Line #9 Creator/BeggarsBanquetRecords


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beggars_banquet_records_logo_5.jpg]]
2
3	Beggars Banquet Records was one of the longest-lived independent labels to emerge from the British PunkRock era.
4
5	The story began in the early [[TheSeventies 1970s]], when young entrepreneurs Martin Mills and Nick Austin started with a mobile discotheque that evolved into a chain of UsefulNotes/{{London}} record shops named after Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}} album ''Music/BeggarsBanquet''. During the UsefulNotes/{{Punk}} era, groups such as Generation X began rehearsing in the basement of the Beggars store in Fulham. Mills and Austin began managing another of these bands, The Lurkers; when no one was interested in signing the group, they turned Beggars into a record company to release the music themselves. The Lurkers sold well enough to attract other performers to the new label, most notably Tubeway Army, whose singer Music/GaryNuman seemed destined for stardom. Numan was beginning to transition from punk into the SynthPop that made him famous, but Beggars was running into financial trouble by purchasing synthesizers for him. Fortunately, [[Creator/WarnerMusicGroup WEA Records]] came to the rescue with a £100,000 distribution deal.
6
7	This new prosperity allowed Beggars to launch several independently distributed sublabels. One of these, Don't Fall Off the Mountain, was an outlet for American indie bands (including Music/{{Chrome\|Band}}, who were previously on Beggars itself, and Creator/JimJarmusch's early group The Del-Byzanteens) that was named after Creator/ShirleyMacLaine's autobiography. Meanwhile, Creator/SituationTwo and [[Creator/FourADRecords 4AD]] were conceived as farm teams for the main imprint, but 4AD's roster of DreamPop and GothRock performers gave it a distinct identity, and it eventually became as successful as Beggars itself. In the end, the only 4AD band that moved to Beggars was Music/{{Bauhaus}}.
8
9	Beggars continued to prosper throughout TheEighties, with signings including The Charlatans UK, Music/TheCult, Music/{{The Fall\|Band}}, Flesh for Lulu, Freeez, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Go-Betweens, Icicle Works, several Bauhaus solo projects (Music/LoveAndRockets, Music/PeterMurphy, Music/TonesOnTail), two former members of Music/TheVelvetUnderground (Music/JohnCale and Music/{{Nico}}), and even British rights to the Music/{{Ramones}} for a few years.[[note]]Beggars issued "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" as a British single [[LateExportForYou almost a full year]] before it was released outside the UK on the ''Animal Boy'' album.[[/note]]These top-selling acts, along with an American distribution deal with Creator/{{RCA\|Records}}, allowed the company to survive the departures of key personnel (Nick Austin, 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell), as well as the collapse of the original Rough Trade Records and its distribution system, which endangered 4AD and other indies until Beggars formed a new distributor called RTM to take its place and pay off its debts. Along the way another sublabel, Creator/XLRecordings, became popular in its own right.
10
11	In TheNineties and UsefulNotes/The2000s, Beggars ended its corporate distribution deals and started a new holding company called the Beggars Group, which includes 4AD and XL as well as like-minded labels such as Matador, Young, and the reborn Rough Trade. The Beggars Banquet record label continued with new signings (including Bettie Serveert, Buffalo Tom, Died Pretty, and The Dylans) until 2008, when Martin Mills shut it down and transferred its artists to 4AD, although the imprint is still used for catalog reissues. Still, Beggars Banquet leaves behind a three-decade legacy that continues today.
12
13	!!Beggars Banquet performers with Website/TVTropes pages:
14	[[index]]
15	* Music/TheAssociates (transferred from Situation Two)
16	* Music/{{Bauhaus}} (transferred from 4AD)
17	** Music/LoveAndRockets
18	** Music/PeterMurphy
19	** Music/TonesOnTail
20	* Music/BiffyClyro
21	* Music/IvorBiggun
22	* Music/JohnCale
23	* Music/{{Chrome\|Band}} (transferred to Don't Fall Off the Mountain)
24	* Music/TheCult (transferred from Situation Two)
25	* Music/DickDale
26	* Music/{{The Fall\|Band}}
27	* Music/FieldsOfTheNephilim (transferred from Situation Two)
28	* Music/{{Loop}} (transferred from Situation Two)
29	* Music/MercuryRev
30	* Music/TheNational
31	* Music/{{Nico}}
32	* Music/GaryNuman
33	* Music/{{Ramones}}
34	* Music/StVincent
35	[[/index]]

Context Creator / BeggarsBanquetRecords