Firefighters douse the end of a fire that destroyed a department store in Tottenham
By: Staff
This past weekend, rioters and looters tore through London’s deprived Tottenham district and other areas, firebombing businesses and police cars and looting shops. The chaos has disrupted life for everyone in the area, but it has also taken a huge toll on the music industry in the UK as a whole.
According to Pitchfork, one of the buildings that was burned down was a Sony distribution warehouse located in North London. The blaze, which happened early this morning, destroyed the 200,000 square foot facility, which was the warehouse for PIAS UK, the main UK distributor for over 150 independent labels. The inventory for all of these indie labels was housed in the warehouse, and all is thought to be destroyed, although they haven’t been able to go through the whole wreckage. Luckily, the fire happened in the small hours of the morning so no one was injured or killed in the fire.
This is a huge blow to all the labels who use PIAS UK, as independent labels have been struggling in this economic climate as it is. Now their entire inventories for the UK, a huge music market, must be replaced. The labels affected include XL/Beggars, Sub Pop, Rough Trade, Warp, Jagjaguwar, Domino, Thrill Jockey, 4AD, Secretly Canadian, Drag City, FatCat, Kompakt, Mute, Ninja Tune, Vice, and Soul Jazz.
Check out this video from BBC covering the fire:
