Launched in Holland in 1981 and focused on releasing  Heavy Metal records, the label then expanded and opened offices around the world including UK, USA, Germany, Japan and Australia.

A documentary about the company is currently in production, the idea for the project started during lockdown when 34 year old Bill and his friend from Leeds started a podcast called Temple of Bleh.

The idea for the podcast was for the pair of us to reconnect with heavy music in a more meaningful way explained Bill.

This would be done through projects such as The Hunt for the Secret Channel 4 Metalhead, then we finally arrived at looking at The History of Roadrunner Records.

Being a metal guy of my age, I noticed a thread that connected my favourite bands – Trivium, Killswitch Engage, Sepultura, then the likes of Mercyful Fate and Type O Negative. So I toyed with the idea of a book on the subject.

After writing a brief report on the topic for the podcast, by complete chance, I crossed paths with former PR for Roadrunner UK, Michelle Kerr. She told me she’d like to see the finished product.

This was a sign to take this project to an academically accurate standard – so as not to look a complete twat in front of Michelle, who had kindly taken an interest.

I spent about a month creating a monster spreadsheet, detailing every original Roadrunner release since its formation in 1981 – conventional wisdom says Roadrunner formed in 1980, this is a lie.

After finishing this, I set about contacting every band, with mixed success, for a Zoom interview – which would be put up on the Temple of Bleh podcast and You Tube channel.

Then the idea was to roll them up into three documentaries of 60-75 mins each and detailing the three core ‘eras’ of the record label – 1981-1986, 1987-2001 and 2002-2012 explained Bill.

Research can always bring up a number of unusual stories, and Bill found a few about Roadrunner.

A good story I found is that Roadrunner’s first Gold single wasn’t metal at all – it was a 1995 gabba song called I Wanna Be a Hippie by Technohead. 

Also, in this period Roadrunner was trying to edge away from heavy metal, and in the UK specifically were trying its hand at Britpop.

If you were to ask Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos who first signed him, he’d say Roadrunner, with his early outfit The Karelia.

Another story is the range of artists Roadrunner licensed to Europe from the rest of the world. There are albums from Sinead O’Connor and Cliff Richard bearing the Roadrunner label.

Bill emphasised that the main point of the documentary is to illustrate that once upon a time, death metal hit the top of the Billboard charts, and had a seat at the table with the perceived top industry ‘players’.

It’s important to my generation to understand exactly how that came about. Who better to ask than those responsible at Roadrunner Records.

It’s also insanely convenient that you can’t answer the ‘how’ question without showcasing the stories and legacies of the key artists on the label such as Mercyful Fate, Type O Negative, and Slipknot – as well as the less mainstream bands like Deicide, Gruntruck and Blue Mountain.

After six months, 150 hours of interviews, one mini and one full documentary complete, Bill was contacted by Mrs X – who would prefer to remain anonymous.

She favoured the project so much she came up with the finance to form a production company and elevate the quality to broadcast standard.

Big thanks to our Mrs X where would I be without her! said Bill. So far I’ve filmed 32 interviews for the project, across six countries, both artist and Roadrunner personnel alike. I’ve still got a lot to go before I can call this thing even close to complete.

Bands from North East UK are represented by stories from Battleaxe and Dark Heart. It’s a dense mix of music business learnings, interwoven with rock n roll regalia.

As it stands at this moment, ‘The History of Roadrunner Records’ has no distributor or broadcaster interest as yet– so this will likely be hitting YouTube.

The documentary is being exclusively filmed in the UK and I’m managing the time with my day job, so I can’t put a final deadline on the production. I’m considering crowdfunding to quicken it up.

For more info or if you dealt with the Roadrunner label contact Bill at templeofbleh@gmail.com or @HistoryOfRoadrunnerRecords on Instagram.

Alikivi   July 2023