Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story

by Richard Balls
Soundcheck Books, 288 pp., $22.95 (paper)

“If it ain’t Stiff, it ain’t worth a fuck,” declared the most notorious of Stiff Records’ slogans. Be Stiff reminds that, at the pioneering UK label’s zenith, that was likely true. The brainchild of Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera, a couple of managers/provocateurs besotted by pub rock, Stiff challenged the reign of major English labels by scoring hits from an unlikely set of stars that became legends in the process. It wasn’t easy, and it didn’t last, but for a good decade Stiff was Great Britain’s label to beat. Richard Balls recounts the story with a straightforward narrative style, injecting just enough opinion for spice. He gets Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, and the Damned – the names most famous to Americans but with short stays on the label – on and off early, giving equal play to Ian Dury & the Blockheads and Madness, the mainstays that put the label on the charts at home. Also starring: the Pogues, Wreckless Eric, the Belle Stars, Lene Lovich, Tracey Ullman, Any Trouble, Kirsty MacColl, and token Americans Devo, Rachel Sweet, the Plasmatics, and former Austinite Joe “King” Carrasco. Be Stiff isn’t just the story of a label. It’s practically the best of the British New Wave.

This article appears in May 29 • 2015.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.