Arty, funny and hip is a tricky combination to strike, but they’re a trio of virtues that Stiff Records were well served by. This was the independent label that blew new wave wide open, and its story was truly an unlikely meeting of wide boys, whizz-kids, weirdos and one-chord wonders. Right time, right place, Stiff Records literally emerged from the beer-splattered underworld of local pubs where bands played in the basement. Before Stiff’s fortuitously timed creation in the summer of 1976, just as punk was gurgling up from the gutters, its founders, Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson, were already well-travelled managers of rockers such as Dr. Feelgood and Graham Parker.
Having forged their own pub circuits for unsigned bands to play, it was touring the Feelgoods and Graham Parker around the smaller cities of America that they noticed how locally minded indies, many of them management agencies, were releasing singles as calling cards for hot new bands. Adapting the model to England, they rented the ground floor at 32 Alexander Street in West London. Inspired by showbiz slang, the brandname “Stiff” was a double-edged joke meaning a flop, but a sturdy, durable flop. For extra irony, the founding byline boasted that Stiff was The World’s Most Flexible Record Label.
In August 1976, Stiff’s first single, with its quirky reference BUY 1, was So It Goes by Nick Lowe. More seven-inch stompers quickly followed from the Pink Fairies, the Roogalator, Tyla Gang and Lew Lewis. However, with BUY 6, the barely erectile Stiff Records released what would officially become the UK’s first ever punk record, New Rose by The Damned.