Rough Trade (shops)

The first Rough Trade shop was opened in 1976 by Geoff Travis in the Ladbroke Grove district of West London.

[9] The Covent Garden shop opened in 1988 and was located in the basement of Slam City Skates in Neal's Yard.

[10] The shop, called "Rough Trade East", is located in the former Truman's Brewery in a courtyard off Brick Lane and puts on music gigs with a stage, allowing for an audience of 300.

[12][11] The shop sells some chart titles, music from bands without distribution deals with a quarter of the merchandise is vinyl.

Designed by David Adjaye the shop has a fair trade café and a "snug" area with iMacs, sofas and desks.

[14] In the first half of 2007, CD sales had fallen by 10 percent and in the month of the shop opening the UK music chain Fopp went into administration.

"[10] In April 2012, it was announced that Rough Trade would be opening a store in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn, in partnership with Bowery Presents.

Recently the shop has released several compilation albums, each focusing on an individual genre such as indie-pop, electronica, country, singer songwriter, rock and roll and post-punk.

Every January since 2003, it has released a compilation putting together the best (in the opinion of the shops' staff) of the previous year's music entitled Counter Culture.