SonyDADC/PIAS London distribution warehouse fire and impact

A separate thread for this from the general London unrest coverage, given its specific relevance to ILM, but as this story details, this appears to be a major disaster for a slew of UK labels:

Numerous independent record labels fear they have lost a catastrophic amount of stock in a fire at a distribution warehouse in north London during the riots in the capital on Monday night. A three-storey, 20,000 square-metre building in Enfield, owned by Sony DADC and holding stock to be distributed by the Pias Group, was burned to the ground.

The fire will potentially impact labels such as Domino, as well as film production companies with DVD stock. Pias is the UK's largest independent sales, marketing and distribution company.

Other labels that may be affected include 4AD, Warp and Beggars Banquet. Beggars Group chairman Martin Mills confirmed his group had stock at the site, but told Music Week that he and other larger labels would be less affected by the disaster than smaller counterparts because they carried stock in other locations. Nevertheless, Mills called the latest setback for the indie sector "horrible, horrible" and added that many labels would also now face manufacturing issues to replenish destroyed stock.

A statement on the Pias website read: "There was a fire last night at the SonyDADC warehouse which services the physical distribution for Pias in the UK and Ireland. Pias is working closely with SonyDADC who are implementing their emergency plans. Pias's UK offices in London and all other areas of our business are unaffected. More information will be communicated shortly to all our labels and partners."

Industry analyst Paul Scaife said: "Physical retail is still absolutely crucial to many in the independent sector and if – as seems quite likely – several smaller labels aren't covered by insurers, this could be the difference between survival and going out of business."

--

The full list of labels distributed by Pias is as follows:

1234

2020 Vision

Accidental

Ad Altiora

Adventures Close to home

Alberts

All City

Alt Delete

Ambush Reality

Angular

Ark

ATC

Atic

Atlantic Jaxx

Azuli

B Unique

Backyard

Bad Sneakers

Bandstock

Banquet

Beggars

Big Chill

Big Dada

Big Life / Nul / Sindy Stroker

Boombox

Border Community

Boysnoize

Brille

Bronzerat

Brownswood

Buzzin Fly

Can You Feel It

Catskills

ChannelFly

Chemikal Underground

City Rockers

Counter

D Cypher

Dance To The Radio

Deceptive

Def Jux

Dirtee Stank

Divine Comedy

Domino

Drag City

Drive Thru

Drowned in Sound

Duophonic

Eat Sleep / Sorepoint

Electric Toaster

Emfire

F. Comm

Fabric

Faith And Hope

Fantastic Plastic

Fargo

FatCat

Feraltone

Finders Keepers / Twisted Nerve

Fingerlickin'

Flock

Free Range

From The Basement

Full Time Hobby

Goldsoul

Gronland

Groove Attack

Halftime

Hassle

Heron

Hum&Haw;Independiente

Info UK

Join Us

Kartel

Kensaltown

Kitsune

Kompakt

Laughing Stock

Leftroom

Lex

Lo Max

Loose

Love Box

Lowlife

Lucky Number

Marquis Cha Cha

Memphis Industry

Merok

Metroline

Mute

Naïve

Nation

Navigator

New World

Ninja Tune

Nuclear Blast

One Little Indian

Output / People in the Sky / Process

Pale Blue

Palm

Peacefrog

PIAS Recordings

PIP 555 Productions

Play To Work

Powerhouse (T2)

Propaganda / Ho Hum

Raw Canvas

Red Grape

Red Telephone Box

Rekids

Renaissance

Respect Productions (PES digital)

Reveal Records

RMG

Rock Action

Roots

Rough Trade

Rough Trade Comps

Rubyworks

Ruffa Lane

Search And Destroy

Secret Sundaze

Secretly Canadian / Jagjaguwar / Dead Oceans

Sell Yourself

Setanta

Shatterproof

Sideone Dummy

Slam Dunk

Smalltown

Soma

Something In Construction

Sonar Kollectiv

Soul Jazz

Southern Fried

Stranded Soldier

Subliminal

Sunday Best

TARGO

Taste

Ten Worlds

Thrill Jockey

Total Fitness

Touch And Go

Track And Field

TriTone

Trouble

Try Harder

Turk

Turnstile

Twenty 20

Underworld

Union Square

Urban Torque

Vagrant

Vice

Victory

Wagram

Wall Of Sound

Warp

Wi45

Wonky Atlas

Word And Sound

Xtra Mile

You Are Here

http://drownedinsound.com/news/4143302-indie-label-distributor-pias-release-short-statement-regarding-fire-at-sonydadc-warehouse?ticker

:(

Damn, now I actually care about these riots. (Absolutley kidding, btw, this is just another in a long string of saddening news coming out of the UK right now)

I'm pretty sure I heard staff talking about this in Rough Trade East this morning. Sad news.

also affects dvd publishers, including people i work for:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/09/british-film-distributors-warehouse-fire

so im not the happiest of campers

Sorry to hear that history mayne, that is incredibly upsetting.

Are the rumors I'm seeing on Twitter true, that insurance most likely won't cover the losses because of the cause?

yeah insurers have snuck in a 'deepset sociological causes' get-out in the last few years, the swine

many of the smaller labels won't have stock insurance and are doubly hit as ALL their stock was in there (many of the larger independents would have had stock in several locations so haven't lost everything)

Every copy of an album my friend played guitar on was destroyed in the fire. Pretty shitty.

If it were UMVD instead of independent labels, I'd be cheering. I hope that there are digital masters of their work stored away.

http://thequietus.com/articles/06731-help-pias-labels-by-buying-today-our-top-twenty

man this is fucked up

i ordered from nuclear blast before, now i know that they sent stuff to that warehouse then it was shipped from there. it was speedy and cheap. Was gonna place an order soon too. And quite a few labels i order from regularly have stock there. shakey is otm

finders keepers :(

I've been double checking all the suggestions we made at the Quietus and just heard back from Nuclear Blast. They're distributed in the UK by a different network now. Which is good for them obviously but there are plenty of other labels to choose from.

The trouble is that PIAS's own website was out of date so there are a couple of labels off the latest long list which I'm still waiting for confirmation on one way or the other. Kompakt is one of them, I'm getting conflicting information on but I'm sure on all the others.

one of the Finders Keepers dudes posted something on Facebook to the effect that they weren't as fucked as they might have been, although he was light on detail

That's good to hear. I emailed Doug and Dom but am still waiting to hear back from them.

I think Nat from Sonic Cathedral has lost nearly everything as has Ben Watt at Buzzin' Fly.

from twitter : "KeepersFinders FindersKeepers all our stock is now limited edition

I can think of one particular label, not on the list, who I'd be happy to see go up in flames but this situation is really tragic... oh Finders Keepers, thank God they're not too badly off!

Ok, so I don’t know but a handful of these labels. The ones I can recognize are relatively high profile and have at least one massive seller under their belts (like Domino, Drag City, etc.), so while I’m sure they’ll be impacted, it won’t be nearly as bad as for some of these smaller guys.

Do you know any particularly AWESOME albums released by any of the lesser-known labels? I’m thinking that maybe it would be cool to just put together a list so that posers like me could try and track down a couple albums on itunes or other digital format in the near future.

I mean like "Boombox, Border Community, Boysnoize, Brille, Bronzerat"? I don't know what the fuck and I probably wouldn't glance at them twice. But maybe you do know what the fuck and we could help boost sales for these artists who could be getting hit pretty hard by this.

Pretty much everything on Soul Jazz is amazing.

Rock action is mogwai's label and they've put out good stuff by errors,envy,part chimp,James orr complex,remember remember etc.

Cool, let's hear some more!

Jagjaguwar has some Richard Youngs albums, don't they? You can't go wrong with him.

I'm going to make this it's own thread.

I can wholeheartedly recommend James Holden's The Idiots Are Winning on Border Community. Sort of blissful, quirky, melodic house and techno that is ideal for headphones and odd dancefloors.

On Rock Action, you cannot go wrong - as Jim says - with Thriller by Part Chimp, a superior stoner rock album.

Soul Jazz is an amazing label. The recent Invasion Of The Mysteron Killer Sound comps by Kevin Martin and Stuart Baker are both great. For reggae fans - Jackie Mittoo The Keyboard King Of Studio One, 100% and 300% Dynamite, Studio One Rockers and Reggae Disco are just some of the blinders they've released. Elsewhere Saturday Night Fish Fry and New Orleans Soul and Funk, their Louisiana primers are great.

I'm really partial to Lights Out Zoltar or anything else by UK singer songwriter Gemma Ray on Bronzerat.

Can't recommend Well Hung and Tandy Love's Turk Jerk, Sam Spence Sounds and Pommegranates on Finders Keepers.

Jane Weaver's The Fallen By Watchbird on Bird is also great.

Will try and think of some more.

this, on soul jazz http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/releases/?id=14230

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001FZCZQQ.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Awesome! discussion continues over here:

Suggest AWESOME albums from lesser-known indie labels affected by the SonyDADC/PIAS fire

Guess I'm saying "awesome" too much today.

really feel for toddla t, whose album got leaked a month early by some dumb journalist, and a week ahead of physical release has now burnt down

at least they have motivation to reprint toddla t's record

Didn't notice Soul Jazz were caught up in this :(

Notorious Self Googler @13c 3mp1r3 decided to give me a piece of his mind on Twitter by crowing that allegedly Sony's insurance is covering all the losses for all labels lost in this fire? I don't actually trust to read through his self aggrandising spew to find out if there's a grain of truth in this, but, um, is there?

I pretty much don't need an excuse to buy anything on Finders Keepers (who I already have) or Sonic Cathedral (who prompted 3mpir3's little spat, because Nat is clearly a millionaire and has insurance on a label he runs out of his living room)

man I didn't even see Boyznoise were on that list, I wonder if there's a new Shadow Dancer album or something I can pick up. :-/

Sorry, I guess there's two threads on this, I didn't know and I don't even know what thread this belongs on.

I just informed Mr 3mpyre that, as any fule kno, the insurance will cover CDs and albums at COST price not sale price meaning that even if paid immediately and in full, it means that many will not be able to turn a profit. Thus the likely outcome is that some labels will go bankrupt if they operate close to the bread line.

He said PIAS' lies were the equivalent of releasing a compilation of pro-Nazi music. He also claims he has different information. I'm pretty annoyed about the whole thing.

I think he's clearly just trying to generate some noise and some ~controversy~ for himself and doesn't actually give a shit about any of the labels (or artists on those labels) involved.

I mean, once upon a time, I had some respect for the guy. But dudes who self-google random ppl who even *mention* him to shout at (that's the thing, I didn't even @ him, I just mentioned his name, and he swooped down on my tweet like a digital hardcore batman) and then talk about their "business models" and apps... just ugh. Go away.

Statement from David Cameron in the Commons debate currently underway. No idea how this will pan out, but it might be good news for the smaller victims of this:

Individuals and companies will get compensation for damage caused by rioting. "On repairing the damages, I can confirm that any individual, homeowner or business that has suffered damage to or loss of their buildings or property as a result of rioting, can seek compensation under the Riot Damages Act, even if uninsured," he said.

Dunno, that might spur insurance companies to go "no, not covered, try the "Riot Damages Act" instead"

alec empire, what a nob

YOU'VE SAID HIS NAME NOW!!!

OH MY GOD HE IS CANDYMAN DO NOT MENTION HIM OR HIS SUPERSONIC GOOGLE WANKFINDING APPS WILL SWOOP DOWN ON THIS THREAD.

WHOOPS, TOTESALLY UNINTENTONAL

OH I THOUGHT IT WAS TEH FUNNIE!!

i thought 'alec empire' was like 'l0u1s jagg3r'

alec empire, what a nob

― full on... mask hysteria (history mayne), Thursday, August 11, 2011 11:24 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I don't even like Alec Empire, but:

a) why is it wrong to see who is mentioning you when you are receiving a flurry of attention? Surely talking about people behind their back is worse? Besides which, you don't have to @ someone for them to see you talking about them automatically, there are loads of apps that do that.

b) This is not shouting at someone:

"@KarenDTregaskin Sony announced it already...all stock will be paid for... who are you to talk to me like that..."

c) However, calling someone a little shit and telling them to fuck off *is* shouting at them.

d) Despite his hyperbole, he was technically right on this question and you were not.

So can we please have a moratorium on completely misrepresenting people?

DESTROY 2000 YEARS OF CULTURE

but make sure you're technically right first

Oh yeah, was going to add - I think his response to the fire was stupid, and I thank Doran for clearing up the insurance thing.

Dear Emil.y: as you are in a band, I know that you understand that putting yourself in the public eye means that an awful lot of people will have an awful lot of stuff to say about you (if you are lucky to get any attention at all! which lots of bands don't! and spend lots of time to trying to get!) - some of it will be nice, and some of it will be not very nice.

It is, as a general rule, just NAGL to go searching out people saying not nice things about you, in order to go and argue with them.

It screams of arrogance and self promotion and this desire to control the conversations about you, which one, as a public figure, just does not get.

In a tweet, I said "fuck off, Alec Empire" in the same casual manner that I would say "fuck off, Nadine Dorries" or "fuck off, Deadmau5" - this was an opinion, not an invitation to engagement. I did not start insulting him until he started saying crap like "who are you to speak to me this way?" The answer: I was NOT speaking to you. I was speaking about you.

And to me, self-googling and jumping in on randon people talking about you, is just a petty, self aggrandising, NAGL way of acting. That is not misrepresentation, that is my opinion. You are entitled to have a different one.

http://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/

These guys have kicked off a subscription series: £40 gets you 10 CDs, one every 2 weeks, with friends of FK choosing their favourite tracks from the catalogue and mixing them. First one featuring JCocker's selections, ready now for download and ships shortly.

Ugh. I so totally want to support FK (have already bought MP3s off Bee Music or however you spell their MP3 shop) but anything to do with Jarvis Cocker is just so ugh ugh ugh, no thanks.

It's not Joe Cocker? They are trying to get by with a little help from their friends.

why the hate for Jarvis xp

Long story (got into it a bit on one of ILM's more interesting "explore this song's lyrical content for A-level English class" threads on Common People) but mostly he just squicks me out.

Yeah, but he's not actually on this except for his name..

Starts out ho-hum, but then some possibly useful info:
Business As Usual After UK Warehouse Fire

As has been widely reported, we were affected by the warehouse fire in Enfield earlier this week where our entire UK stock was lost along with stock from numerous other labels and film and computer game companies.

For a full statement on the unfortunate event, please check the Beggars Group statement here. Suffice to say, we, and the independent film and music community, have had better weeks.

However, it's business as usual for 4AD. Fortunately, none of our forthcoming releases have been compromised by this needless act and thanks to a monumental effort from our staff and various partners, our current CD catalogue should still be on the shelves in all good UK record shops. Back catalogue items and vinyl stocks, however, might take a while longer to replenish.

Speaking of good record shops, they have been affected by this fire too as a direct knock on so it seems timely for us to remind you to go support them. For a list of the local stores PIAS distribute our releases to, please see below.

Although things have hit us hard, we are better placed than others to ride through this difficult period. We urge you to sign up to the AIM (Association of Independent Music) initiative to buy music from any of the affected artists or labels
http://www.pias.com/uk/pias-distributed-labels-list/ This fire has placed an unwelcome financial burden on many of our peers, people who help make the musical landscape richer for us all. Both iTunes and Boomkat have also set up storefronts for the labels affected – go here http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZ.Store.woa/wa/viewRoom?fcId=456335022 and here
http://boomkat.com/support_pias_labels/grid

UK INDEPENDENT RECORD SHOPS
Please note this is not an exhaustive list. There are other shops out there too.

Acorn (Yeovil, Somerset)

Action Records (Preston, Lancs)

All Ages Records (London)

Andys Records (Aberystwyth)

Ape (Brighton & Tunbridge Wells)

Avalanche (Edinburgh)

Badlands (Cheltenham, Glos)

Banquet (Kingston, Surrey)

Blackcat Records (Taunton, Somerset)

Boomkat (Manchester)

Borderline (Brighton)

Cool Discs (Derry)

Crash (Leeds)

Dada (London)

David’s Music (Letchworth, Herts)

Diverse Music (Newport)

Drift (Totnes, Devon)

Head (Belfast, Bristol, Bromley, Leamington Spa & Weston Super Mare)

Jumbo (Leeds)

Love Music (Glasgow)

Music Mania (Stoke-On-Trent)

Norman Records (Leeds)

Off The Beaten Track (Louth, Lincs)

People Independent (Guildford, Surrey)

Phonica (London)

Piccadilly Records (Manchester)

Polar Bear (Birmingham)

Probe (Liverpool)

Rapture (Evesham, Oxford & Witney)

Raves From The Grave (Frome, Somerset)

Redeye (Ipswich)

Reflex (Newcastle)

Resident (Brighton)

Rhythmic (Greenock)

Rise (Bristol & Cheltenham)

Rock A Boom (Leicester)

Rough Trade (London)

Rounder (Brighton)

RPM (Newcastle)

Sister Ray (London)

Sound It Out (Stockton on Tees)

Sound Knowledge (Marlborough, Wilts)

Soundclash (Norwich)

Sounds Of The Universe (London)

Spillers (Cardiff)

damn, might've known I'd mess up some of those links. Here's the Beggars Group link:
http://beggars.com/group/pressrelease/47/beggars-group-statement-about-sony-dadc-pias-uk-warehouse-fire Pasting that longass iTunes link only coverts to their proselytizing homepage, but intrepid musical citizens (not me) will find their way through.

and these two for queries: piasbenefit at gmail.com and labellovebenefit at gmail.com

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-14541764

But evidence has now emerged suggesting that the well-guarded Sony DADC distribution centre was deliberately targeted by a professional gang, in a carefully planned raid, using the riots as a distraction.

Sources in the security industry disclosed that intruders first arrived wielding specialist cutting equipment and spent up to two hours dismantling a high security fence before breaking in.

It is claimed that they then summoned a fleet of vans and drove inside the premises, which are set back from the main focus of rioting in the area, before beginning to load up stock.

According to one source, security guards on site were effectively overwhelmed and unable to fend off the intruders, knowing that police were already stretched as anarchy gripped the capital.

After loading up with stolen goods, the robbers are then said to have invited other gangs in to continue the looting in an attempt to cover their tracks.

Hmmm....

Right Napster, you've gone too far this time!

uh, how are they going to be able to sell any of the stock?

ebay?

holy shit.

Right, so I won't be buying anything on these labels from a seller in England via eBay for some months then.

It's just striking me that all these record labels were just innocent bystanders in a dvd/videogame heist.

otm, sadly, I picture these disgusting savages ripping open some of the boxes, seeing it was bands "nobody's ever heard of", and throwing the boxes away

This is not good: Insurers like to make sure any 'stolen' items get recovered, if possible, before paying out.

yeah as kkvgz said (I think), if thes reports are accurate I guess the likely scenario is that heist dudes went straight for the games and DVDs and left most of the CDs behind to get melted?

how you'd prove that in an insurance claim I have no idea

also I don't know anything about the distribution channels of video games, ie if it's a similar deal where a given company/production house would have had all their stock in the warehouse and thus just had it wiped out... or not as the case may be

it wuz the majors that did it

Blame Apple.

"Burn the damn physical media then."
"You've gone too far this time, Mr Jobs."
"Fuck it. I resign anyway."

PIAS says the story about an organized heist is a pack of lies.

http://www.factmag.com/2011/09/08/alan-mcgee-thinks-pias-warehouse-fire-was-funny-defends-statement/

“I fucking hate Sony so I’m glad the building burnt down.”

There you go, story in a nutshell...

is that the stupid fuck that made us listen to oasis?

yes

wasnt he pete dohertys manager too?

And those JAMC fuckers.

he also once signed The Others aka the very worst band ever hyped by NME. and now he somehow managed to beat Alex Empire in terms of being a cunt about this fire. quite a feat.

i dunno, alan mcgee has always been at the top of the cunt tree

"This cunt tree..."

news just in ..

A PIAS Benefit

Favela London
91 - 93 Great Eastern St, London EC2A 3HZ
8pm - 2am
Weds 5th October 2011

Ashley Beedle
Andrew Weatherall
Justin Robertson
Ross Allen
Pete Herbert
Nathan Detroit
Richard Norris

The DJ's, PR, promoters, designers and venue have all given their services for free. All door money will go directly into the AIM fund.

Ashley Beedle
Andrew Weatherall
Justin Robertson

blimey, there are three names i haven't seen since about 1996

u old

real question is, are these people really being charitable or are they just trying to promote themselves?

i am old. but not as old as those guys damn

It's OK, they're going to swim to Liverpool Street.

If that fire that hit the Sony/PIAS warehouse in London during the recent UK riots seemed abstract to you, consider this: Mogwai's Earth Division EP was one of the releases stacked in the warehouse when the fire hit. The whole stock of it was lost, and because they had to re-press it, they couldn't offer it for pre-order on their website. Multiply that across thousands of releases, and you have a pretty good idea of the effect that fire had on the industry-- it gave a lot of people who were already struggling to make money off music a hell of a hard time. All the more ironic, then, that Earth Division is among Mogwai's least fiery, least riotous recordings.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15810-earth-division/

http://i53.tinypic.com/16lyyjl.jpg

ha, that's terrible!

was optimistic abt there being a gif out there of the fireman in Family Guy standing in front of a burning apartment going "iiirony!" but can't find it :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By2au2uPqpk

How did this all pan out?

fair q. i can think of at least one pias distributed artist/label that has been entirely silent ever since

There's a story in Frank Zappa's autobio about how the record company cheated him out of MOI royalties once by claiming there was both a fire and a flood in the warehouse they stored his records in.

is "Pias" the same as "Play It Again Sam"?

one grew out of the other iirc

is "Pias" the same as "Play It Again Sam"?

yes. i believe its the distribution part of the company ...

A musician friend of mine, signed to a PIAS-distributed label, said that her label made her pay for new manufacturing.