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Joy Division - Disorder Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Record Label Profile: Factory Records

"Factory Records was a Manchester based British independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. The record label's three biggest bands have been Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays,
Factory Records used a creative team  which gave the label, and the artists recording for it, a particular sound and image. The label employed a unique cataloguing system that gave a number not just to its musical releases, but to artwork and other objects." Quoted from Wikipedia entry on Factory Records Features extensive quoting from "www.factoryrecords.net"

1978: Factory Records began as a club . Tony and Alan were joined by designer Peter Saville and Producer Martin Hannett to form FR
1979: Released Factory Sampler, their first EP which featured acts who played at their original club. 1979: "Unknown Pleasures" by Joy Division was to be the first album released by Factory, at this time the manager of Joy Divison Rob Gretto joined the label. The album went on to receive critical acclaim which the band generating success and appearing on the front cover of NME magazine as well as record a session with  BBC DJ John Peel. JD's success is credited to turning the label into a "true business".
1980: Was a bad year for Factory Records, Ian Curtis the lead singer of JD,  commit suicide due to ill health and depression. this was just short of the release of their second album. The album still was successful and the rest of the band members went on to form New Order which was also a large part of Factory.
1981: Factory were at the centre of a music scene of their own creation. The huge "Madchester" scene - named, of course, for Manchester started in the summer of 81 and continued through the summer of 82.
1982: At the center of the scene was the famous Hacienda. Gretto opened a FR supported club in Manchester. The club was central to the evolving scene in Manchester during the 80's and many famous DJ started behind the decks their. Designed by FR designer Saville the club was a instant hit but due to a policy of low priced entry and drinks and the fact that most of the users of the club preferred to spend their money on drugs over drinks the club rarely made any profit. Though this didnt stop the club outliving the record label with its door closing in 1997.
1992:  With costs of running FR current bands such as recording the Happy Monday's album in Barbados and New Order's second album costs spiraling out of control, and the Hacienda eating up the rest of their money the company faced bankruptcy. However a potential rescue deal with London Records was arranged but it fell through when London records relieased that factory didnt own the bands back catalogues. And the comapny declared bankrupt in 1992.
1997:  Though the record label was finished by now the Hacienda still continued until 1997 when it couldn't afford to keep its door open.
2007: Wilson who was at first a TV presenter in Manchester and the driving force behind the record label died of a heart attack. Because of his work in developing the city of Manchester and the culture of the city he was dubbed  Mr Manchester, after his death they was a big hole in the cultural life of Manchester

The Rest of Them: Wilson was known as the main man behind FR but really the other members were crucial to its early success. Seville designed all the labels early sleeves and had a long running relationship with Joy Division and later New Order. His designs were widely reconized as FR's and his designs were a large part behind the Hacienda.
Producer Hannett's work on the early Factory releases defined the post-punk sound and, according to Joy Division's bassist Hook, “he created the Joy Division sound”. Joy Division's originally wanted to be part of Manchester and manager Gretto got them to be part of FR.
Catalogue Numbers:

Compared to other record labels, FR did things differently when it came to their products and instead created a eccentric catalog system. Instead of running chronologically different bands had their own number, for example Happy Monday's releases usually had a catalog number ending in a 2. Every aspect of FR had its own number, FAC01 is a poster advertising a club night. FAC61 was the number given to a law suit brought against the label by former partner Hannett. FAC501, the final catalogue number, was given to Tony Wilson's coffin. A semi-fictional account of the story of Factory Records was depicted in the film 24hr Party People in 2002.

Posted by Callum Moreman IGS A2 Media at 18:57 Our Track My Group