Global Punk by Kevin Dunn

Author:Kevin Dunn [Dunn, Kevin C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781628926071
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Published: 2016-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

Independent, do-it-yourself record labels pre-date the origins of punk, and there is a long and respected tradition of small record labels within the history of the music industry. Sam Phillip’s Memphis-based Sun Records, after all, is generally credited with helping invent rock’n’roll. Before that, there was a plethora of small record labels in the US that recorded and released jazz, country, and soul music to small, dedicated audiences. Moreover, it was not entirely uncommon for bands to create their own labels, often as vanity projects within a larger multinational label. Some of the best-known examples are the Beatles’ Apple Records, the Rolling Stones’ Rolling Stones Records, and Elton John’s Rocket Records.

But the arrival of punk signaled a marked increase in the number of small, DIY record labels. In part this was due to changes in major record companies themselves. Prior to the emergence of punk, American and British record companies began investing heavily in new recording technologies, which meant that older studio equipment and studios suddenly became available for independent music producers and companies to either buy or rent at affordable costs (Laing 1985: 29–30). Enterprising individuals, such as Miles Copeland, Bob Last, and Tony Wilson, were able to obtain old recording studios and equipment and create their own independent record labels: Copeland’s Step Forward, Last’s Fast Product, and Wilson’s Factory Records. Thus, pioneering punk bands benefited from changes in the established record industry that were unrelated to a promotion of a DIY ethos.

Yet punk’s DIY ethos also encouraged many bands and enterprising entrepreneurs into the record industry. London’s Stiff Records was started with a £400 loan from Lee Brilleaux, singer of the pub-rock band Dr. Feelgood, and is credited with releasing the first punk single in November 1976, the Damned’s “New Rose” (Balls 2014). The Buzzcock’s Spiral Scratch EP was the first British homemade record. The band borrowed £500 from family and friends to record and release the EP. According to singer Howard Devoto, the actual recording session took three hours, with another two for mixing (Savage 2002 [1991]: 296–7). The EP was released in January 1977 on the band’s own New Hormones label and quickly sold all 1,000 copies of the first pressing. The EP went on to sell 16,000 copies, largely through mail order (Reynolds 2006: 92). Arguably, the Spiral Scratch EP is the most important of the original punk releases. While the Sex Pistols, with their “Anarchy in the UK” single (released the previous November on EMI), showed that virtually anyone could be in a band, the Buzzcocks showed that anyone could release a record. The EP literally showed how one could make a record, with the details of the recording process (e.g., number of takes and over-dubs) and pressing costs printed right on the record sleeve.

The influence of the EP was profound, not just on bands and listeners, but on the recording industry itself. Bob Last claims that he founded his Fast Product record label after picking up Spiral Scratch: “I had absolutely no idea there’d been a history of independent labels before that.

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