If you haven’t heard the news, London has been experiencing widespread violence since Saturday after the shooting of 29-year old Mark Duggan by Metropolitan police. The violence began in Tottenham (an area I stayed in when I visited there), but has since spread throughout the city. The rampant looting and riots have resulted in the destruction of a three story Sony warehouse that was also home to PIAS Distribution, containing the inventory of almost 200 independent labels.
Indie labels such as Sub Pop, Domino, Polyvinyl, Warp and Asthmatic Kitty all lost inventory in the destruction, but perhaps the biggest blow was to Beggars Group—which includes Matador, XL, 4AD, Rough Trade and True Panther. Approximately 750,000 items including CDs and vinyl have been completely destroyed, a loss that will undoubtedly affect all those labels at the core. It’s already expected that many upcoming releases from these labels will be delayed, or simply not available at all.
A campaign is already underway to help raise money for the labels affects by the fire. Head over to LabelLove, which was created by Cognitive Dissonance Records. As of right now it's just a “holding page,” but they will post more details as they have them. In the meantime, you should buy some vinyl (or CDS, or mp3’s) from the following labels directly to help support them. Even if you just buy one $10 record, I’m certain any jump in sales these labels receive will help out. Get to it!
Matador Records
4AD
Rough Trade
XL
Domino
Polyvinyl
Sub Pop
Warp
True Panther
Asthmatic Kitty
Read a full list of labels distributed by PIAS below, via Drowned In Sound…
