A little before midnight on Monday evening a 20 strong group of youths descended on the 20,000 square foot SONY/Pias distribution centre in Enfield setting it alight and attacking Premier Inn employee Tommy Thompson following his attempts to detain them. A fleet of fire engines arrived on the scene and over 40 firefighters tackled the flames but the building, home to many British independent music and film labels. was reportedly still "smouldering" on Tuesday, with SONY unable to establish the levels of damage as nobody was able to enter the facility. Since then, it has been confirmed that over 3.2 million releases were senselessly destroyed in an attack that may harm many independent labels and their musicians. Shortly after the incident Frank Ocean tweeted "People saying they burnt down PIAS, UK indie distributor. Oh well, there goes independent labels. Fuck." Whilst three teenagers, two aged 17 and one 18, have been arrested in connection to the crimes which shows a complete disregard to society, the arts and their peers that will be of little comfort to many groups. The Beggars Group, a 30 year old umbrella company home to an array of artists including Adele, The Strokes, Bon Iver and ironically MIA (who is embroiled in controversy following a tongue in cheek tweet stating "I'm going down to the riots to hand out tea and Mars bars" that left fans labelling her a "muppet" and fellow artist Fake Blood joking "If anyone sees MIA handing out tea and Mars bars, throw her in a fucking wheelie bin.") lost 750,000 units of stock. Domino has reportedly lost its entire run of Arctic Monkey's latest brooding single "The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala" and Ninja Tune home to artists such as Mr Scruff and Toddla T have stated they have lost "the majority" of its stock approximately 1000,000 across all formats. This has come at a troubled time to the already fragile music and film industry; struggling to find methods to contest against rising illegal download figures.
Thankfully there have been several internet campaigns to bolster support for all those affected, which I guess really is what this post is about. Music is something I'm extremely passionate about, that inspires so many people and evokes so many emotions. It's so saddening the extent to which 20 youths actions are capable of having such widespread and withstanding consequences, as whilst Pias plans to resume shipping next week questions of insurance, replacement of stock and affects on independent musicians remain unanswered. There's a movement to buy any record on any labels affected, some suggestions can be found both in this post and here. Whilst Record Label Love has put together a database of all labels and artists affected and will be finding creative and fun ways to support artists. Or, Pias have set up their own fund to aid the label's affected restoration, details of which can be found here.
