Rough Trade Bought By Beggars Group
Nothing like a little label news to jumpstart a Tuesday

Sanctuary Records-- the beleagured onetime UK goliath and recent Universal Music Group acquisition-- has sold longtime British indie rock haven Rough Trade to the Beggars Group.

Beggars is already home to the Beggars, Matador, 4AD, XL Recordings, Mo'Wax, Playlouder, Mantra, Wiiija, and Too Pure labels, and thus should prove amicable new digs for current Rough Trade artists like Super Furry Animals, the Long Blondes, Jarvis Cocker, and so, so many others.

As Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis wrote in a press release, "this liason will finally give the label the kind of stability, dynamism and expertise that will allow us to grow on a worldwide basis".

At this time, it's unclear just how this new arrangement will affect Rough Trade’s recently-inked North American distribution deal with the World’s Fair Label Group, but those are the kinds of details to hammer out once all the champagne's been poured.

UPDATE: World's Fair's Kevin Wortis has issued the following statement:

"Worlds Fair will continue to release all the Rough Trade titles we have already released and there is no change in our scheduled Rough Trade releases including the July 31 release of the 1990s' Cookies, or the soon-to-be-announced new British Sea Power record. Beyond that most titles will likely go through the Beggars Group in North America though this will be assessed on an artist-by-artist basis.

"We would have of course preferred to have an unobstructed flow of great Rough Trade titles over the next few years but more then anything we're extremely pleased for Geoff, Jeannette [Lee, of Rough Trade], and Martin [Mills, of Beggars] as the new deal is a natural fit for them and we hope a very successful one at that."

First up from the Beggars/Rough Trade liason is the Taken by Trees album, followed by the new one from Super Furry Animals.