Beggars Banquet Records

Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, and is part of the Beggars Group of labels. In 1977, spurred by the prevailing DIY aesthetics of the British punk rock movement (then at the height of its popularity), they decided to join the fray as an independent label and release records under the Beggars Banquet imprint.cite book |last=Larkin |first=Colin |title=The Guinness Who's Who of Indie and New Wave Music |year= 1992 |publisher=Guinness Publishing |isbn=0-85112-579-4 ] The first band on the label was English punk group The Lurkers; the first ever release on the label was The Lurkers' punk classic Shadow/Love Story 7" single. Later in the decade and into the early '80s, hits with Tubeway Army and Gary Numan secured the label's future. They have since released music by Biffy Clyro, Buffalo Tom, The Charlatans, The Cult, The Go-Betweens, The National and Tindersticks. In 2008, Beggars Banquet became a catalog label only, closed to new signings. Artists that remained on their roster were shifted over to affiliate label, 4AD.

The label became the start point for what is now The Beggars Group, an umbrella group of iconic indie record labels. It is the largest and most influential independent group of labels in Europe Fact|date=April 2008 and 4AD, Matador Records, Rough Trade Records and XL Recordings are the four main labels that now form the group. The group is managed by Martin Mills, Managing Director Paul Redding and non-executive Andy Heath Their main offices are in the UK with a large satellite office in New York City. The labels are distributed by Alternative Distribution Alliance in the United States.

Current and former signings

* The Associates
* Bauhaus
* The Beekeepers
* Bettie Serveert
* Biffy Clyro
* The Bolshoi
* Bowery Electric
* Buffalo Tom
* John Cale
* Calla
* The Charlatans
* The Cult
* Dead Fly Buchowski
* Devastations
* Died Pretty
* Dream City Film Club
* The Early Years
* The Fall
* Fields of the Nephilim
* Film School
* Flesh For Lulu
* Robert Forster
* Freeez
* Gene Loves Jezebel
* Goat
* The Go-Betweens
* The Gun Club
* iLiKETRAiNS
* Mark Lanegan Band
* Arthur Lee
* The London Apartments
* Love and Rockets
* Luna
* Main
* Morrissey-Mullen
* The National
* Nico
* Gary Numan
* Oceansize
* The Ramones
* Spirit
* St. Vincent
* Swell
* Sun Dial
* Terminal Power Company
* Tindersticks
* Voxtrot

See also

* List of record labels
* List of independent UK record labels

References

External links

* [http://www.beggars.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.beggarsgroupusa.com/ American site]
* [http://www.beggarsgroup.ca/ Canadian site]
* [http://beggarsgroup.de/ German site] (German)
* [http://beggarsjapan.com/ Japanese site] (Japanese)
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