Labels that walk the musical tightrope

May 7 2008 by Chris Knox, The Journal

The North East has been in the musical limelight over the last few years, with bands like Maximo Park and The Futureheads helping to put the region on the map. Christopher Knox looks at whether this has rubbed off on the region’s record labels and asks whether a vibrant music scene equals big business.

GONE are the days when the North East’s music scene was known for just the schoolboy rappers PJ and Duncan, before they were to blossom into TV favourites Ant and Dec, and the weathered features of Geordie crooner Jimmy Nail.

The region is now producing a growing number of musicians at the forefront of their genres that are proving as talented and diverse as anything coming out of London, Manchester and Liverpool.

Pop and indie bands such as The Futureheads, The Kubichek! and award-winning folksters Rachel Unthank and the Winterset are helping to build on the region’s growing reputation as a hotbed of musical talent.

Although some of the better known outfits, such as Maximo Park, have signed with the bigger London-based record labels, there are still a number of North East labels that are benefiting from the rising tide of homegrown talent, with many either starting out or having already established themselves as major players in the industry.

Newcastle-based Kitchenware Records has been part of the region’s music scene for more than 25 years and has had a string of successful artists on its books, including local groups Prefab Sprout and Lighthouse Family. That’s not to say that the label hasn’t kept up with the times, and now has Newcastle girl group Sirens and Tynemouth rockers The Motorettes among its much touted prospects.

However, it is Birmingham indie-rockers Editors that are by far the label’s most famous and lucrative act at present, with their two albums, Mercury Music Prize nominated debut The Back Room and last year’s An End Has a Start, selling over 1.5 million copies between them.

Kitchenware was set-up in 1982 by a then 21-year-old Keith Armstrong while he was working as a manager at HMV. The label was run by Keith and a group of friends at the back of the store in Newcastle and was publicised through a series of club nights the group held across the region.

The group, which included film makers, fashion designers, poets and artists, stamped everything with the Kitchenware brand, including the label’s first single The Sun Shines Here by North East band Hurrah! in 1982, with the indie four-piece going on to support U2 and becoming the first Western band to play in Iraq.

Keith said: “It always annoyed me that Manchester and Liverpool were known for their music scenes whereas Newcastle was not. The region was losing too much talent to London. We wanted to find bands and promote them up here.”

Another label which has the luxury of its own studio is Newcastle-based Construction Records. Based behind the Central Station at Forth Banks, Newcastle, studio BaseHQ was set up in 2002 by London-born Gavin Lee and his partner Caroline Bearpark, and has provided space for a wide range of acts, from indie favourites Guillemots to London rapper Sway, as well as local outfits Seven Heroes and The Mosaics.

Gavin’s 25-year career in music began as a drummer in Somerset with cult psychedelic group Ozric Tentacles, before moving to Newcastle where he hooked up with local indie-pop group Dubstar as their drummer and sometime bass player.

He and Caroline set up Construction Records in 2005 after becoming disenchanted with the lack of a real music industry in the North East. They wanted to provide more of an infrastructure for artists to develop through the combination of the studios and a homegrown label.

“It’s true that bands like Maximo Park and The Futureheads have done well, and good on them,” Gavin said. “However, there is still no real hub in the region as bands feel like they have to be alike in order to be sellable to the London labels, who then sell their sound back to the North East as a ‘local scene’. We wanted to create a label which allowed regional bands to create their own sound without outside pressures.”

Such a creative attitude has attracted two of the North East’s most eclectic bands to the label in the shape of Newcastle’s jaunty gypsy-punk ska group The Baghdaddies and humorous punk band Odd Shaped Head, also from Newcastle, whose songs have carried off-the-wall titles including Monkey Shotgun and Chocolate Peanuts.

However, although the pair are the very embodiment of creativity, they are well aware of the need to have a solid business model and other projects to fall back on.

One measure has been to produce regular voice overs and soundtracks for television companies including Sky, and although Gavin and Caroline are looking to add other bands to their label, including a solo album by Gavin himself, the pair are wary of over-stretching themselves as a business.

Gavin said: “We want to grow gradually and, as the label is a business, we are being careful about how much it can achieve in such a small space of time. Also we want to give our artists all the attention we can without being distracted by too many responsibilities. A lot of labels think they need a long list of bands just to look legitimate, whereas they should be paying more attention to a select few.

“Labels like ourselves tread a thin tightrope, 10,000 ft in the air, and need to give ourselves the best chance of surviving. Although we are creating something artistic, people must remember that labels are businesses just like any other and that a lot of hard work has to be put in.”

This tightrope has gotten even thinner over recent years as the pressures of illegal downloads and sites like MySpace have taken their toll on the industry. This has been felt by everyone, including record shops, with more and more people preferring to get their musical kicks from the internet rather than purchase something physical.

Richie Latimore, who works at Newcastle record shop RPM Music, said: “It’s great that easier ways to get hold of music is inspiring more kids to get involved themselves. But the fact is that they just aren’t paying for it anymore, which is something the labels are up against even before they start to promote their acts.”

Keith said: “Although it’s great that there’s more music to get hold of on these sites, it’s also harder to find quality acts among the mountain of dross.

“As far as downloading is concerned, we can’t change the way people access music. However, music labels must find different ways of providing paid-for music, whether this is through promotions or limited edition releases at gigs, for example.”