LimeWire Music Blog

England’s Cherry Red label has been a source for intriguing, unconventional music for over 30 years. Iain McNay, who still holds the reins today, founded Cherry Red when punk was in bloom in the late ’70s. In its first few years, the label was home to a roster as stunning as it was disparate: The Dead Kennedys, Monochrome Set, Eyeless In Gaza, Felt, Everything But The Girl, and others all found new ways to subvert the norm in those heady post-punk days. These days, Cherry Red concentrates mostly on a vast empire of back-catalog reissues from psych-pop to prog rock, licensed from both indies and majors and routed through a dazzling network of special sub-labels that cater to hardcore record-collector tastes. McNay took time out from presiding over all this activity to talk about how Cherry Red began, where it’s at now, and what’s in store down the line.

What were the circumstances that led up to you starting Cherry Red in the late 1970s?

Iain McNay: I previously worked at two record labels. First, Bell Records in the U.K., which of course changed their name and became Arista Records. It had tremendous success with its U.K. roster — the Bay City Rollers and Gary Glitter… Then I went on to Magnet Records, which was a small independent label in the U.K. I worked there as General Manager. Their biggest act was Chris Rea. Then the first wave of punk was happening… I was really quite inspired by that, so I wanted to see if I could have a go at starting my own record label. I was also involved as a hobby with a company called Cherry Red Promotions, and we were promoting concerts… One of my partners there suggested we start a record label, Cherry Red Records.

What were the first releases on the label?

The first signing was a band called The Tights; the first single ["Bad Hearts"] came out, I think, in June ‘78. The first LP… That was, funnily enough, more like a prog-rock album. I got friendly with this guy called Morgan Fisher…he was in Mott the Hoople for a time as the keyboard player, and he had recorded this obscure album in Italy which we retitled The Sleeper Wakes, and that was our first album, which came out…in early ‘79.

Were there any other indie labels at the time that you took inspiration from?

There were a lot of independent labels just starting up; it was a very exciting time, this first whole punk explosion in the UK…but most of these labels were just people starting without any experience, and I had the advantage of having worked for record companies. The original inspiration came from Refill Records, which was a label started by [British DIY post-punks] Desperate Bicycles, I think they put their first single out about three years previously, and that was even prior to Stiff. That was the first time I’d seen what I thought was a truly independent release, and I guess I was holding that in the back of my mind.

What were the early years of Cherry Red like for you?

I tended to go with things I liked and I believed in. I didn’t really have an image in mind. The important thing for me was to put out records that were interesting, that had some kind of merit. It was really just me to start with for the first couple of years…it was all being run from my London apartment. Then we had big success with The Dead Kennedys’ first album [Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables], because I had the rights to that for the world. So that gave us both a Top 40 single and a Top 40 album in the U.K. We also licensed it around the world. So that gave us financial stability, and we got a proper office, and then we took on an A&R man…Mike Alway. Mike was given a brief to pretty much build a roster…that worked within the post-punk world.

What’s different about the way you work now, with the changes in the industry and the shift to digital music?

Although we’re independent today and putting out a lot of records, we’re not really doing anything with new artists, but when we started in ‘78…we felt like pioneers. The whole thing had got really stagnant. That enabled a whole new independent system…it really was a very exciting new time. But we were still obviously trying to sell physical product, that’s all there was. Now 95 percent of all singles sold in the U.K. are digital. The whole thing of breaking a new band now is digital, and that’s completely different. But ironically it still costs more than ever now to break a band properly, especially on an international basis. It might be initially easier to record…but to actually move to the next stage of breaking a band around the world is harder than ever.

So how have you adjusted to that scenario?

Of our releases now, we only have digital rights to about 25 percent. Obviously when we have digital rights we have them loaded up on various services by IODA, our digital distributor, and we also do digital-only compilations, and we work those as hard as we can. But the basis of our business is still physical product…that’s one of the foundations of our success. Now, ironically, catalog on CD is a niche.

Can you give a thumbnail sketch of the different reissue labels currently under the Cherry Red umbrella?

We still have Cherry Red and [punk label] Anagram; we’ve had those since we started. Esoteric Records, which we started two years ago with Mark and Vicky Powell. They are more the prog rock side of things…all licensed in from the multinationals, although they did acquire a huge amount of Hawkwind material which we bought from the band, so that we can have digital rights on that. Then we have Rev-Ola, which is run by Joe Foster. Rev-Ola was the original catalog label for Creation, Joe was very much involved with Creation. Virtually everything with Rev-Ola is catalog. There’s RPM Records, run by Mark Stratford, and that tends to be mainly ’60s and ’70s material…all catalog. There’s Cherry Pop, which is an ’80s label…that’s been very successful. There’s the 7T’s label, and that of course is ’70s catalog, and we’ve put the Bell stuff out on that I worked with originally. There are a lot of other labels…it’s all catalog basically; we have put out the latest Marc Almond album…we hope to do some more things with Marc, so we are open to new recordings.

The 1982 Pillows and Prayers compilation is still regarded as a Cherry Red milestone. How did it come about, and why has it resonated with so many people over the years?

That was an idea from Mike Alway. Mike just had this idea that he’d like to do a record that sold for less than a pound. So that was 99p we did it for…it was a snapshot of the artists on the label that we felt were interesting at the time [Monochrome Set, Felt, Kevin Coyne, et al.], and it really captured people’s hearts…when it came out we pressed about 10,000…they all went the first day, so we ended up pressing about 120,000 copies of that album…it was Number One in the independent charts for several weeks. And it’s remarkable now, the number of people that I meet…and I say “My company’s Cherry Red,” the first thing they say, they don’t say “Dead Kennedys,” they say “Pillows and Prayers.”

Looking back, what are some of your own favorite Cherry Red releases over the years?

The first single, “Bad Hearts” I still love; there’s sentimental reasons for that, but I still love it as a song. Dead Kennedys, I think “Holiday in Cambodia” was a brilliant single, I think Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables was a great album; there’s just so many good songs on there. I love the different projects I did with Morgan Fisher, the Hybrid Kids project we did together…I have a particular affinity for the Monochrome Set…we had a party at Dingwall’s last year for our 30th anniversary and the Monochrome Set reformed for that.

What are some of the most interesting things you’ve got in the works for the near future?

We’re excited to do some more with Marc Almond; I think he’s a great artist. [In] February we have a couple of Comsat Angels albums coming out, and then Sad Lovers and Giants, an Iggy Pop reissue, a Dana Gillespie reissue, [and] we’re still working through Laurel Aitken’s catalog which we acquired about a year ago. We’ve got three Arthur Brown albums, we’ve got two more Hawkwind packages; it’s just incredibly diverse. And you know, Cherry Red started out as a record label that was diverse musically and released records we thought deserved to be put out, and I think we still do the same now.