BAR/NONE'S FIRST INTERN (1986)

Mary Marcus:

As the first intern and employee of Bar None, here is how I got my job.  I called Glenn and said I wanted to be an intern. He asked me what that was.  I said I would work for free.  He told me to come in. this was at 611 Broadway Suite 616.

I showed up sporting an excellent fringe leather suede jacket I had procured in Texas. I told the person I came to know as Bob Lawton (who shared the office with his company, The Labor Board, along with Coyote Records (Steve Fallon) and What Goes On)  that I was there to meet Glenn.  Bob said he was out and to sit.

The phone at the desk I sat at rang. Bob told me to answer it. I did. It was for Glenn. I took a message. Glenn came in. I gave him the message.  He hired me. 

Mary went on to run the New York office of Alternative Marketing for Warner Bros.
Records. She currently lives in California and heads up fund raising efforts for the NPR affiliate KPCC.

 (click for closer view)

This Bar None accounting ledger shows the lay of the land in indie music 30 years ago. 

In the early 1980s a new group of independent distributors came into being as consumers discovered the latest releases from new wave and punk rock record labels  as well as artists on European labels. These distributors  competed nationally while often having a regional flare. Jem Records started as importers from Plainfield NJ but moved into domestic product, Dutch East India was on Long Island,NY Twin Cities in Minneapolis/St. Paul MN and Systematic on the west coast. Someone was always going out of business which made labels fearful of putting all their eggs in one basket. In the end Caroline and Important (now Sony-Red) were the last ones standing. While Bar/None no longer presses at Peter Pan we are still happily working with Ross Ellis,  30 years later for record jackets and sleeves.

Meanwhile Bar/None was dealing direct for their first release with Record Runner, Venus and Midnight in the city (hey, what about 99 Records, Rocks In Your Head and Soho Music Gallery) and of course Tom’s Hoboken store Pier Platters.  - Glenn Morrow