Sony Warehouse Fire: Two Weeks On

The burning of the Sony warehouse in the London riots two weeks ago threatened to have a hugely detrimental effect on independent music with a huge amount of PIAS (Play It Again Sam) stock destroyed in the inferno. PIAS distributes music from indie labels such as Domino (home of Villagers), Sub Pop, 4AD, Matador, Warp, XL and many more. The label were quick to release a statement after the blaze in which they appeared confident that their business would remain largely unaffected despite the loss of stock.

Two weeks on from the ugly scenes and PIAS MD Pete Thompson is in buoyant mood as he continues to pick up the pieces.

"We feel we’re in a good position," he says. "We have great facilities in place at Sony. They’ve been amazing at turning everything around and managing to get a new warehouse up and running in only two weeks. One of the benefits of operating with a company like Sony and one of the reasons why we went to them in the first place was that we knew they could handle all sorts of issues. I don’t know how prepared you can be for a warehouse fire, but they did have emergency planning in place and they put it into action very swiftly."

The fallout of the fire saw an overwhelming response, with everyone from label staff to musicians to the general public coming forward to offer their help. The mass outpouring of support for independent music was crucial in getting things back on track.

"Everybody has been fantastic," says Thompson. "The main thing we needed was patience and support. There’s very little you can do other than get on with it. It happens, your stock is gone, and you’ve got to deal with it. You can’t sit there feeling sorry for yourself.

"We know full well that the service might not be perfect today but every day, it will get better. We’re still at the point where there’s hundreds of thousands of records being re-pressed. That doesn’t happen overnight, but over the next two weeks we expect normal service to be resumed."