Fetish Records is filed at Tier I as the turn release between two early-period traditions: the late-1970s New York no-wave / post-punk-funk tradition and the British industrial / post-industrial tradition the imprint later took on. Rod Pearce founded the label in 1978 with the reissue of Throbbing Gristle's Second Annual Report: the initial Industrial Records pressing of 785 copies had sold out rapidly through word-of-mouth and reviewer attention; Pearce's reissue brought the founding industrial-tradition document into circulation. The Bureau records the reissue as the imprint's founding act: Fetish's position emerged through the Industrial Records tradition that preceded it, and ran in dialogue with that tradition for the imprint's entire career.
The imprint operated as a one-man position. Pearce ran the label from his flat at Denbigh Street, Maida Vale, London. The infrastructure was sustained on a friend-network position: Tom Heslop, who later joined 23 Skidoo, had shared a squat with Neville Brody, the graphic designer Pearce installed as Fetish's art director; the Pearce / Brody / Heslop / circle ran through the early-1980s London independent-publishing tradition and into the later Brody position at The Face magazine. The Bureau reads Neville Brody's Fetish position as significant beyond the imprint itself: the Fetish sleeve-design method (the Brody typographic position, the deliberately rough publishing aesthetic, the recurring "F" mark across the catalogue) is one of the period's founding documents of independent-music visual design.
The imprint's catalogue ran across two strands. The first: New York no-wave and post-punk-funk positions, mainly documented through Bush Tetras (the Things That Go Boom In The Night 12-inch single, FET 007, 1981), 8 Eyed Spy (Diddy Wah Diddy, FE 19, 1980, the Lydia Lunch / Pat Place position), The Bongos (the Zebra Club and Mambo Sun singles, 1982), Snatch (the Judy Nylon / Patti Palladin position). These positions documented the New York downtown tradition the imprint internationalised into the British independent-distribution.
The second strand: the British industrial / post-industrial releases Pearce signed after the Throbbing Gristle reissue established the imprint's credibility. Throbbing Gristle's Five Albums boxset (FUX 001, 1981) is the Fetish document: a 5000-copy limited boxset containing the three studio albums and two live albums in black-and-white sleeve positions (as opposed to the original full-colour Industrial Records pressings), plus a badge and a book (Throbbing Gristle, with Bruce Elder and Jon Savage retrospective essays). The boxset constitutes the founding industrial tradition's packaging position; the Bureau holds it as one of the period's most significant archival documents.
Clock DVA's Thirst (FR2002, 1981) is the imprint's second release. The Sheffield position's post-Industrial-Records (where the cassette-only White Souls in Black Suits had appeared in 1980) move to Fetish brought Adi Newton's method into the circulation; the LP reached the top of the NME Indie Charts and remained the defining era I Clock DVA document. 23 Skidoo's Seven Songs LP (FM 2008, 1982) is the imprint's commercial peak position: Cabaret Voltaire-produced (Stephen Mallinder mainly), the LP's reception included Paul Morley's ecstatic NME review (the position described as "one of the most exciting records I've heard since Unknown Pleasures"). The 23 Skidoo partnership with Throbbing Gristle (TG provided rehearsal space at 10 Martello Street in Hackney; Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson later replaced Mallinder as 23 Skidoo's co-producers) ran through the Fetish tradition.
The Fetish event is documented as the Fetish Night at The Lyceum, London, on 8 February 1981. The bill ran across the imprint's roster: Z'EV, Clock DVA, Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle. The Bureau's reading: the Lyceum night is the period's definitional industrial and adjacent project assemblage. Throbbing Gristle's performance was the band's last London show before the position transformed into Psychic TV; the night documents the handoff between the first and second waves of the UK industrial tradition. Z'EV's position (Wipe Out, FE 13, 1982, was the later Fetish release). The Lyceum night is significant beyond the imprint itself: the positions assembled there carried the UK industrial tradition into its later post-1981 configurations.
Pearce closed the imprint in 1983. The final release, the various-artists The Last Testament compilation (FR 2011, 1983) with sleeve notes by Jon Savage, functioned as the imprint's deliberate epitaph. Later positions: Pearce moved into management, working with the band King. The Fetish position dispersed across the UK independent-music infrastructure; the artists continued on other imprints (Clock DVA into the Polydor position, 23 Skidoo to Illuminated, the Throbbing Gristle members into their respective Psychic TV / Coil / Chris & Cosey positions). The label was formally dissolved in 1986.
Rod Pearce was murdered in 1997, in dreadful circumstances documented through the later reportage of his friend Rod Buchanan (whose Times article "Burying the truth" constitutes the accessible documentary record). The Bureau records the position in the memorial register; the contribution Pearce sustained across the imprint's five-year career remains the achievement.
The Bureau's editorial reading: Fetish Records is filed at Tier I as the turn release. The imprint's significance runs beyond the catalogue itself: the Throbbing Gristle reissue brought the founding industrial tradition into circulation; the Lyceum 1981 night assembled the period's definitional industrial-and-adjacent projects; the Neville Brody art-direction position established the visual-design vocabulary later extended across the UK independent-music tradition; the catalogue documented the hinge between New York no-wave and British industrial and post-industrial releases across five years of consequential career. The imprint is filed as significant beyond its scale.
Filed by Bureau editor · VAGO · c. the Elizabethan era · last revised c. the Regency era