Martin Aston - Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD

When a fan of 4AD, and of the British independent label scene of the Eighties in general, heard I was writing this book, he asked me, Is there much drama in the 4AD story?

True, the story of 4AD doesnt feature a TV presenter-cum-entrepreneur who starts a record label whose most iconic frontman commits suicide and initiates a Che Guevara-style cult; nor does it involve the decision to invest heavily in a nightclub that goes on to become an epicentre of the biggest dance music boom in UK history, rejuvenating both youth and drug culture, the combined legacy of which soon enough bankrupts said label.

That would be the suspenseful saga of Manchesters Factory Records, 4ADs principal peer in the world of pioneering, inventive and maverick independent labels. For both labels, the visual aesthetic was as crucial as the music, yet, in many ways, south Londons 4AD, formed in 1980, was the anti-Factory: its spearhead, Ivo Watts-Russell, was more of a recluse than a media-savvy self-promoter, and 4AD had no recognisable ties to the zeitgeist nor to any cultural trend, in fact. All of that, Ivo felt, was irrelevant; only the artefact mattered the music and its exquisite packaging. In the mid-Eighties there were constant references to the 4AD sound: a beautiful, dark, insular style. If the 2002 fictionalised film about Factory Records was called 24 Hour Party People, what might a film about 4AD be titled Eight Hours Chilling, and Then Bed?

But whilst 4ADs story may be less sensational and populist than Factorys, it is equally gripping, the labels A&R vision being that much greater, and its subsequent cast of characters even more fascinating and beguiling. Under Ivo, 4ADs vision chimed with a rare era in British pop history when there was a sizeable market for innovation and experimentation. The artists he was drawn to were trailblazers, outsiders whose unique perspective invariably included a troubled, sometimes irreconcilable relationship with the mainstream (scoring the UKs first independently released number 1 single was as much the beginning of the end for 4AD as it was the start of a new era), and with each other, like a dysfunctional family and that includes the staff at the record label.

Like the motion of the swans legs beneath its ineffably elegant glide across water, below the surface of 4ADs dazzling and enigmatic artwork and music the human drama unfolded. 4ADs journey began as a shared discovery of a new world of sound and opportunity in the aftermath of the punk rock revolution. But its community was progressively fractured by splits, rivalries, writs, personal meltdowns, addiction, and depression not least of the victims being 4ADs most iconic artists Cocteau Twins, Pixies and The Breeders, and the label boss as well.

Though 4AD became increasingly popular in the first half of the Nineties, the shifts in the cultural climate and music business practise, as the major labels and the mainstream sought to exploit alternative music, was enough to shatter Ivos dream to the point that he sold up in 1999 and disappeared into the New Mexico desert, cutting all ties to the music industry.