The Rough Trade story should be fairly familiar to those even vaguely interested by the independent music industry, but as a quick recap: the first Rough Trade shop was opened in Notting Hill in 1976 by Geoff Travis selling imported US music. The shop quickly became the home of Rough Trade Records, established in 1978, signing the likes of The Smiths, The Slits, and Scritti Politti amongst many others. Although the label and the store spilt into separate entities in 1982, both Rough Trade incarnations have remained closely linked, and the Rough Trade name has now become synonymous with all that is good in UK indie music culture.
My first experience of Rough Trade was in the spring of 2007 at Rough Trade West, just off Portobello Road a few months before Rough Trade East first opened for business, and I must say, I was initially not particularly impressed with the experience. I was obviously familiar with the Rough Trade name, but found the experience of this cramped, tiny store, filled with vinyl and aging music snobs a bit of a turn off. A few months later however I checked out the newly opened Rough Trade East and fell in love. For me, RTE is the perfect music shop experience, bar none.
This 5000 square foot haven of independent sounds has quite literally everything any music lover could ask for and more, creating a marvellous vibe which encourages graze and unearth new things. This is a more personal, more idiosyncratic form of organic musical experience, rather than overt, simplistic consumerism. Whilst the store still stocks DVDs and chart CDs, it also offers obscure imports, and fantastically innovative new concepts, such as the album badge (a badge based picture of the album cover, with a chip inside that contains the whole album to listen to in MP3 form).
Inside the shop there is a plethora of services to nurture and encourage musical exploration and a pleasant general experience. Rough Trade East contains a fair-trade café, a snug seating area, a tech booth and electronics store filled with interesting desks and effects units, listening stands with Rough Trade in store information on each release, a book and magazine section, an old fashioned photo booth which gives you four unique picture for only £3, and a huge section of vinyl and CDs. They even have in-store gigs on a regular basis, with a well set-up stage, dedicated techie and 200 person capacity.
A visit to Rough Trade East is always an enjoyable experience, which for me can last hours. There are so many levels to RTE that make it work so well – the sheer amount of services on offer, the knowledgeable and friendly staff, the hippest of locations and the history of the company. The shop does have a bias toward post-punk, alternative and underground music, so it might not cater as well for urban music junkies, though there is a moderately good collection of all music genres to be found within its four walls. The music is cheap as well – when I last visited the store during their sale a month ago I came away with four CDs for under a tenner! I purchased music I would have never stumbled across on i-tunes, and paid a lot less than what I would if I had.
You can buy or download items from Rough Trade online, but it is the experience of visiting Rough Trade East that is key here. If you consider yourself any type of muso whatsoever then get yourself down to Dray Walk, Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London. E1 6QL., and discover how good a music shop can be.
