For New Yorkers, it’s probably the coolest label that ever was. But for any kind of vinyl-blooded junkyard hustler, Sire is a hilariously educational case study in making money out of wacky music that other people throw away. Although it’s routinely depicted as a hip young peer of Rough Trade, Stiff, SST, Mute and other new wave rebels, Sire actually belongs to a much older school of Noo Yawk wheeler dealer; the kind that pronounces records as ‘rekkids’. Indeed, to understand Sire’s sinuous run through so many genres, the story begins in the primitive age of jukebox jobbers, payola, song pilferers and mafia-connected tricksters.
Born in 1942, Brooklyn-bred Seymour Steinbigle was a school dropout, who in the late 50s, got various internships, first at Billboard magazine’s chart department, then at King Records, the Cincinnati indie behind James Brown. Shortening his name to Stein, he landed a job inside the Brill Building, the 11-storey heartbeat of Broadway; where Tin Pan Alley songwriters peddled tunes to cut-throat indies. There, Stein learned the palm-greasing crafts of radio promotion, as a plugger for Red Bird, the label behind girly hits such as Chapel Of Love, Iko Iko and Leader Of The Pack. On another floor, he met co-founder Richard Gottehrer, who was getting his own education, performing and co-writing for the notorious Bang Records. Gottehrer had just co-written 60s classics such as Hang On Sloopy, Sorrow and I Want Candy (later covered by Bowie and Bow Wow Wow respectively).
In 1966, Stein and Gottehrer decided to set up their own company, Sire Productions, producing R&B singles for Columbia. For an office, the old and infirm owner of King Records, Syd Nathan, kindly rented Stein four rooms in the Broadway district for the bargain price of $235 per month. Stein, being a natural grafter who had already squirrelled away 50 grand in savings, discreetly sub-let the front room to a PR agency for $150, meaning Sire got the remaining three rooms for $85.