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Stiff Records
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Stiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976 by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman (aka Jake Riviera), and active until 1985.
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Encyclopedia
| Stiff Records | | | | Parent company | SPZ Group | | Founded | 1976 | | Founder(s) | Dave Robinson, Jake Rivera | | Distributing label | ZTT Records (In the UK) | | Genre(s) | punk rock | | Country | UK | | Web address | |
Stiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976 by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman (aka Jake Riviera), and active until 1985. It was reactivated in 2007.
Established at the outset of the punk rock boom, Stiff Records signed pub rock acts and marketed them as Punk and New Wave, including Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury. The label's marketing and advertising was often provocative and witty. Stiff billed itself as "The World's Most Flexible Record Label". Other slogans were "We came. We saw. We left.", "If It Ain't Stiff, It Ain't Worth a Fuck", and "When You Kill Time, You Murder Success" (printed on promotional wall clocks). On the label of Stiff's sampler compilation Heroes & Cowards was printed: "In '78 everyone born in '45 will be 33-1/3". A very early Stiff sampler album, A Bunch of Stiff Records, introduced the slogan, "If they're dead, we'll sign them" and "Undertakers to the Industry".
Stiff also produced eccentric but highly effective promotional campaigns, such as the two package tours in 1977 and 1978; Elvis Costello's "busking outside CBS Records" arrest and the 12 different wallpaper sleeves printed for Ian Dury's second album, Do It Yourself, with associated unscheduled makeovers of unsuspecting record shops.
Barney Bubbles was responsible for much of the graphic art associated with the early Stiff releases.
History
Robinson and Riviera were well-known London music business characters, Robinson having briefly worked for Jimi Hendrix in the late 1960s and also managed pub rock combo Brinsley Schwarz in the early 1970s, and Jakeman having been an early manager for another pub rock band, Dr. Feelgood, from Essex. The label was started with a loan of £400 from Lee Brilleaux of Dr. Feelgood.
Stiff found quick success. While its first (August, 1976) release (BUY 1) "So It Goes" c/w "Heart Of The City" by Nick Lowe didn't do so well, the follow up "Between The Lines" by perennially popular hippie outfit the Pink Fairies brought in enough funds to finance the release of what is generally accepted as the UK's first punk single "New Rose" by The Damned in November 1976 which was a veritable hit. Early in 1977 the label picked up speed, signing Wreckless Eric, Ian Dury, and Elvis Costello. Bigger sales followed, and a distribution deal with Island Records and EMI was set up. Each release was given individual attention, with inventive artwork, picture sleeves and a range of snappy slogans, often coupled with inventive marketing campaigns that achieved the label a great deal of notoriety, if not always huge profit margins.
Robinson and Riviera were a fiery management combination, and after a series of disagreements, Riviera left Stiff in early 1978 to form the short-lived Radar Records, taking Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Yachts with him as a settlement package. Riviera's departure coincided with the end of the "5 Live Stiffs Tour" which showcased emerging star Ian Dury, whose album New Boots & Panties had raced up the charts and kept the label in business over the following months. In 1979, Robinson signed Madness, whose considerable commercial success, both in Britain and abroad, would keep the label afloat for several years.
The next few years were the halcyon period for Stiff, with many Top 20 single chart placings (including the label's first No. 1 single: "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" by Ian Dury) and a number of big-selling albums. The label expanded rapidly and moved premises twice. It also continued to release dozens of totally obscure and often uncommercial releases (e.g., The Wit & Wisdom of Ronald Reagan--an LP that was completely silent on both sides, which actually had sales of over 30,000 copies - on Magic Records, with its own slogan: "If it sells, it must be Magic").
At the end of 1983, Island Records bought 50% of the label, with Robinson running both labels. Island was very short of money at the time and Robinson had to lend Island £1,000,000 to fund the share purchase and pay the Island payroll. Despite this, Island under Robinson had their best year ever with releases by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Legend by Bob Marley and U2's The Unforgettable Fire, among others. Stiff signed The Pogues, but Madness left Stiff under a cloud, the Island deal wasn't a success, and Dave Robinson regained control of the newly independent label in 1985. Hits by The Pogues and Furniture helped the label to survive another year and eight months but the reasons for the failure of the Island deal finally became too much of a burden on Stiff and the label was sold to ZTT. In 2007, ZTT and its parent company SPZ Group reactivated the label.
The Stiffs Tours
Robinson and Riviera had arranged package tours, such as the 1975 Naughty Rhythms tour, for acts they managed before forming Stiff, and believed in this method of promotion, so arranged tours to promote Stiff's roster of artists:
The first tour, known as the Live Stiffs Tour or 5 Live Stiffs (3 October – 5 November 1977), comprised five bands: Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Wreckless Eric and The New Rockets, Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop and Larry Wallis's Psychedelic Rowdies. Having signed all the named artists as individuals, bands had to be formed in order to tour; these were largely based on the session musicians used for the artists' solo records. There were 18 musicians on the tour, several doubling up e.g. Dury playing drums for Wreckless, whilst the last two "bands" had the same line up (Nick Lowe, Larry Wallis, Dave Edmunds, Terry Williams, Pete Thomas and Penny Tobin).
The original idea was that the running order would rotate each night, but Dury and Costello were clearly the stronger acts. Costello played mostly new material, and covers, rather than numbers from his recently released album My Aim is True, so the gigs usually ended with most of the artists on stage performing Dury's "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll". A live album Stiffs Live and video of the tour were produced, but the tour only covered the UK.
After the departure of Riviera, Robinson arranged a second tour, the Be Stiff or the Be Stiff Route 78 tour, (October – November 1978 (UK)) again comprising five acts: Wreckless Eric, Lene Lovich, Jona Lewie, Mickey Jupp and Rachel Sweet. The UK tour was undertaken by train, and then continued on to the USA, without Jupp, who was afraid of flying.
The final tour, the Son of Stiff Tour 1980 comprised Ten Pole Tudor, Any Trouble, Dirty Looks, Joe "King" Carrasco and the Crowns and The Equators. This was a European wide tour, undertaken by bus, but was not very successful. The tour led to a 12" EP Son of Stiff Tour 1980 (SON 1) and a short movie directed by Jeff Baynes. The movie has not been released for sale, but was shown on BBC4 in September 2006.
Artists released by Stiff
Although closely associated with punk rock and new wave, Stiff Records hosted a wide variety of players, including:
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