BEGGARS BANQUET/BEGGARS GROUP HISTORY PART 4

Tower Records, Sunset Strip. Cult and Love & Rockets both top 20 US

As a group, Beggars have enjoyed many successes. Are there any which stand out to you?

"It's very hard to just talk about individual successes, but I think The Prodigy was the nicest kind of success. No one would have imagined it from the release of "Where Evil Lurks" or "Charlie". But Liam had a fantastically clear vision of what he wanted to achieve and over the course of three albums he's made music that has developed and grown. I mean they had a number one album with "Fat of the Land" in twenty seven different countries - It sold seven million records. That's someone making music completely on their own terms, and succeeding beyond anyone's wildest dreams. On the other hand its as rewarding to work with someone like Swell where the sights are set at a very different level. Instead of trying to sell five million records we try to sell fifty thousand records, or five thousand records. But its great music that we all believe in - that people respond to - that we can do on a viable commercial basis. That's just as rewarding."

Was the success of Badly Drawn Boy's "The Hour of the Bewilderbeast" unexpected?

"I was always confident about the Badly Drawn Boy album. I think its a fantastic record and in a lot of ways I think it exemplifies what we are about. It wasn't a huge deal, even though there were a lot of of people interested in signing him. We pitched at a level which could allow him creative freedom, but also within a realistic budget. This meant there was no pressure on him to come up with hit singles which happens when an artist is in a deal worth millions. He's a fantastically talented, maverick, individualist, unique artist. Everything that we like to be. Not immediately and obviously commercial but at the same time very accessible."

You recently added Mo'Wax to the stable. Are you happy with the way they've fitted in with the rest of the group?

"Mo'Wax is a very natural progression for us, and its a very natural addition to the stable of labels in that they've got a very strong identity. They're hugely underground but at the same time they've got the potential to take that into sales. Obviously thus far the relationship is very new, so the likes of Shadow and UNKLE were prior to our relationship, but if you look at a linear representation of all of our labels I think it's a really good fit. I am always very careful to try and get involved with labels that can compliment each other rather than be in direct competition with each other. For instance we've also got an involvement with Twisted Nerve who I think are a very good addition."

In 2000 you became partner in the Internet site Playlouder. Do you see yourselves becoming more proactive in the Internet arena?

"We've been active and very progressive on the Internet for a very long time. I think the web is the classic threat and opportunity combined. For the kind of music that we do its a fantastic tool because it offers a way of people finding and discovering music and passing on the word about it, in a way that benefits what we do. From our perspective the whole file sharing issue is therefore potentially fantastic. Having said that there has to be some economic basis for it, and we'd be representing our artists badly if we allowed their music to be given away freely every day of the week. But at the same time if the process introduces new people to our artists and ultimately they buy our artists records as a result of this, then its something that we have to be involved with."

How do you see the Internet impacting on our music consumption in the future?

"The way I perceive music being received in the future, in the age of the web and of broadband, is as multiple-choice consumption. You will either actively buy the actual record, or be able to buy a digital copy of the record that you then have on some drive or disc at home, or you'll be able to access it on demand and store it, or simply turn on something like one of these Music Choice Europe channels which you know you are going to like, or you'll be able to ask a provider to programme a genre of your choice. Maybe you like Basement Jaxx, all you'll say is that you want an hour of music which is compatible with Basement Jaxx. We want to make our music available for people to be able to consume in all of these different ways, but it all depends on how much people are prepared to pay for music received in different ways. It kind of goes back to the record shop when we used to price the second hand records according to their condition."

How would you sum up the ethos of the Beggars Group in 2001?

"Very much the same as it has always been. We don't want to be a big business. We don't aim to make huge profits. We just aim to put out great music. And we'll continue to grow as our artists do."

Martin James 2001