Rough trade唱片公司的故事开始于1978年，它的前身是一家坐落在西伦敦的唱片店。70年代末正是朋克和雷吉乐方兴未艾的时候，这家叫做rough trade的唱片店受到一众想要出唱片的小乐队的欢迎。

今年伦敦人最喜欢的唱片店Rough Trade迎来了三十岁华诞。1978年，Rough Trade的两家门店催生了创记录的独立唱片公司Rough Trade Records。智识渊博的伙计、如期而至的演出和琳琅满目的歌风引得无数忠诚的顾客竞相光顾公司门店。

Rough trade的老板geoff travis不禁想到或者他可以自己为这些乐队发行唱片，于是在1978年的时候，以rough trade为厂牌的第一张EP出版了。这张EP是法国乐队Metal Urbain，从这张EP开始rough trade的音乐之树开始萌芽。对rough trade来说，真正具有里程碑意义的事件是the smiths的发现。在签下the smiths之前，rough trade仅仅是一个人云亦云的后朋克厂牌。the smiths的推出，使rough trade逐渐跻身主流音乐圈，而the smiths则最终成为了历史上最伟大的摇滚乐队之一。在80年代中期以前，rough trade的运营状况都很不错，直到geoff成立了同名的发行公司。这间公司勉强支撑到80年代末，终于关门大吉，与此同时唱片公司也被拖垮了。在这之后，Geoff改换门庭，先后使用了trade 2和rough trade recordings成立了新的唱片公司，然而，the rough trade racords以往的辉煌却始终难以再现。沉沦了将近10年之后， the rough trade records终于回来了，同样的名字，同样的老板，同样的前卫。

The rough trade records的音乐风格庞杂多变，虽然在早期它以后朋克和雷吉为标志，但发展到后rough trade时代，geoff已不再局限于选择某一类别的音乐。The rough trade records的音乐格言：“我们只做最好的音乐，我们尽力使人们理解这些音乐，然后掏钱”。早期的rough trade的代表乐队毫无疑问就是the smiths，绝对的一支独秀。进入后rough trade时期，整个厂牌则显示出缤纷多彩的姿态，一如geoff所言，风格不是问题。在这些乐队里，有我们熟悉的the libertines，the strokers，近两年来在中国红得发紫的indie pop乐队belle and sebastian，还有那个另类诡异的亦女亦男的Antony and the Johnsons。同样要求旗下的乐队专心努力的做音乐，但是geoff不排斥那些抱有功利思想的年轻人，想要出名不是一件坏事，只要不把它唯一值得努力的事情。其实，从geoff的只言片语间，the rough trade的音乐气质已经渐显轮廓。the rough trade没有太过另类的艺人，他们的音乐更倾向于主流，也许比主流音乐略深刻，也更前卫一些，但是仍然在非常有限的范围里。

GOUGH TRADE 25周年的纪念时，值得购买的唱片:

elebrating 25 years of the cutting edge independent label, Rough Trade, this budget-priced collection finds a

disparate collection of Rough Trade artists tackling songs by, well, other Rough Trade artists.

The novelty lies in hearing such unlikely pairings as Royal City performing a Strokes song; British Sea Power

tackling Tugboat (one of three Galaxie 500 covers they recorded, apparently), and Delays getting their teeth

into the Mazzy Star track, Ride It On.

Although such albums can pall after a couple of listens, such is the breadth of material on offer here that

you are likely to discover new treasures with each listen. Alasdair Roberts manages a take on the Ivor Cutler

track I Had A Little Boat that preserves much of the original抯 melancholic eccentricity and Jeffrey Lewis'

version of The Television Personalities' hit Part-Time Punks has a suitably quirky, playground charm.

Two tracks are, on their own, worth the price of admission (not much more than a fiver), these being Elizabeth

Fraser's take on the Robert Wyatt song At Last I Am Free (her first commercial recording in five years

excluding the Lord Of The Rings soundtracks) and the aforementioned British Sea Power track, Tugboat. Both, in

their different ways, retain the integrity of the original songs while adding distinctive interpretative

twists.

Inevitably, with an ambitious undertaking such as this, there are a couple of cuts that misfire badly. It was

brave, or perhaps foolhardy, of the Fiery Furnaces to take on a Fall track, especially as, to paraphrase an

old Bob Dylan ad campaign, no one sings Mark E Smith like Mark E Smith. Also, Belle And Sebastian's version of

the Young Marble Giants' song Final Day is an uncoordinated mess.

Nevertheless, these are the only real disappointments from an album that mostly beguiles and delights.