Amidst the horrific scenes of rioting, looting and lawlessness across the UK last night (8 August) came reports and footage of the Sony DADC distribution centre in Enfield, north London, engulfed in flames.
Luckily, nobody appears to have been killed as a result of the blaze, but the cost to the UK music industry could be severe. Alongside Sony products, the building was home to huge amounts of stock distributed by PIAS, including music from the catalogues of independent labels like Domino, Sub Pop, 4AD, Matador, Warp, Ninja Tune, XL and dozens more.
This morning, the implications for the independent music in the UK were beginning to hit home, with musician Chris T-T commenting on Twitter: "If PIAS damage bad as sounds, implication for UK independent music industry very severe indeed. Small dedicated businesses, NOT majors :("
Singer Frank Turner also commented: "Oh well, there goes independent labels. Fuck."
The following was posted from the official PIAS Twitter account at about 9:50am this morning: "So many tweets. We can not make an official statement re the Sony warehouse fire and our stock until we have it. Also, glad no one got hurt."
To find out about moves to organise benefit gigs to raise money for labels hit by the fire, follow the Twitter hashtag #piasfundraiser.
Our thoughts are with everyone affected by last night's shameful scenes and we can only hope for a more peaceful night tonight.
