But lots of historical accounts, Severed Alliance, press, Wikipedia etc say it was Johnny and Andy that went to Rough Trade with Hand in Glove? Or am I misunderstanding what he is referring to ? ‘Marr and Rourke visited London to hand a cassette of their recordings to
Geoff Travis of the independent record label
Rough Trade Records.
[38]’
From Johnny's book:
"The activity at 70 Portland Street increased even more after we’d been in Strawberry Studios. Joe’s life was now all about the band, and everyone in the building was living with our own soundtrack, ‘Hand in Glove’. We wracked our brains for ideas about how best to get our song out on vinyl and decided that if we were unable to find a suitable record company then we would form our own label and put the song out ourselves. I liked the plan, as at least it meant a guaranteed release, but I still had my mind set on Rough Trade. There was only one thing left to do: I had to go there and ask them to sign us.
I’d stayed in touch with Matt Johnson since we’d met the year before, and I called him and asked if he could put me up when I got to London. Matt offered to let me stay on his couch, and I made my way to Rough Trade and took Andy with me for moral support. When we got to the Rough Trade offices I had no plan or strategy; it was just a matter of winging it. I asked at reception if there was someone we could see about playing our tape, but we were given the brush-off as everyone was either too busy or out of the office. We hung around conspicuously for a while and made more enquiries about when to come back, until the young guy at the desk finally gave in and allowed us to wait while he got a message to Simon Edwards, who I assumed was a Rough Trade boss. After a long wait we were eventually seen by a courteous and businesslike man who asked us the name of the band, then took the tape into a small office down the corridor, presumably to play it.
Andy and I waited anxiously, and I was hoping that the gentleman was grooving irresistibly to ‘Hand in Glove’ at full volume in a state of euphoria, punching the air with the realisation that he’d discovered the biggest new guitar band in England. He came back quickly and coolly handed the tape to me.
‘Yes, it’s good,’ he said, ‘but I can’t really do anything. You’d have to let Geoff hear it.’
‘Good,’ I thought, ‘he said it was good, he didn’t say “go away”.’ But still, it wasn’t exactly the reaction I was hoping for. I thought he’d at least be out of breath after all that grooving. ‘Who’s this Geoff?’ I thought. ‘Who’s Geoff?’ I said.
‘Geoff’s the head of the label, and he decides what we put out,’ said Simon. ‘Perhaps you could send it to him?’
‘Send it’ – that definitely sounded like a brush-off, and my heart rate quickened as I feared my opportunity was slipping away. ‘Can I see him?’ I asked. ‘We’ve come all the way from Manchester.’ I was getting a bit desperate; I knew how good the song was and that all they had to do was hear it and they’d love it.
‘Geoff’s in a meeting all afternoon. I can’t disturb him now,’ said Simon politely, and then gestured over to an office where a tall man was stood talking by a window.
It was clear that this was as close as we were going to get for the moment. I wasn’t about to badger the man or prostrate myself before him, but my instinct also told me that I was on the brink of a crucial moment. As we turned to walk out of the building, I nodded to Andy to follow me into the warehouse, where there was a loading bay filled with hundreds of boxes. I started to act like I was stacking records. So far, so good. There was so much activity in the loading bay with people coming and going that no one noticed any interlopers, even if one of them did look like Stuart Sutcliffe. I kept watching the office where I’d seen Geoff, waiting for him to come out. An hour or so passed, and then I saw him come out of the door and make his way down the corridor, looking very busy. Here was my chance. I walked up to him and took out our tape, and as he went past me I grabbed his arm and said, ‘Geoff … hi.’ He stopped, and I was surprised myself at how unexpected the moment was. ‘I’m in a band from Manchester, we’re called The Smiths, and we’ve done a song we’d really like to put out on Rough Trade.’ I needed to let him know about our commitment to it coming out, so I said, ‘If you don’t want to put it on the label, we could put it out on our own label and you could distribute it.’ Geoff was calm and seemingly unconcerned at being accosted by a tiny northerner.
‘I’ll listen to it over the weekend,’ he said.
I believed him, and in my happiness and enthusiasm I blurted out, ‘You won’t have heard anything like it before.’"
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