While watching the documentary about Blur, No Distance Left To Run, and seeing their performance in the Rough Trade record shop in London, I've decided that one day, I'll need to take a pilgrimage there. As a rock music history fan from the U.S., I realize Rough Trade began life as a bricks-and-mortar record store before becoming a seminal post-punk and indie record label. But coming from this side of the ocean, I've always seen and used the term "Rough Trade" (in the musical sense) as an aesthetic signifier, describing a certain post-punk, pre-Britpop alternative music ethos and sound established in the U.K. in the early-to-mid 1980s.
Actually going to the store might be the closest I've ever come to physically stepping into an abstract concept. A physical example of a philosophical movement, a la the Bauhaus building or Warhol's Factory. Heavy stuff, man.
While in London two summers back, I did not make it there, to my chagrin. Next trip!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I did have a moment like that while outside Royal Albert Hall, peering up at it while standing beneath the enormous bronzed Albert Memorial. Made me think of the Spiritualized Live @ Royal Albert Hall record, which was seminal in really being a gateway album beyond the small pools of specific rock music I had been listening to before that. I really wanted to go inside and just sit and absorb the atmosphere.
I didn't...but still, a really cool feeling. Carry on!