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'It was like working in a mill, but with drugs': how indie labels reinvented British music

It’s 40 years since Rough Trade, Mute and Factory Records used an anti-industry attitude to give a voice to the likes of Joy Division and Depeche Mode. The labels’ founders recall why they had to rip things up and start again

‘We did have a minor armed robbery, but nobody got killed,” recalls Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis, looking back on a shaky moment for the west London record shop in 1978. Staff lay on the floor at gunpoint as the till was emptied along with their wallets, although one employee was shown some mercy and allowed to keep the gram of speed that was in his.

The shop had become a target due to its success. After opening in 1976, Rough Trade was soon more than a retail outlet. It became a cultural hub, a place where people socialised, read fanzines, listened to chest-pounding dub reggae or, increasingly throughout 1978, tried to sell the records they had made.

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