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Stiff Records

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Stiff Records
Parent companyUniversal Music Group(label)
Concord(American back catalogue)
FoundedAugust 1976[1]
Founder
  • Dave Robinson
  • Jake Riviera
StatusActive
Distributor(s)Universal Music Group
Genre
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Official websitestiff-records

Stiff Recordsis a Britishindependent record labelformed inLondon,England, byDave RobinsonandJake Riviera.Originally active from 1976 to 1986, the label was reactivated in 2007.

Established at the outset of thepunk rockboom, Stiff signed various punk rock andnew waveacts such asNick Lowe,the Damned,Lene Lovich,Wreckless Eric,Elvis Costello,Ian Dury,andDevo,also signing artists with significant crossover appeal such asMotörhead,Larry WallisandMick Farren.In the 1980s, with most of their early signings having moved on, the label found commercial success withMadness,The Pogues,Tracey Ullman,The Belle Stars,Kirsty MacColland others.

In December 2017,Universal Music Groupacquired Stiff Records andZTT Records.[2]Razor & Tie,a division of theConcord Music Group,holds the American rights to the Stiff catalogue.[3]The British rights to the Stiff catalogue were held byBMG Rights Managementunder Union Square Music until 2022, when Universal relaunched the Stiff and ZTT labels.

History

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Stiff Records logos
The original Stiff Records logo
A 2nd version of the Stiff Records logo

Robinson and Riviera were well-known London music business characters. Robinson had briefly worked forJimi Hendrixin the late 1960s and also managed minor pub rock bandBrinsley Schwarzin the early 1970s, in whichNick Lowewas the bassist, vocalist and main songwriter; while Riviera had been an early manager for another pub rock band,Dr. Feelgood,from Essex. The label was started with a loan of £400 fromLee Brilleauxof Dr. Feelgood.[4]

Originally, Stiff had been called Demon, but the phrase "It’s a stiff!" was more appropriate for the artists on the record label.[5]Stiff found quick success. Its first release, on 14 August 1976, was asingle(in the normal 7 "vinyl 45 rpm format) byNick Lowe,"So It Goes",B-side" Heart of the City ", with the striking catalogue number BUY 1.[1][6]That record sold 10,000 copies, but Stiff's next release, "Between The Lines" byPink Fairies,sold only around half of that.[7]Robinson and Riviera used money from their Advancedale management company to finance the release of what is generally accepted as theUnited Kingdom's first punk single, "New Rose"byThe Damned,on 22 October 1976.

Early in 1977, Stiff Records picked up speed, signingWreckless Eric,Ian Dury,andElvis Costello,who had once been a part-time roadie forBrinsley Schwarz.Bigger sales followed, and a distribution deal withIsland RecordsthroughEMIwas set up. After arranging for Costello and Lowe to be signed directly toCBS Records'Columbialabel, a similar deal was made withAristawho releasedIan Dury's first album and theLive Stiffs Livealbum. The deal was short-lived and Stiff then made a deal withCBS Recordsfor Stiff releases in the United States, at both theColumbiaandEpicsubsidiaries on the Stiff/Columbia and Stiff/Epic labels.

Robinson and Riviera were a fiery management combination, and after a series of disagreements, Riviera left Stiff in early 1978 to form the short-livedRadar Records,takingElvis Costello,Nick LoweandYachtswith him as a settlement package. Riviera's departure coincided with the end of the "5 Live Stiffs Tour", which showcased emerging starIan Dury.Dury's albumNew Boots & Panties!!had raced up the charts and its sales kept the label in business over the following months. In 1979, Robinson signedMadness,and Madness released albums from 1979 to 1984.[8]

The next few years were the halcyon period, 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 other big-selling albums. Stiff expanded rapidly and moved its premises twice. It also continued to release dozens of obscure and uncommercial releases. For example, Stiff Records released the parody albumThe Wit & Wisdom of Ronald Reagan.That LP, on Magic Records, was completely silent on both sides, with Reagan's own slogan, "If it's a success it must be Magic!".[9]

At the end of 1983, Island Records bought 50% of Stiff, and Robinson ran both labels. Island was very short of money at the time and Robinson had to lend it £1,000,000 to fund the share purchase and pay the payroll. In 1984 Island Records released hit single "Relax" byFrankie Goes to Hollywood.[10]Stiff signedThe Pogues,but then Madness left under a cloud. The Island deal failed and Dave Robinson regained control of the newly independent label in 1985. Hits by The Pogues andFurniturehelped Stiff to survive another twenty months, but the underlying causes for the failure of the Island deal finally became too burdensome for Stiff and it was sold toZTTin 1987.[11]

In 2007, ZTT and its parent company SPZ Group reactivated the label.[12]Stiff quickly broke one of the UK's hottest new indie acts,The Enemy.It then released a string of well-received albums of new work from legacy Stiff artists, including asWreckless Eric,Henry Priestman,Any Trouble,andChris Difford.Brand new acts signed to the label included The Tranzmitors and Eskimo Disco. Swedish designer Tobbe Stuhre[13]was appointed official Stiff Records designer.

In 2008, Union Square Music releasedThe Big Stiff Box Set.

The Stiffs Tours

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Part of the train that was used on the Be Stiff Route 78 Tour

Robinson and Riviera had arranged package tours ‒ such as the 1975Naughty Rhythmstour ‒ for acts they managed before forming Stiff. The first tour, known as theLive Stiffs Touror5 Live Stiffs(3 October – 5 November 1977), comprised five bands:Elvis Costelloand The Attractions,Ian Duryand the Blockheads,Wreckless Ericand The New Rockets,Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop, andLarry 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 Eric while the last two "bands" had the same line up (Nick Lowe, Larry Wallis,Dave Edmunds,Terry Williams,Pete Thomasand Penny Tobin).

The original idea was that the running order would rotate each night, but Dury and Costello were clearly the strongest acts. Costello played mostly new material and cover versions, rather than numbers from his recently released albumMy 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 entitledLive Stiffs Liveand a video of the tour were produced, but the tour only covered the UK.[14]

After the departure of Riviera, Robinson arranged a second tour, theBe Stiffor theBe Stiff Route 78tour, from October to November 1978 (UK), again comprising five acts; Wreckless Eric,Lene Lovich,Jona Lewie,Mickey Jupp,andRachel Sweet.The mainland section of the UK tour was undertaken by train and the Irish section by coach, and then continued on to the USA without Jupp, who was afraid of flying. The artists contributed to an EP with cover versions of the Devo song, and early Stiff single, "Be Stiff".[15]

The final tour, theSon of Stiff Tour 1980,comprisedTen Pole Tudor,Any Trouble,Dirty Looks,Joe "King" Carrasco and the Crowns,and The Equators. Undertaken by bus, this European tour was not successful.[16]The tour led to a 12 "EPSon of Stiff Tour 1980(SON 1)[17]and a short movie directed by Jeff Baynes. The movie has not been released for sale, but was shown on BBC4 in September 2006.[18]

Marketing and design

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The label's marketing and advertising was often provocative and witty, billing 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 "[4](printed on promotional wall clocks). On the label of Stiff's sampler compilationHeroes & Cowardswas printed: "In'78everyone born in'45will be33-1/3".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".[19]

Stiff also produced eccentric but highly effective promotional campaigns, such as the three package tours in 1977 (Live Stiffs), 1978 (Be Stiff) and 1980 (Son of Stiff), Elvis Costello's "street performanceoutside CBS Records.[20]

Barney Bubbleswas responsible for much of the graphic art associated with the early Stiff releases.

Label artists

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See also

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Further reading

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  • Bert Muirhead (1983).Stiff, the Story of a Record Label, 1976-1982.Blandford Press.ISBN978-0-7137-1314-5.
  • Richard Balls (30 October 2014).Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story.Soundcheck Books.ISBN978-0-9575700-6-1.

References

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  1. ^ab"Stiff Records: If it ain't Stiff, it ain't worth a debt – Features – Music".The Independent.15 September 2006.Archivedfrom the original on 25 May 2022.Retrieved7 December2012.
  2. ^"Universal Music Acquires Iconic British Labels Stiff Records and ZTT".Billboard.Retrieved23 January2018.
  3. ^"Home | Facebook".Stiff-records. 12 October 2017.Retrieved2 May2020.
  4. ^ab"The spirit of Stiff Records lives on".The Independent.Retrieved19 July2017.
  5. ^"The story of Stiff, the most anarchic record label of all time".loudersound.28 March 2018.Retrieved4 June2021.
  6. ^"Discogs Nick Lowe: So It Goes/Heart of the City".Retrieved26 June2011.
  7. ^Dave Robinson International Times, Issue 4, Number 15
  8. ^"The Madness Timeline: 1979". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  9. ^"No Artist – The Wit And Wisdom Of Ronald Reagan (1980, Vinyl)".Discogs.Retrieved2 May2020.
  10. ^"Relax – Frankie Goes To Hollywood". MusikBloggNo. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  11. ^"Stiff Records profile".Discogs.Retrieved30 December2019.
  12. ^"Stiff Records – The Legend Returns".trakMARX.Retrieved7 December2012.
  13. ^"Graphic Design".Buy The Hour.n.d.Retrieved15 June2024.
  14. ^Balls, Richard (2000).Sex & Drugs & Rock'n'Roll: The Life of Ian Dury(1st ed.). London, England: Omnibus Press. pp. 176–184.ISBN0-7119-8644-4.
  15. ^Balls, Richard (2000).Sex & Drugs & Rock'n'Roll: The Life of Ian Dury(1st ed.). London, England: Omnibus Press. pp. 208–209.ISBN0-7119-8644-4.
  16. ^"The spirit of Stiff Records lives on – Features – Music".The Independent.25 January 2008.Retrieved7 December2012.
  17. ^"Various – The Son Of Stiff Tour 1980 (Vinyl) at Discogs".Discogs.Retrieved7 December2012.
  18. ^[1]Archived15 February 2012 at theWayback Machine
  19. ^"A Bunch of Stiff Records (Vinyl) at Discogs".Discogs.Retrieved13 June2016.
  20. ^Jones, Allan(1 August 1977)."A Day in the Life of a Bunch of Stiffs".Melody Maker.Retrieved11 February2020.
  21. ^"Stiff – Madness".Stiff-records.Retrieved19 July2017.
  22. ^"Pogues, The & Dubliners, The – The Irish Rover (Vinyl) at Discogs".Discogs.Retrieved1 September2013.
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