Rough Trade Records has announced the release of an exclusive box set celebrating the earliest days of the pioneering record label. ‘Rough Trade 45s: Volume 1’ will consist of eight handpicked 7” singles which best represent the ideals and spirit of Rough Trade between 1978 and 1980. The collection was curated by Rough Trade Records co-managing directors, Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee, giving listeners an idea of what the most important records were to these two key figures in the label’s history.
“There wasn’t much commercial thinking behind starting a label out of the first Rough Trade shop, not much planning,” said Travis in a statement released alongside the announcement. “We were just doing things out of love really.” It was this enthusiasm and love for their craft that shaped Rough Trade into a forward-thinking, progressive record label that would split revenue 50/50 with artists, when other major labels would take 80%. According to Davy Reed of Cracked, their business practices were informed by the DIY ethos of punk, and feminist and left-wing politics.
The box set is limited to 1000 numbered copies worldwide, and contains some classic singles. Among the eight singles are Augustus Pablo’s ‘Pablo Meets Mr Bassie’, Stiff Little Fingers’ ‘Alternative Ulster’, and The Pop Group’s ‘We Are All Prostitutes’, which reached No. 3 in the UK charts in 2016. The full tracklist is below.
Augustus Pablo – ‘Pablo Meets Mr Bassie’
Stiff Little Fingers – ‘Alternative Ulster’
The Pop Group – ‘We Are All Prostitutes’
Subway Sect – ‘Ambition’
Swell Maps – ‘Read About Seymour’
The Raincoats – ‘Fairytale in the Supermarket’
Cabaret Voltaire – ‘Nag Nag Nag’
Young Marble Giants – ‘Final Day’
Included in the box set will be some promotional material such as posters and artwork, as well as an exclusive interview with Travis and Lee, conducted by music journalist Paul Stokes. Speaking on X, Stokes said of the pair, “both are as visionary as the artists who make up this brilliant collection.”
The Rough Trade Records website has the preorder listed at £99.99, a hefty price tag for eight singles. One Reddit user said, “In 2025 it’s clear people will pay a premium for rare and hard-to-find releases in unique formats, pressings, etc., but this feels way more Record Store Day than Acoustic Sounds. Those are two totally different segments of the market, and this set looks to be giving customers the worst of all worlds.”
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This isn’t the first retrospective for Rough Trade Records, having released another compilation, ‘Recorded at The Automat’, in 2015. That album earned four stars from The Guardian’s Phil Mongredien, describing the label as “an early champion of post-punk before becoming synonymous with jangling indie in the 80s.” This upcoming release, however, focuses solely on the formative years of the label, and the NME reports that a Volume 2 should be expected on September 26, this time focussing on tracks from 1980-1993.
With this first collection, Rough Trade Records has kept the punk spirit of those early days with a selection of worthy, but possibly under-appreciated tracks, and reaffirming their importance to the music that would follow. With a steep price tag, the collection is for hardcore fans, though a digital release would introduce a new generation to these landmark tracks.
