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Synopsis:
Richard King's How Soon Is Now? is a landmark survey of the record labels that make up the backbone of the independent music industry and the hugely inspirational, eccentric, impulsive and visionary figures who created them.
One of the most tangible aftershocks of punk was its urgency to prompt individuals into action. Document your reality: do it yourself. From this, a generation was inspired and, with often zero financial planning or business sense, in bedrooms, garages and sheds, labels such as Factory, Rough Trade, Mute, 4AD, Beggars Banquet, Warp, Creation and Domino began, shifting the musical landscape and trading on an ethos and identity no brand consultant would now dare dream of.
Reviews:
'Most people with even a vague interest in leftfield modern music will be familiar with the careers of The Smiths, New Order and Sonic Youth. But Richard King's exhaustively researched labour of love, How Soon is Now?, offers a history that runs parallel to the works of these totemic acts, ushering forward the dreamers and chancers who took advantage of the fissures opened up by punk to create a new paradigm for the production and distribution of music. Their story is long overdue ... this is a funny, lively and inspiring history.' -- Phil Harrison, Time Out
'Less of an overview of the era than a meticulously researched encyclopaedia of the assorted businesses, both famous and forgotten, that helped to create independent music. ... King successfully captures the chaos that underpinned the independent sector.... How Soon is Now? is as much about the financial mis-management, rampant egos and petty rivalry that was the independent experiment as its many triumphs. ... Any young entrepreneur looking to get a foothold in the music business would be wise to consult this book before taking the plunge.' --Fiona Sturges, Independent
'This remarkable and hugely enjoyable history of the British independent music scene over the past 30 years reveals a much more diverse, influential and successful picture... Richard King does an amazing job of portraying the ramshackle yet exhilarating vibe of the times. The label staff and bosses were just as into the excesses of rock n roll as the bands, and the amount of drugs consumed within these pages is mind-boggling, something else which probably didn t help those precarious balance sheets. King has extracted interviews from all the major players and orchestrated a shambolic and chaotic world into a coherent and compelling historical narrative. If only all music books were this good.' --Doug Johnstone, Scotsman
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