Headquarters: London/New York
Founded: 70s
Founded by: Martin Mills
Link: http://www.beggars.com/banquet/index.htm
Genre(s): anything and everything, currently Indie-Rock
Active Roster
- Biffy Clyro
- Dead Fly Buchowski
- Film School
- Mark Lanegan Band
- The National
- Oceansize
- Tindersticks
Inactive Roster
There are way too many to list, so got to the website, then artists, then catalogue artists.
Key Releases
Again, the list is so long, that picking out only a few key albums would not do the label justice.
History
Though there is a much more complicated series of events that lead up to the creation of Beggars Banquet the label, I am going to summarize it very quickly. Martin Mills was born; in the early 70s, Mills was running a "mobile discotheque" with a friend when they merged with another one of these moving discos which happens to be called Beggars Banquet; Mills got a job working at a popular London second-hand record store called Record and Tape Exchange; struck out with his partner to start more record stores throughout that area; after gaining success as record store owners, they break into the promotion business; joining the great British punk explosion in the mid-70s, they decided to start a label that solely released punk bands which was kicked off by releasing singles by The Lurkers who were currently practicing beneath one of their record stores. Beggars Banquet, the label, began as one of the first independent punk labels, but oddly enough, they received the most attention for an oddity in their roster called Gary Numan. After becoming synonymous with Numan and very popular because of it, they begin to diversify their line-up with acts like Freeez, a British jazz-funk band. From here, branches begin to sprout from the Beggars tree, until it grows to a success that was unparalleled in independent music at the time. The first, and most notable, of these branches is 4AD, which quickly reached the same recognition as its parent label. From here it becomes really more of the Beggars Group, though Beggars Banquet still exists releasing albums from their own, much smaller roster. Mills is really a phenomenal success story in independent music and should be a source inspiration to anyone who looks to succeed within the industry.