Sound’ and ‘Noise Made By The People’ over the past decade. Artists who feel strongly about musical innovation will form the focal point for BRDCST.
WONDER TALK
The first edition of BRDCST has not even taken place and yet a tradition (#2) has also already been born! Namely, each day we will be totally engrossed in ‘a moment of wonder’ that we share with our visitors. We will invite artists, authors or music insiders for a chat to enlighten us about items that were inspirational while putting together our ideal line-up. Our admiration just has to be shared.
In 1976, 40 years ago now, the first seeds of the Rough Trade Shop were planted when Geoff Travis opened a record store in Kensington Park Road, West London. Rough Trade very soon became a label and a distribution channel for various independent labels too.
NIGEL HOUSE
In 1978 it was decided to have the label, the distribution and the shop continue to exist as separate entities. After that, a number of young employees, including Nigel House, took over the shop for the price of the records in stock. Under the same name, they managed to save Rough Trade from ruin. To this day, House is still active as director of Rough Trade Retail.
The shops (now 3 in UK and 1 in NY) enjoy an almost iconic status among music lovers from all over the world and they always manage to keep their finger on the pulse as far as what’s on offer.
They do this with, amongst other things, exclusive Rough Trade CDs, in-shop concerts and their monthly selection of Albums Of The Month. That’s where they introduce a selection of 10 new, or yet to be released, albums to their clients.
We’ll be getting Nigel House over to AB for BRDCST, to talk about the creation of Rough Trade, the unique position it has in the musical landscape, and how they arrive at their AOTM selection every month. He will already let us hear a number of exclusive tracks from the selection for April 2016.
Admittance is free of charge and without registration but seats are limited, so be here on time!