BRIT Trust Diaries: Johnny Chandler from White Label Auction
Johnny Chandler, Co-Founder of the White Label Auction (WLA), reflects on the first seven years that has seen over £160,000 so far raised for the BRIT Trust. He looks forward to its next edition on 7th October, for which the music community has come together to donate the strongest line up of items yet, including signed discs by Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Pink Pantheress, Robbie Williams, Paul Weller, Wolf Alice, and BRIT Trust trustee, YolanDa Brown.
When I first got in touch with the BPI’s Gennaro Castaldo in 2018 to sound him out on the idea of some kind of auction of white label test pressings, neither us could have known how much of an annual fixture the event would become, nor did we imagine that, some five editions of the auction later, so much would have been raised for The BRIT Trust and the many wonderful causes it supports.
With hindsight, the BRIT Trust, our music industry’s main charity was a perfect fit. Funded largely by The BRIT Awards and the MITS, its grants (totaling more than £30 million since 1989) help to support its principal beneficiaries, Nordoff and Robbins, the UK’s largest music therapy charity, and the free-to-attend BRIT School in Croydon, which has produced so many incredible artists, including Adele, Raye, Amy Winehouse, Loyle Carner, The Kooks, Lola Young, Olivia Dean, and actor Tom Holland, alongside countless others who leave with skills that make them immediately employable in jobs without which sections of the music industry simply cannot operate, such as stage management, set-design and lighting and sound engineering. The Trust also provides vital funding to ELAM, Music Support, Key4Life, and many others across the UK that draw on the power of music and the creative arts to promote education and wellbeing.
It’s wonderful that a by-product of our industry’s recordings and of the huge surge of interest in vinyl – white label test pressings, which are produced to ensure the audio is just as the artist intended before preparing for a full release – can have such a positive effect.
What’s equally wonderful is how the whole music community – artists and their managers and record labels and their A&R, sales and marketing teams, make the WLA possible. What started out as a largely speculative endeavour thanks to the support of Universal Music, has become a true cross-industry collaboration, and, as next week’s auction will testify, Warner Music UK, Sony Music UK, and a range of indie organisations and labels and other music companies, including AWAL, BMG, Cherry Red, Domino and Partisan, now all generously contribute, with this year’s line-up arguably the strongest yet.
Over 170 lots will go under the hammer at Omega Auctions on 7th October. Star lots include signed items by some of the world’s biggest artists, including Coldplay, Chemical Brothers, Ed Sheeran, Iggy Pop, Paul Weller, John Lydon, Pink Pantheress, Robbie Williams, Rod Stewart, YolanDa Brown, Pa Salieu, and Wolf Alice. Other white label albums and singles on offer span everything from the iconic soul pop of Amy Winehouse to the heavy metal classics of Black Sabbath.
Another unique item, which we are hoping could potentially sell for thousands, is a rare original white label 7” test pressing of Queen’s legendary single Bohemian Rhapsody from 1975, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and was very generously donated by David Munns OBE.
Since its start, so many good people have helped and contributed to the auction that it would make for far too long a list, but by way of shorthand first and foremost, huge thanks must go to the many artists and their managers who’ve given us their crucial support over the years. In this respect a very special shout out must go to Robert Smith of The Cure and Joe Black. Secondly similarly huge thanks to the record labels and particularly Universal Music – David Sharpe, Ali Tant, Jim Chancellor, Sam Mumford and many, many more at UMG, who’ve supported this from the start and continue to do so in more ways than one. Profound thanks also go to Paul Reeve and Ollie Ebdon at Warner Music, Allan Catlin and John Cattini at Sony Music, Jo Bartlett and Pete Gardiner at BMG, Laurence Bell and Paul Briggs at Domino, Jeff Barrett at Heavenly, Jordan Gold at AWOL, Adam Velasco and Steve Hammonds at Cherry Red, Jeff Bell at Partisan, and to anyone else I have not listed but has helped us in some way.
We’re grateful also to Nordoff & Robbins’ Jake Stevens, Julian Stockton at JMSPR, Dan Muscatelli-Hampson and all at Omega Auctions, BPI’s Alexi Buckingham and Jake Hills, Sterling Chandler and, as ever, Gennaro Castaldo, who all play an important part in the success of the event. Finally, and not least, Tony Wadsworth CBE and all at the BRIT Trust for the support and encouragement they continually provide. Thank you also to the many key publications who are always there for us, including Music Week and Record Collector.
The White Label Auction in aid of the BRIT Trust will be hosted by Omega Auctions at 10.00 hours, Tuesday 7th October. The auction is already live, and bids can be placed here.