It was 1982. The story of Play It Again Sam
begins here, when Kenny Gates, a student, opened the front door of
the Casablanca Moon Record Shop, a Belgium-based store owned by
Michel Lambot. Both men, equally passionate about music, wanted to
form a label that improved the production, distribution, and
promotion of new non-commercial music. They had a shared desire to
restore the image of Belgian musicians abroad, looking to develop
in an international manner. Their project started to materialize in
1983 with the creation of an LLC, founded with an initial capital
of around 20 000 French francs, which they duly named Play It
Again Sam. The name inspired by a piece of dialogue from the
Michael Curtiz film, Casablanca.
The results came quickly. In 1986, Play It
Again Sam started registering artists in charts across the world.
The following year, thanks in large parts to the success of the
track ‘Pump Up the Volume’ by the 4AD group Marrs, PIAS continued
to grow financially. This opened up a myriad of opportunities
during the late 1980s. In 1987, Play It Again Sam started exporting
to many countries, such as the United States, Canada, other member
states of the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil,
Israel, and Australia. The approach of the 1990s marked another new
turning point for Play It Again Sam, as it built on its
Belgium-based development and expanded further abroad. As the
majority of this growth occurred in Europe, in 1994 the company
decided to establish a distribution structure for France. During
this calendar year, Michel Lambot and Kenny Gates contacted Laurent
Didailler to form PIAS France alongside Jean-Luc Marre. PIAS France
was launched with 8 people on-board on April 1st, 1994,
maintaining its founding objective of providing a credible
alternative to major labels. Staying true to this commitment, the
label signed up smaller companies that would go on to become
alternative linchpins. These included City Slang, Flying Nun,
Earache, F Communications, Touch & Go, and the bulk of the French
alternative scene, taking in Boucherie Productions, Crash Records,
and A Donf! Another important signature for PIAS France was that of
Miossec, obtained three months after the launch of the company,
which has to date released eight albums, selling more than one
million copies in total.
In October 1994, the Epitaph label signed a
distribution agreement in France with PIAS, remaining consistent
with the logic of this American label that it would only distribute
through independent publishing houses. This signing brought with it
‘Smash’ by The Offspring, which remains the bestselling release on
an independent label ever, with 650,000 copies sold in France
alone. Now convinced that quality of discovery always ends up
paying dividends, PIAS France stuck to its philosophy – ‘Indie or
Die’ – continuing to nurture the development of independent labels
and artists. Thanks to its openness and quality control, PIAS was
an important part of some of the biggest musical movements of the
1990s, like Beck on K-Records, Garbage on Mushroom Records, and
Arab Strap and Mogwai on Chemikal Underground. PIAS remained
closely attuned to the explosion of House and Techno in Europe on
Warp (Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada), Soma (Slam, Daft Punk), Wall
of Sound (Propellerheads, Les Rhythmes Digitales), and F COM
(Laurent Garnier). It also stated its intent in the field of
Hip-Hop, with major coups including the signatures of Tommy Boy (De
La Soul) and Rawkus (Mos Def, Talib Kweli). Also, with the
soundtrack ‘Ma 6-T Cracker’, the label played an important role in
the burgeoning development of French rap.
PIAS approached the twenty-first century by
keeping its philosophy very much in check, thereby continuing to
establish itself as one of the leading distributors in the
independent record market. The label’s discoveries and success
stories continue to enchant our ears today. Rough Trade released
albums by The Libertines and Antony & The Johnsons; Touch & Go
released records by Cocorosie; the re-signed Domino had huge
successes with The Kills, Franz Ferdinand, and Arctic Monkeys;
NinjaTune built up a rabid following through the success of Bonobo,
and Back Yard Recordings broke through on the strength of The
Gossip’s smash ‘Standing in the Way of Control’. PIAS’s support of
French artists remained strong; its twenty-first century luminaries
includes Vitalic, Villeneuve, The Hacker, Agoria, and the
aforementioned Miossec. The future of PIAS looks bright, as the
company continues to provide a rich basis for new, independent
artists, year after year.
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