Raaa! Records was the brainchild of Nish’s best mate back at school. Their band, Angel Myshkin, never made it beyond rehearsal rooms and recording an EP, but Raaa! Records became our ‘label’ in the days before digital distribution.
Nothing came of the band, and nothing came of the label. Many years down the line, Nish was in The Idol Dead. When they decided they were going to completely commit to the ‘DIY till I die’ ethos, our own label became a necessity. Doing our distribution through Ditto Music, they had the option to release items under your own label name.
A quick message to his old buddy from New Zealand (for his sins, he’s now living in Australia), and permission was granted for Raaa! Records to be resurrected like a Dinosaur from a simple sample extracted from a mosquito trapped in fossilised sap…
Many, many years pass and Raaa! Records just sits there quietly, releasing all works by The Idol Dead and a release by The Spangles…The Idol Dead’s last 3 albums were crowdfunded. Initially by WeFund and then PledgeMusic. Then the (Pledge)Music died and we all felt a gap appear. Bands took to Patreon, Kickstarter and many other crowdfunding platforms, but none really focussed on the music the way that PledgeMusic did.
So, we thought…maybe we could do our own version of PledgeMusic. But not taking the risks, not trying to grow, in fact, we’re currently ‘not for profit’.
The plan is to do a ‘pledge campaign’ for The Idol Dead. You know it’s the same band running it front end and back, you can rely on us…we have a reputation to uphold, and if it all goes well, we could open things up and allow one or two other bands to use the service if they want to. The profits all go back into the business, paying paypal and various other fees…the only money ‘we’ get is what the campaign aims to raise (10% will be split between charitable donations and running costs, including fees), so hopefully this gives us back the platform that was once trusted, beloved and bloody brilliant for independent bands. Oh that’s the other thing, independent bands on here only. You won’t be finding Def Leppard, The Wildhearts or Midge Ure on here…it’s people like The Idol Dead. We also will insist that bands put the work in with lots of great content, it only works for the fans, if the bands put in the work.
With The Idol Dead, you know the work will be put in. KC in charge of the front end of the campaign, Nish working the backend and Tim with the accounts. Polly and Rory will have jobs too…