Beggars Group founder and chairman Martin Mills is to take part in a new podcast series looking back at the company’s classic catalogue.
Hosted by music journalist and podcast producer Rob Fitzpatrick, States Of Independence will explore the history of punk-era independent label Beggars Banquet. The legacy label is now part of the Beggars Arkive catalogue division headed by Lesley Bleakley.
Two years in development, the Beggars Banquet story is told over 13 podcast episodes. States of Independence launches with episode one on September 11, with guests Martin Mills, The Lurkers and Gary Numan, who landed a No.1 single for the label with Are ‘Friends’ Electric? in 1979.
“With Gary, it felt like the Beatles,” said Mills, who also recalled the label having to learn on the job: “There definitely was no instruction manual.”
“I thought it was gonna be more fun, I didn't expect all the hostility that came with it,” said Numan.
Beggars Banquets established further successful acts: The Cult, The Fall, The Go-Betweens, The Charlatans, Peter Murphy, Bauhaus, Love And Rockets, Gene Loves Jezebel, Buffalo Tom, The Bolshoi (who provide the podcast’s theme music Away) and more. They all appear in States Of Independence season one.
Beggars Banquet began life as a West London record shop in 1974.
“We had £2,000 each,” said Mills. “It got us a lease in Earl's Court. It got us some stock.”
With the arrival of punk in 1976, a second shop opened in Fulham.
Mills and Nick Austin launched the Beggars Banquet label with the debut release from The Lurkers – “a very good two-chord punk band,” recalls Mills, “though they learned a third chord eventually”.
The Beggars Group now includes 4AD, XL, Matador, Rough Trade and Young. But the podcast recounts both the triumphs and turbulence, with the label facing financial challenges at multiple points in its five-decade history.
Mills credits The Cult with steadying the ship with their run of success in the ’80s and ’90s: “They were the band that literally stopped the cheques from bouncing.”
States of Independence is produced by Frank Palmer at Cup and Nuzzle, and the executive producer for Beggars Group is Lesley Bleakley. The show is distributed by Talkhouse.
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