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BEGGARS BANQUET/BEGGARS GROUP HISTORY PART
3
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| Martin with the Cult, 1989 |
In 1987 4AD achieved the first independently
distributed dance number one with "Pump Up The Volume" by
M.A.R.R.S.. Did this surprise you?
"That single finally proved that the independents could actually
compete on a level footing with the majors. When 4AD came up with "Pump
Up The Volume", suddenly the independents were able to be something
other than be the poor relations. And that was a big moment. Strange
that a label like 4AD could release such a seminal dance record. But
by '87 when the house explosion really started to happen it looked very
much to us like the punk explosion which had happened a decade previously.
Although the music was completely different, the ethos, and the way
they dealt with it was very similar."
What was your response to the dance explosion?
We set up City Beat records in partnership with a guy called Tim Palmer
who was our dance expert. It had some early success with acts like Rob
Base and DJ EZ Rock, but in itself spawned XL in '89, which obviously
had huge success with that house sound of the late eighties with acts
like The Prodigy, Liquid, SL2 who all had top twenty singles, and developed
a whole new arm to what we did. In a way that actually was largely compatible
with what the rest of the company was doing, even though the music was
so different."
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| The Prodigy |
As a group of independent labels did you feel
you were well positioned for the coming together of the dance and alternative
scenes at the turn of the 90s?
"Definitely. When XL
started off they were really separate. If you were into dance music
then you just weren't into the alternative stuff, and vice versa. It
was the records that started to fuse the two worlds that helped break
this down. For us The Prodigy were very important because, from the
very beginning, they were a dance act who never acted like a dance act.
They toured like a rock act and ultimately they've had success like
a rock act. We gradually found during the course of the 90s that the
two things became completely compatible. Before then it was inconceivable
that someone would have guitar records and dance records in the same
collection. Now it's completely normal. It's the cross fertilisation
of those scenes which has helped cement our position."
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| Outside Alma Road, The Charlatans 'Some
Friendly' LP reaches number 1, 1990 |
You signed The Charlatans to Situation 2 in 1990. At the time
this seemed like an unusually commercial signing for the label. Is this
a fair comment?
"Yes, The Charlatans were the most obviously commercial band that
we had signed. All of the other bands had been picked up purely because
they were doing something that we believed in, and when they had some
kind of success it was a bonus. I don't think anyone could claim that
they could see from the early days of The Cult, or Cornershop, or The
Prodigy, what they might turn into. But with the Charlatans they were
big from day one."
At the same time 4AD seemed to reinvent itself
from being an ethereal, female vocal dominated label, to being the home
of US alternative guitar bands. Suddenly 4AD seemed to eclipse Beggars.
"4AD were capitalising
on their American success with Throwing Muses and The Pixies. By this
time it was becoming clear that to be a successful label you had to
catch successive waves. Although you couldn't catch every one. But it
was clear that the way to compete with the majors was not to compete
head on, but to find the niche and take things beyond that niche. I
think over the years our success has been the ability to catch those
waves and also having a stable of labels with a lot of different identities
all of which are compatible. Each bit adds up to a whole."
So would you consider this ability to "catch
successive waves" as being the key to the success of all of the
labels in the Beggars Group?
"I think, for any label to be successful they have to reinvent
themselves. The independent labels who have been great but have not
survived are the ones which have not reinvented themselves. Creation
was a great label but it's one picture really, not a succession of pictures.
The same was true of Rough Trade and Factory who put out music every
bit as good as we did, but they didn't run their businesses properly
and they didn't reinvent themselves. And if you look at the progression
of 4AD from Bauhaus to Cocteau Twins to Pixies, to Gus Gus or Thievery
Corporation there's a huge change there. And equally with Beggars you
have Gary Numan, to the Cult, to The Charlatans, to Mark Lanegan, again
a huge change there. Even more noticeable when you look at XL
which has gone from SL2 and Liquid, through Prodigy and onto Basement
Jaxx, Badly Drawn Boy and The Avalanches."
"XL at the moment clearly are like the ultimate alternative label.
It's releasing amazing music. You couldn't really ask for more in terms
of how best to represent the non-pop world today. What makes it exciting,
and also what makes things viable and successful, is this ability to
adapt. Which XL have been very good at."
go to part 4
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