Factory Records celebrated

If, like me, you celebrate the post-Punk musical creativity of Manchester, look out for a repeat of BBC Four’s fine 90-minute documentary, Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to the Happy Mondays, a tribute to the recently-deceased label founder/all-round Mancophile, Anthony J Wilson.

The film has welcome contributions from most of the major players, from Ian Curtis’ Joy Division band-mates to Happy Mondays’ Mr Ryder, and from Paul Morley, the BBC’s ubiquitous (but very welcome) Manc music correspondent, to, most notably, a visibly dying Wilson.

Factory ably documents the early success of the label, based on Joy Division then New Order’s popularity, the subsequent failure of the Hacienda nightclub and then the demise of the label itself.

But, much as I like the Manc music scenesters, I’m glad that this motley crew were only ever in charge of their own money. Ultimately, Factory was a failure: a very popular label and nightclub failed and it didn’t need to happen. Factory Records failed to fulfil its massive potential by not developing its roster – The Smiths, The Fall and The Stone Roses, arguably the finest local talents, were signed by other labels, from right under Factory’s nose.

But I’m surely not alone in tiring of the continual barrage of provincial, solipsistic “Manc is great” propaganda. The grim Northern city’s not-so-subtle attempt to ride on the coat-tails of a handful of great pop musicians is wearing a bit thin: Manchester was a dump before Joy Division; it’s just as big a dump today.



Gerry Smith