'“It was a nightmare”, sighs Wilson. What, I ask, is your biggest regret about it all?
He thinks for a moment. “I wish I'd gone to Barbados.”'
Tony Wilson on Factory Records (qtd. in O'Hagan)
'Factory' is a name well-known to fans of indie/alternative music across Britain, and perhaps even the world. In its relatively short life-span, Factory Records was responsible for the introduction of some of the most influential underground artists in British pop history, bands and individuals whose names continue to reverberate down the years, and whose influence can still be felt very keenly today. Not only that, but Factory can also be credited with playing significant roles in the development of both a bold design strategy, and an innovative style of musical production which became central to the image and aesthetic of a genre which was to become known as 'post-punk'.
This essay is an attempt to condense the sprawling, sometimes bewildering narrative of Factory Records into something of a brief history - from Genesis to Revelation. From rise, to fall.
Tony Wilson will feature heavily in this story. He isn't the story; many people's efforts combined to make Factory what it was. They played a part in its success, and they played a part in its subsequent failure, but Anthony H. Wilson (as he often liked to style himself, in his words: 'to wind up all the people in Manchester who think I'm a flash twat.' (O'Hagan) ) is, however, central to the story. The glue that holds it together - at least, this version of it. It was local Manchester TV personality Wilson who, together with his partner, out-of-work actor Alan Erasmus, was one of the founding members of the organisation that later became the fledgling Factory Records imprint, a company which was 'launched with the last of Wilson's savings' (O' Hagan).
Tony Wilson came from humble Irish Catholic beginnings in Salford, Greater Manchester. The young Wilson was a folk music enthusiast from an early age, and took lessons in folk guitar, though he claims that 'as a very young man, aged perhaps 11, that I couldn't sing... but I was so in love with the world of rock 'n' roll. So I found myself as a journalist, at Granada.' (Kennedy 34) The garrulous young Cambridge graduate started out as a TV producer before moving onto local news and topical programming such as 'World in Action', eventually managing to secure a late-night slot of his own for a music and arts program entitled 'So It Goes'.
Widely considered as the 'the first television program to champion new wave' (Harron), 'So It Goes' became the venue for The Sex Pistols first television appearance, after Tony Wilson was greatly impressed whilst seeing them perform at one of their now-mythical dates at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall in June of 1976. Other new emerging talents such as Elvis Costello appeared on 'So It Goes', though the show was cancelled after only two series, as it was not generally well-received. The show did, however, create a profile for Wilson as a local 'face' on Manchester's underground music scene, and left him convinced of his ability and talent for spotting exciting new pop contenders, and this led to the creation of the first Factory club night at the Russell Club in Hulme, Manchester.
The Factory nights were significant for a number of reasons, chief amongst them the graphic design of the posters, which was designed by the now-iconic Peter Saville. Saville's stark, modernist artwork became synonymous with the Factory 'brand', it's neo-industrial feel perfectly complimenting both the name of the company and it's 'brave new world' ethos. The first Saville posters for Factory are also significant because they where the first vehicle for another marketing method intimately associated with the label – the 'FAC' numbers. These were the catalogue numbers assigned to label releases, a practice typical of record companies the world over; ' aside from records and VHS videos, the [Factory] catalogue included... lawsuits, dental records, model kits, badges, hair salons, bars and even a cat (resident at the Hacienda night club, FAC 191) (Kennedy 39). It was an interesting quirk, something to set the fledgling label apart. It would also prove to have the added benefit of making not only Factory music releases, but also Factory merchandise, eminently collectable.
Both Tony Wilson's TV show, and bookings for his and Erasmus' Factory night, brought the pair into contact with local punk label Rabid Records, and more importantly, producer Martin 'Zero' Hannett. Hannett had worked on releases for Rabid by the likes of Jilted John, Slaughter and the Dogs, and John Cooper Clarke. He was a respected figure on the local scene, where he was widely considered a talented, if unconventional producer. Another figure on the periphery of Rabid was Rob Gretton, manager of the aforementioned Joy Division. Gretton, together with Hannett (who was poached from his role as in-house producer at Rabid Records) and Saville, would eventually join forces with Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus to create Factory Records in late 1978.
The first Factory record release was a label sampler album, A Factory Sample, which contained some of the earliest recorded music of Joy Division, as well as tracks by The Durutti Column (who were managed at this time by Tony Wilson himself) and Cabaret Voltaire. The financial arrangements were unconventional – 'there were no contracts for the acts on the record, nor anything so complex as a royalty rate. Instead Wilson had vowed that all the bands on the label would split profits equally with it, and that they were under no pressure to stay in his stable of artists' (Kennedy (37). Though this ethos undoubtedly endeared the new label to a local music scene still in thrall to the philosophy of punk 'movement', this level of financial irregularity later became endemic within the structure of the company, turning from eccentricity to plain mismanagement. It eventually proved fatal to the label.
A Factory Sample was the springboard for the careers of several acts on Factory, and Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures became the first LP released by the label, to critical acclaim. This was followed by Closer in 1980, prior to which, Joy Division's effective recording career was cut short by the suicide of lead vocalist Ian Curtis. Closer is widely considered to be Joy Division's master-work, and the posthumously-released single 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' is a regular fixture in 'Greatest Singles'-type lists. The band have a reach of influence which far excels the popularity they enjoyed during their short career.
Other releases followed A Factory Sample, with The Durutti Column, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and A Certain Ratio variously releasing singles and LPs on Factory throughout the early 1980s, but it was New Order, the group that rose from the ashes of Joy Division, who became the label's most bankable artist for much of the decade. The group started out with a clutch of singles, culminating in 1981's Movement, a moderately successful LP which allowed them a solid platform upon which to build a career. Indeed, such was the band's and the label's success, that the two parties embarked upon upon a financial venture together that 'that helped put the city on the late-twentieth-century pop-cultural map' (O'Hagan), and that almost bankrupted Factory and New Order: The Haçienda nightclub.
The Haçienda, 'one of the most influential night-clubs in the world' (Robb), opened its doors in the summer of 1982 and immediately began making huge financial losses. The interior design (though widely trumpeted) was too expensive, and the drinks were too cheap. New Order found that keeping the club open was costing them a great deal of money per month, and only the release of the seminal club hit, 'Blue Monday' (which became the top-selling 12” in UK history) saved the band from complete financial ruin. That said, more expensive design decisions meant that they actually lost money on each copy sold, and in light of this seeming financial incompetence on the part Factory in general, and Wilson in particular, it is perhaps no surprise that New Order went on to leave the label after a lengthy legal dispute. With the emergence of 'acid house' and guitar music sympathetic to the genre such as Factory band Happy Mondays, the Haçienda went on to become a financial success (by Factory's standards), and a huge part of Britain's youth consciousness as the 80s gave way to the 90s. The club is still spoken about in hushed tones by those who were there to experience it in its heyday.
Things began to go awry in the early 90s, with leading artists (such as New Order and the Durutti Column) all but defunct, or else making huge financial losses (Happy Mondays, New Order again). In particular, the death of Martin Hannett in 1991 had been a huge blow, as the visionary producer had been at the vanguard of the most creative and critically successful periods of Factory's history. Hannett's problems with drink and drugs finally took its toll, and his loss was keenly felt by all at the label, particularly Tony Wilson.
The Factory Records story really ends in November 1992, when the company filed for bankruptcy with debts of 'more than £2 million'. One potential contributing factor was the fact that the label had few assets in terms of its roster, as some its most commercially successful acts were not properly under contract with the company and owned all publishing and copyright in their own material. This left artists such as New Order and Happy Mondays free to jump ship to London Records, a record company which considered buying out Factory before realising that, in effect, it didn't need to. At the insistence of New Order and their management, Tony Wilson was retained 'to handle key aspects of their career' (Sutcliffe), but though they still used the Factory moniker as a totem, in reality the company was no more.
Tony Wilson died of a heart attack on the 10th of August 2007, after a short battle with cancer. He left behind a potent legend, the veracity of which is mostly dubious.
Bibliography
Books
Kennedy, J. 2006. Joy Division and the Making of Unknown Pleasures. London. Unanimous Ltd.
Sharp, C. 2007. Who Killed Martin Hannett? London. Aurum.
Articles
Dalton, S. 2002. 'Factory Records and 24 Hour Party People'. Uncut, April.
Harron, M. 1979. 'Factory Records: Food For Thought'. Melody Maker, 29th September.
O'Hagan, S. 2002. 'It Was The Best Party...Ever'. The Observer, 3rd March.
Robb, J. 1992. 'The Haçienda: Club It To Death'. Siren, May.
Sutcliffe, P. 1993. 'Factory Records: Haçienda That?'. Q, February.
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