Location: erm… Glasgow Est: 2016
Potted History: In a nutshell, LNFG is a not-for-profit, crowdfunded record label. Or pure genius pressed onto vinyl.
“I came up with the idea after backing a Pledge Music campaign,” says label founder Ian Smith. “It struck me how little money was required to get records made. If you could build a small cooperative you could take the risk away from artists and pay them for their work.”
He let his brainwave brew for a while and in January 2016 he asked a few friends what they thought. Within two weeks he had a six-member board, set up a bank account and registered LNFG as a company.
Selling annual memberships for £50, the first 12 months will see seven releases, all fully funded.
“The plan was to cover the cost of everything for the first year before releasing anything at all,” explains Ian.
Members get everything released, while a proportion of the limited edition runs are available to the general public. Everything they’ve put out so far has all but sold out. No mean feat.
Key artists & releases: There’s no specific agenda other than the artist is active in or around Glasgow, which makes for a brilliantly all over the place imprint. Releases so far include two seven-inches in the shape of the gentle folksome twang of Mark W. Georgsson’s ‘The Ballad Of The Nearly Man’ and the plugged-in scuzzed-up ballardering of Emme Woods’ ‘I Don’t Drink To Forget’. Album-wise, there’s Stephen Solo’s excellent iPhone-crafted bleeps and blips ‘Pii’ album, which came as a very limited digital-only release on a branded USB card, and Teen Canteen’s stonkingly upfront power pop opus ‘Say It All With A Kiss’. This month sees the release of hotly tipped popster Be Charlotte’s ‘Machines That Breathe’ single and November serves up the corking debut EP from synthpoppers BooHooHoo.
Future Plans: Members are privy to behind the scenes workings via a private Facebook group and get invited to a raft of launch nights and events and, if they’re so minded, can even help out with the various odd jobs that come with running a label.
“We want our members to feel that the label is theirs,” says Ian. “Since launching we’ve received such great support from so many people willing to embrace our ethos of not taking money from the label.”
The plan is to do it all again next year and maybe look at expanding the idea to take in other cities. Oh, and the name? It’s from ABBA’s ‘Super Trouper’… “I was sick and tired of everything / When I called you last night from Glasgow”.
“I’m a massive ABBA fan,” laughs Ian. “They reference my home city, how could that not be the name of the label?”
For more, visit lastnightfromglasgow.com
