News Roadrunner UK To Close: A Sad Day For Rock And Metal Fans

Following the recent cancellation of Sonisphere Festival, the rock and metal scene didn’t really need another kick in the teeth. However, yesterday news began circulating Twitter that Roadrunner Records was set to close down its UK office, as well as other outlets around the world. This meant that a number of fantastic PRs and staff that people had dealt with for years were set to lose their jobs.

Since the initial murmurs on Twitter, it’s been announced that Warner Music Group will be making large cutbacks, closing the UK, Netherlands and Canada Roadrunner offices completely, alongside cuts across the label worldwide. It appears Roadrunner’s founder Cees Wessels is also stepping down as CEO. This is happening only 17 months after the completion of its sale to WMG.

Basically, it’s a sad day for rock and metal lovers.

While many festivals have to take a year off in the current climate, recently losing one of the two big hitters in metal was a bad thing. Now, we’re losing the best music label for our music too. The initial response online was of surprise and sadness; people are still posting their unhappiness over the shock announcement.

Trivium’s Matt Heafy took a more agitated response, but hit the nail right on the head. He said: “I wish I knew who or what to blame specifically, and chew off its heads - but Roadrunner records just fired some of their best employees. I don’t know if it’s corporate greed or it’s due to the fact that no one puts value in physical art and that piracy created a domino effect, but our friends who are being tossed away so quickly by the label are now out of jobs.

“These people helped bands get where they are today. My heart goes out to my friends who have been delivered this awful news today. You helped us get where we are. You’re in our thoughts. Truth is. I love Roadrunner. I’m upset with what happened to the people I care about. Roadrunner helped build metal that I love. It wasn’t ROADRUNNER canning people. It’s the ‘company’ who ‘owns’ it. Long live ROADRUNNER (the memory of something that once was great).”

Truth is. I love Roadrunner. I’m upset with what happened to the people I care about. Roadrunner helped build metal that I love.

— matthew kiichi heafy (@matthewkheafy) April 26, 2012

Slipknot’s Clown Shawn Crahan also took to his Facebook to respond to the news, stating: “Today is a sad day. It has been brought to my attention that many Roadrunner offices around the world have been closed permanently. This means to us, Slipknot, in my opinion that a lot of our very close friends and comrades will no longer be around to help the art and business known as the Slipknot family. You are in my thoughts and prayers now forever. I will always consider you close friends and I will make every attempt to stay in touch with as many of you as possible.”

And those are just two comments made by those on the Roadrunner roster; there are many, many more.

Why this sucks though, is that people who really care about metal music are losing their jobs because a top company needs to make cuts. One can’t help but feel that metal has taken a serious knock when other genres will have been overlooked. As Matt said, the people this hits are those who helped build up many of the bands on the Roadrunner roster and genuinely loved the music they worked with. I won’t pretend I know any of them personally, because I don’t. Like many, I’ve just dealt with a number of them via email in the past but on the occasions I’ve met any of them, they were nothing but nice.

When I started out in this, Roadrunner were the first people to give me an interview or pass. I had a blog – literally on Wordpress, no domain name – that only had music news and it was a bit rubbish, to be honest. Two weeks after I started it, they gave me press for Murderdolls and were exceedingly kind about it all, even though my website was just in its baby steps. Looking back at the state of my website, I’m still surprised that my favourite label were so kind when others refused to help so early on.

They have handled Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, KISS, DevilDriver, Megadeth, Machine Head, Trivium, Soulfly, Stone Sour, Rob Zombie, Slash, Korn, Lamb of God, Alter Bridge, Black Stone Cherry – and that’s just naming a few. Basically, most of the big hitters in hard rock and metal were handled by one label, making it the best there is. Sure, the bands will still need UK representation and that will sort itself out in time, but it doesn’t feel right that such an iconic label is being screwed over.

When it boils down to it, I am just a big fan of rock and metal music and, for as long as I can remember, Roadrunner has been my favourite label. Since getting my first steps into the world of music, I found that they were one of the most helpful and kind when it came to my website from the start.

It’s just a shame, basically. It speaks volumes that the bands on Roadrunner are very unhappy about this; they are an absolutely brilliant label and it’s not just the fans who can appreciate that. I can only say that I wish everyone involved the best in the future, because they all seem like great people and they made Roadrunner UK an absolute pleasure to deal with.