“I love my label,” sang Nick Lowe on the opening track of Stiff Records’ 1977 sampler, A Bunch of Stiffs, “and my label loves me.” Though Lowe had departed Stiff by the time his 1978 debut Jesus of Cool came out (joining Elvis Costello on Stiff co-founder Jake Riviera’s Radar Records), the former Brinsley Schwartz/Rockpile singer was an integral part of the imprint that set the template for everything an independent label should be.
Founded by Riviera and ex Brinsley Schwarz manager Dave Robinson with £400 borrowed off Dr Feelgood frontman Lee Brilleaux, Stiff Records provided the link between pub rock, punk, new wave and some of the era’s most endearingly oddball pop stars.
Stiff’s anarchic spirit, distinctive imagery (overseen by designer Barny Bubbles), and Robinson’s genius for marketing – jigsaws, clocks, infamous t-shirt slogans (‘If It Aint Stiff, It Aint Worth A Fuck’, ‘We Came, We Saw, We Left’) – and attention-grabbing stunts (to promote Ian Dury and the Blockheads’1979 LP Do It Yourself, Stiff representatives broke into newspaper offices and re-wallpapered them) gave it a character few labels have matched before or since.
Operating out of an office in Westbourne Grove with Lowe initially serving as the in-house producer, Stiff took a punt on the weirdos and nutters the majors wouldn’t touch with a barge pole who proved to be unlikely pop stars in the making – Kilburn and the Highroads’ polio-crippled singer Ian Dury; lemonade factory worker ‘Wreckless’ Eric Goulden, who dropped off his demo tape on his way to work one day; bespectacled computer operator Declan McManus, soon to be known to the world as Elvis Costello.
As Robinson and Riviera’s milieu on the pub rock circuit begat punk, it was the label’s quick-moving DIY approach that meant UK punk’s first single, and album, came from Stiff signees The Damned, and not Sex Pistols or The Clash.
The departure of Riviera, Lowe and Costello might have spelt the end were it not for Dury’s ascent to chart-topping national treasure and Robinson’s hunch that North London tearaways Madness might have a life beyond the short-lived 2-Tone phenomenon. Despite financial problems in the following decade, Robinson’s artistic instincts proved to be right time and again – signing The Pogues, offering comedian Tracy Ullman a record deal that within 18 months bagged five top 30 hit singles.
Stiff might be synonymous to many listeners with the earthy blokiness of its pub rock origins, yet within its catalogue you can find the debut album from New Jersey alt-rock heroes The Feelies, art pop eccentric Lene Lovich, psychobilly provocateurs King Kurt, and licenced releases from Devo and Swiss synthpop outliers Yello.
Stiff was finally sold off in 1987, but ZTT briefly revived it in 2007 with albums from new artists alongside old guard lag Wreckless Eric and an excellent solo LP from Chris Difford of Squeeze, surely a classic Stiff band in all but name/contract. As one of the label’s double entendres put it, You Can’t Keep a Good Stiff Down…