Indie celebration

Guy Garvey and Beggars Group founder praise independent labels

04 July 2008 - As we celebrate indie labels on Independents Day, Beggars Group boss Martin Mills and Elbow’s frontman Guy Garvey have spoken about the state of the industry.

On 4 July 6 Music is paying homage to those labels, artists and music promotions companies who have been brave enough to sidestep the corporate giants – by playing music all day from those artists affiliated with independent labels.

Independent label community

Beggars is an independent label whose founders were inspired by the DIY ethic of punk.

Martin Mills, who set up the Beggars Group in 1977, has been speaking about fellow indie ventures.

He said he had respect for the Leeds band, Pigeon Detectives, who steered clear of the major labels in favour of tiny local label, Dance to the Radio.

“I really respect what they’ve done,” Mills said, “they’ve chosen the Independent route and they’ve really succeeded at it. What they’ve done with Dance To The Radio is completely admirable.”

He also explained the sense of community that exists among independent labels: “There’s a lot of camaraderie now especially since we started Aim in 1999 which has now got 1,000 independent labels as members.

“But people do mix and there’s much more of a community than there was before Aim started.”

After a sell-out tour, the Seattle band Fleet Foxes’ self-titled debut album stormed the album charts reaching number 11 in its first week of release.

The rising stars went the independent route, about which Mills said: “There is competition but I think people are really pleased when, for example, Bella Union does what it did with Fleet Foxes. I think there’s a genuine happiness within the community.”

"They only used to focus on two or three bands a year, but that’s changed now."
Guy Garvey

Guy Garvey's take on the industry

Amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the major label EMI, with Radiohead acrimoniously splitting with the label to join Beggars’ label XL, Elbow's Guy Garvey has been speaking about the state of the record industry.

Elbow have had their own trouble with labels in the past. They were dropped by Universal in 1998 before even releasing an album. They went on to sign with the indie label V2.

Ten years on they are back with the major label Polydor, owned by Universal, for their current album The Seldom Seen Kid .

Elbow's Guy Garvey said the industry was definitely changing but he disagreed that there was no place for record labels.

“It’s a difficult thing to say because what a record label is, is changing so much,” he explained. “New bands can expect to sign away some of their live rights and some of their publishing money to a record label.

“I can’t possibly say anything bad about them because they’ve put money up front for us for us to make music for over 10 years and without them a lot of music wouldn’t get heard.”

Previous industry grumble

But Garvey admitted that he has had moments of disillusionment with the industry in the past.

He said: “A few years ago I had a complaint which was that they weren’t giving enough artists exposure compared to how big the infrastructure is.

“It always struck me as odd that in an era where there’s a 120 different kinds of toothpaste to choose from that they only used to focus on two or three bands a year, but that’s changed now.”

Things have "improved"

But while he might have been frustrated with the industry in the past, Garvey claimed that things have definitely improved for bands.

He said: “The power has totally gone back to the musicians really, you can avoid using a major label if you want but you know, we’ve got little elbows to feed these days and we’re very happy that they’ve put their money behind us and their hard work into getting our records out there.”

Georgie Rogers