Digby Pearson, also known as "Dig," is a British musician who founded Earache Records, which signed some of the most infamous heavy metal acts worldwide in the 1980s and early 1990s.
He was raised in Nottingham, UK where he began playing music focusing on heavy metal. His band "Scum Dribblers" failed to achieve success and he began releasing 7" albums of local bands.
As his business success grew he signed unknown acts like Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower, Carcass, Cathedral, Godflesh, Anal Cunt, Entombed, Morbid Angel and many others throughout the 1980s. Into the 1990s, Sony Music expected death metal and grindcore to be "the next big thing" and Earache Records licensed Earache's main bands such as Cathedral, Fudge Tunnel and Carcass to Sony.
When the success never occurred Earache was without its main acts and Cathedral and Carcass were left in label limbo. Digby pushed on and signed acts such as Deicide, Mortiis, and The Berzerker into the next century; meanwhile reissuing the albums from the acts that established the indie label as an important force in metal.