world domination records

many years ago i spent 2 weeks doing a kind of work experience thing at the london office of world domination records. i'd graduated from uea with a degree in english & american lit and absolutely no idea what to do with it. music seemed like a good idea and i'd got fairly chummy with the good folks at world dom, one of whom was about to go on holiday. not sure whose idea it was, but somehow i ended up covering for her, spending 2 weeks in their small shared office, just me and uk label boss nigel adams, plus 2 guys running a graphic design agency.

it was great fun, folding scenic sleeves (they had these fiddly paper sleeves, all pressed by hand, and i had to fold together all the bloody promo copies), sending out promos for lizard music, phoning various journos and ziners to pester them for reviews, even listening to a whole bunch of very bad demo tapes and sending off polite no thank yous.

the office was in westbourne grove, interesting chiefly for its proximity to rough trade, where i bought spiritualized's ladies and gentlemen... and karate's in place of real insight, both of which blew me away in different ways. we'd sit in the office, listening to these records, talking about bands and the machinations of the record industry. it was great.

did it lead to a job? heck no. not long after i met lawrence from domino in a pub in putney to see about a job there, but that lead to nothing too (i remember him asking specifically if i thought i'd be able to handle cutting and pasting together press kits, plus he also told me that working in the music business was about love not money - he ran the label but still only earned 14 grand, this being before franz ferdinand, arctic monkeys et al...). i think now maybe it's just as well. most people who work in the music industry are cynical bastards. and while i'm pretty cynical too, at least i remain largely flushed with excitement about music itself.

here are some songs by bands from the world dom catalogue at the time. everyone was excited about penthouse, the label's first uk signing, and they were pretty great, especially in the flesh. likewise lizard music had a certain way with a tune, but never got much of a break. the other i never got really excited about, but these tunes still take me back to that time.

::: scenic - sage (from sage)
::: latimer - citizen jive (from live from sour city)
::: lizard music - (theme from) we are the egrets (from dear champ)
::: lizard music - the things we did in slacks (from dear champ)
::: lizard music - sugar blackout (from lobster t)
::: penthouse - voyeur's blues (from gutter erotica)
::: penthouse - la grotte d'amour (from gutter erotica)

dominate me.