Stiff Records

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The Stiff Records record label was created in London in 1976, at the outset of the punk boom by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman (aka Jake Riviera). Both 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.

The Stiff record label took off immediately. The first release, BUY 1, was "So It Goes" by Nick Lowe, a tune which bore more than a slight resemblance to a then-current Thin Lizzy hit. The next few releases featured a motley crew of artists. However, with the signings of Elvis Costello and cartoon punks The Damned at the tail end of 1976, the label picked up speed. 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 and Nick Lowe with him as a settlement package. Riviera's departure coincided with the end of the 5 Live Stiff's Tour which showcased the talents of emerging artist Ian Dury whose album New Boots & Panties 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) many of which might well have only seen the light of day because of connections with Stiff management. Songwriter/producer Richard Daniel Roman once spent a time at the label's legendary disorganized storage vaults deep beneath London trying to bring order to years of chaos, only to surrender to the vastly superior forces of unsold Barry McGuigan picture discs and Tracey Ullman LPs.

Unfortunately, the good times were not to last and a combination of spiralling debts and a lack of managerial direction forced a sale to Island Records in 1984. Madness left Stiff under a cloud, the Island deal wasn't a success, and Dave Robinson regained control of the newly independent label in 1986. By this time, however, Stiff's heyday was over and it lasted only a few more months. The last few releases barely made the shops as the label disintegrated.

Stiff had billed themselves as The World's Most Flexible Record Label. The label had a lot of attitude. Other slogans were "We came. We saw. We left." and "If it ain't Stiff it ain't worth a f**k." Another legendary slogan -which came printed onto some promotional clocks- reads "When you kill time you murder success". Less known, but worth mentioning, is the small pun which can be found, for example, on the label of Stiff's sampler compilationHeroes & Cowards : "In '78 everyone born in '45 will be 33-1/3". A very early Stiff album was the sampler "A Bunch of Stiff Records" which introduced the slogans "If they're dead we'll sign them" and "Undertakers to the Industry".

Stiff is also well remembered for their eccentric but highly effective promotional campaigns, such as the two package tours in 1977 and 1978, featuring most of the artist roster performing at alternating times each night; Elvis Costello's "busking outside CBS Records" arrest or perhaps 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 the graphic art associated with the early Stiff releases.


[edit] Artists released by Stiff

Devo released several singles on Stiff, and their single "Be Stiff" was later covered by several Stiff artists.

Although Stiff had a punk reputation, it hosted a wide variety of players. Amongst the first few Stiff artists were:

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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