[News] Independent Labels Affected By London Riots

Last night, some of the worst riots in the UK since the 80's spread across London. Watching the drama unfold on numerous news channels and on twitter last night was a surreal situation and today the news continues to get worse. Caught in the flames was a Sony DADC warehouse which stocked numerous independent labels stock which was due to be distributed by the PIAS Group, and a Tweet from the firm's Head of Digital Marketing sadly confirmed the rumours:

"I can confirm that the Sony DADC warehouse in Enfield did burn to the ground, and Sony holds PIAS stock...In terms of the impact to PIAS etc., the situation remains to be clarified. Again, I will not post anything until I have confirmed info… I’m getting quoted a lot so want to reiterate: we know DADC was destroyed & are waiting to confirm exactly how badly this has affected PIAS"

There's a list of labels that could possibly be affected here, they include the likes of XL, Domino, Warp and Sub Pop. I noticed early this morning that Charlie Simpson may have to push back the release date of his debut solo album as his stock was in the Sony DADC warehouse. Tri-Angle Records took to twitter and simply wrote wrote: "PIAS distribution burnt down last night. No words. I just feel sick."

With the warehouse stocking numerous indie labels stock as well as major labels too, this could be a set back some may not be able to return from. The labels hard work literally burning to the ground and all the work that had taken years to build up was gone in mere hours.

In the madness last night more rumours spread that the Electric Ballroom and Roundhouse venues in Camden were also a blaze, later these reports were proven untrue. A sad state of affairs indeed. A video after the jump supposedly shows footage of the distribution warehouse in Enfield on fire. More news on the affects of this and the implications as and when we get them.