VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rough Trade Records is celebrating its formative years with the release of a limited boxset on June 20, 2025, featuring several of its key, early seven-inch singles.
Boasting eight classic 45s that followed the label’s formation out the original Rough Trade shop in West London in 1978, Rough Trade 45s: Volume 1 features the likes of Augustus Pablo, The Raincoats and Young Marble Giants.
The eight singles, which have been recreated especially for this edition, were handpicked by Rough Trade Records co-MDs, Jeannette Lee and Geoff Travis, who were key players in the DIY nexus that formed around the first Rough Trade shop in the late 1970s.
“There wasn’t much commercial thinking behind starting a label out of the first Rough Trade shop, not much planning,” recalls Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records’ beginnings. “We were just doing things out of love really.”
Reflecting this passion behind its foundation, rather than a dry definitive history of the label’s early years, the boxset represents a personal and musical history, as inspired by Rough Trade’s recent 45th anniversary, Geoff and Jeannette have selected tracks that represent moments of true creative spark from the time.
Accompanying the singles, a new long-form conversation between the pair serves as the sleeve notes for the release, which is illustrated with exclusive archive photography sourced in collaboration with many of the era’s greatest photographers plus new quotes from the artists themselves and notable fans also feature.
“I used to shop at Rough Trade before I joined the label and everyone knew it was the place to go to find interesting music,” explains Jeannette Lee of the memories that influenced their track selection, “Geoff and I just sat down and the tracks just came to us like that! We’re celebrating 45-plus years of the label, and we could easily have picked 45 seven-inches. There have been so many good singles!”
So many in fact, that a second volume of 45s will follow later this year on September 26, 2025, covering the years 1980 to 1993 and is set to include music from the likes of Mazzy Star, Scritti Politti, Jonathan Richman, The Sundays and more. Full details will be confirmed soon.
Each copy of Rough Trade 45s: Volume 1 will be individually numbered, while the run is limited to just 1,000 copies worldwide.
