This weekend (a sunny one hopefully) sees The Durutti
Column play the Big Chill festival at Eastnor Castle. DC play the
Chill stage on Sunday - see the full running order from the official
site www.bigchill.net:

Sunday 1 August 2004

Chill Stage

MC: Nettie
Another Fine Day
Mark Pritchard
Eva Abraham and Instrumental
Durutti Column
Marc Almond
Ukelele Orchestra Of Great Britain
Mozez
Alucidnation
Sia
Jimmy Cauty's Blacksmoke

Labels: The_Durutti_Column

The final date on the Definitive Durutti Column Tour has just been announced. It's at The Glee Club in Cardiff on Monday 4 October.

Box office: 0870 241 5093
Website: www.glee.co.uk
Doors: 7.30pm

The Glee Club
Mermaid Quay
Cardiff Bay
cardiff CF10 5BZ

The full tour, which is to promote the forthcoming 2-CD 'Definitive Durutti Column' collection, is as follows:

September

16 - Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
25 - Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells
26 - Ronnie Scott's, London

October

3 - Brighton Dome, Brighton
4 - Glee Club, Cardiff

Don't forget that as only one of the shows (Manchester) is in the north of England, the band is looking into the possibility of running coaches from various parts of the country. If you are interested in this please submit your details using the online form.

Labels: The_Durutti_Column

Tickets for the show which kicks off the Definitive Durutti Column tour at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall are £12.50/£16.50, and are on sale this Friday.

Labels: The_Durutti_Column

The Magnetic Fields spring back into action this autumn with a full European Tour, no doubt to further promote the album 'i'. The full schedule is as follows (with thanks to thehouseoftomorrow.com. New York residents read on for details of two further gigs in your area.

October 2004

2 - Copenhagen, Denmark Vega
3 - Stockholm, Sweden China Theatre
4 - Oslo, Norway Rockefeller Music Hall
6 - Hamburg, Germany Fabrik
7 - Berlin, Germany Passionskirche
8 - Stuttgart/Schorndorf, Germany Manufaktur
10 - London, UK Royal Festival Hall
20 - Lisbon, Portugal Aula Magna
21 - Bilbao, Spain Teatro Barakaldo
22 - Madrid, Spain Palacio Congresos
23 - Barcelona, Spain Teatre Principal
24 - Valencia, Spain Palau de Congresos
26 - Edinburgh, UK Queens Hall
27 - Cambridge, UK Cambridge Corn Exchange
29 - Coventry, UK Warwick Arts Centre
30 - Manchester, UK RNCM
31 - Dublin, Ireland Olympia Theatre

Topping and tailing those shows are two in New York City in August and November.

Aug 18 - Angel Orensanz Center
Nov 18 - Carnegie Hall

How to get tickets: Tickets for most U.S. performances can be purchased at the box office or through TicketWeb or Ticketmaster. Limited presale tickets may also be available at a discount for some shows at MusicToday.com.

Labels: Magnetic_Fields

I Fagiolini the former Factory Classical Monteverdi specialists (Facd 316) are playing a show London's South Bank in the Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer on Friday 17 September 2004. The show is part of the 'Inventions: The Early Music Weekend' strand.

From the Royal Festival Hall website: "I Fagiolini are well known for their inventive approach to presenting early music in the concert hall, especially through staged or semi-staged versions of Renaissance vocal works. Their dramatic performance of Monteverdi's complete fourth book of madrigals promises a very different concert-going experience: be prepared for a revelation."

Incidentally, the South Bank Centre's publicity booklet uses the cover shot from Facd 316 to promote the show.

Details

Claudio Monteverdi Book 4 Madrigals
Robert Hollingworth: musical director
John La Bouchardiere: director

Tickets: £8.00
Concessions: £5** (limited availability)
Official website: www.rfh.org.uk

Labels: Factory_Classical, labels

As previously announced, The Durutti Column play the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Thursday 16 September. It is now confirmed that Manchester will be the only gig north of Watford. In order to give the largest number of people possible an opportunity to come to the gig the band is looking to lay on coaches to the show from the Midlands and possibly other parts of the country.

Interested? Please fill in all the necessary fields on this online form (including where you live) and hit send. Thanks very much.

Labels: The_Durutti_Column

More news from LTM, this time about "Long-lost Blackpool Factory legends" Tunnelvision. If you've been following their new website you'll know that the band has recently reunited and has been rehearsing new songs. They play their first live show since Manchester Gallery in 1981 at the Summer Daze festival at Ashton Gardens in sunny Lytham St Annes on 15 August 2004. "Expect lots of new songs, and probably one or two blasts from the past".

Thanks (again) to James at LTM.

Labels: Tunnelvision

LTM has 4 new CDs in stock (with promise of Berntholer and more Anna Domino to follow soon):

Various Artists - LTMCD 2398 'Twice As Nice - BE MUSIC / DOJO / MARK KAMINS / ARTHUR BAKER PRODUCTIONS' (this is the long-awaited sequel to LTMCD 2377 Cool As Ice: The Be Music Productions 1983-85)
Minny Pops - LTMCD 2384 'Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement' (with video clips)
Anna Domino - LTMCD 2383 'East & West' (with extra live tracks recorded in Japan)
Marine 'Life in Reverse' (with video clips)

Full details can be seen at the official LTM website

As usual, you can order these ahead of the store release date direct from LTM by mail order.

Thanks to James at LTM.

Labels: Anna_Domino, Arthur_Baker, Donald_Johnson, Mark_Kamins, Minny_Pops, New_Order

Vini Reilly explains in this extract from the July 2004 issue of Mojo magazine how Tchaikovsky's heart-rending Symphony Pathétique sustains him: "I used to have to go to bed really early when I was a child, and I would put my ear to the bedroom floor so I could hear the music my dad was playing downstairs. My dad would never play rock and pop, always jazz or classical, and when I did first hear the Beatles at a friend's house I didn't get it for a long time".

"The Symphony Pathétique was one of the pieces that would drift up through the floor. I never realised what it was until after his death when I went to see the film, The Music Lovers [Ken Russell's 1971 life of Tchaikovsky] with my sister and uses it. For me it's the last movement that I specifically love. What's interesting is that it is not particularly clever. The counterpoint isn't fantastic, it's not technically brilliant by his standards, in fact it's kind of clumsy. Mut the more I listen to it the more heartbreaking it seems, the more impact it has. It is the most tragic piece, literally and uncontrollable outpour of absolute despair".

Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 'Pathétique'
Recorded in Berlin
Premiered 28 October 1893

There is a selection of free Kevin Hewick mp3's available at Amazon.com - including 3 totally exclusive new tracks. These represent the first new material available anywhere for years.

'Bad Samantha' and 'Quarterhearted' are both brand new songs recorded at home by Kevin himself on his new-ish little digital recorder. 'Deservation' is a track recorded a year or so ago for the still-unreleased 'Doomcloud' album. There are also a few tracks from 'Helpline', Kevin's last new album, which is now incredibly rare.

Don't forget that you can find all the latest KH news, gigs, on the message board at kevinhewick.com

Thanks to Gary K and kevinhewick.com

Labels: Kevin_Hewick

The link to the Bridgewater Hall website in Wednesday's post is now correct and functional. Tickets for the forthcoming Durutti Column show there on 16 September 2004 should go on sale next week.

Labels: The_Durutti_Column

Kevin Hewick is playing at The Doghouse night at The Greyhound in Loughborough on Thursday 5 August. As Kevin explains on his excellent message board, "Each act does about 4 songs, there will be 8 acts on (all invited to perform, it's NOT a singers' night). Jade Morrison also plays.

69 Nottingham Road
Loughborough
LE11 1ES

Thanks to kevinhewick.com

Labels: Kevin_Hewick

The Durutti Column and guests will be playing the Bridgewater Hall, the state-of-the-art concert hall in Manchester on Thursday 16 September 2004. The date will be the first of a series of gigs to celebrate WEA releasing the Definitive Durutti Column on Monday 20 September. The gig will also be part of In the City 2004.

Bridgewater Hall
Lower Moseley St
Manchester
M2 3WS

Box Office: 0161 907 9000 / 0845 345 0009
www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk

Tickets will be on sale by the week commencing 26 July 2004.

Labels: The_Durutti_Column

According to more rumours on Nool the "huge" star being lined up to play Ian Curtis in the forthcoming movie adaptation of Touching From A Distance is Jude Law.

Labels: Control, Ian_Curtis

According to this BBC Manchester News article a 'huge star' has been signed up to play Ian Curtis in the film of the Deborah Curtis book 'Touching From A Distance'. No real clues at the moment as to whom it might be though apparently some wags on Nool are jesting that it might be Samuel L. Jackson (!). We are assured it is an actor who "looks rather a lot like Ian" and that "he has just finished a couple of films in which the only thing he listened to was Joy Division and New Order".

Thanks to Conor and NewOrderOnline.

Labels: Control, Joy_Division, New_Order

Blurt play a gig at London's The Spitz next month according to the official Ted Milton website. Plus a new album and European Tour have been announced.

Wednesday 18 August 2004
The Spitz
109 Commercial Street
Old Spitalfields Market
London E1 6BG (see map)
8:00 pm
£6
Tickets: seetickets.com

A new album 'Let there be Blurt - the best of' Vol. 2 entitled "The Body That They Built To Fit The Car" will be out in September 2004 and will feature 14 tracks plus two video clips (The Body That The Built & Machina Machina). Also available: The Best of Blurt Vol 1 - The Fish Needs A Bike (Salamander).

Plans are also afoot for a Blurt European Tour in November 2004. According to tedmilton.com "No dates have been set yet, though Blurt's management agency / record label revealed plans are being made. The agency is looking forward to getting interesting offers. All booking enquiries should be directed to: booking@tedmilton.com". The band were last seen live performing on the One World stage at Glastonbury on 25 June.

Labels: Blurt

You may be interested in the following student pages from Manchester School of Art and Design's BA Photography 2004 course:

Rachel McFarlane and Natalie Curtis

Thanks to Joy Division Central and Mike M.

Labels: Natalie_Curtis, photography, Rachel_McFarlane

This from the official Biting Tongues website: In addition to playing in London at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in May, Biting Tongues bring their performance of Dr X to the Greenroom in Manchester on Friday 16 July. Starring Graham Massey, Ken Hollings and Howard Walmsley, the performance will be held at 54-56 Whitworth Street, Manchester.

Check out the News section at BitingTongues.com for more information.

Thanks to BitingTongues.com

Labels: Biting_Tongues, Graham_Massey

There is a long and fine history of Factory allocating the same catalogue number to different projects, intentionally or otherwise. Unrealised concepts abound in the Factory canon and sometimes the unused number was freed up for use on something else. Sometimes though a simple cock-up occurred and Factory forgot a number had already been used.

Fact 95 - The first instance of number duplication occurred when the Royal Family and The Poor's album 'The Project - Phase 1 (The Temple of the 13th Tribe' was given the number originally reserved for a 12” single by (Haçienda DJ) Greg Wilson. The single never appeared so the number was recycled.

Fac 137 - Fact 137 was the Shorts compilation video but was also allocated to the 12" single 'Genius' by Quando Quango.

Fact 150 - A strange one here because whilst Fact 150 was the New Order album 'Brotherhood', Fac 150 was assigned to the Japanese version of the PFD video (which has the regular Factory catalogue number Fac 177).

Facd 207 - Rob Gray's Little Big Band mini lp was assigned the number Facd 207 but 207 was at one time going to be his 'Digital Buskingomo' video. Sadly the video never materialised.

Fact 210 - By the time Fact 210 'England Made Me' by Cath Carroll was released, Cath's band Miaow were a distant memory but originally this number was reserved for their unreleased album 'Priceless Innuendos'.

Fac 211 - The excellent Joy Division documentary aired on Channel 4's Wired programme (of which officially packaged and numbered tapes exist) about Joy Division (and specifically the release of Fac 213 Atmosphere and Fact 250 Substance had this number but it was also attached to the 'Book of Ideas' concept detailed in the Fact 400 Palatine booklet.

Fac 221 - Tony Wilson's trip to Hollywood to raise interest in and money for the Mad Fuckers film (Fac 181) resulted in the allocation of the 221 number and badges bearing it but in a classic piece of number duplication it reappeared as the number for the 8vo Factory Contract. These contract binders date from mid-1990 starting with Cath Carroll (who allegedly signed an 8-LP deal). Two 12" x 12" clear perspex plates with screenprinted signal green, silver and signal orange design, hold with 4 metal bolts. The bolts are positioned so as to hold A4 sheets in place and to allow the number of pages to vary from contract to contract.

Fac 289 - Factory produced special notepaper to promote the release of Fact 275 'Technique' by New Order. It was given the number 289 because the campaign was launched in February 1989. Later on, Factory forgot about this and reallocated the number to The Wendys' single 'The Sun's Going To Shine For Me Soon'.

Fac 301 - This was a Factory conference held at Mottram Hall, Cheshire, 5 July 1990 for which special white notepads, flyers and white serviettes / napkins were made. The number was also allocated to a book to be written by Tim Chambers (who worked for Ikon) about the first 50 numbers in the Factory catalogue.

Fac 451 - Jane Stanton's loving documentary about Fac 51 The Haçienda which aired on Granada Television entitled 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' was given this number (currently the second highest number issued) was the same as the number given to the 'rebuilding' of the Haçienda for the movie 24 Hour Party People, itself the recipient of Fac 401.

Many thanks to OMNY.

Labels: 8vo, Joy_Division, Little_Big_Band, Miaow, New_Order, Quando_Quango, The_Royal_Family_And_The_Poor, The_Wendys, Tony_Wilson

808state.com reports an interesting forthcoming release on Rephlex - acid house remixes of classic New Order tunes 'Blue Monday' and 'Confusion'. The mixes date from 1988 and the Mark I 808 line-up which included Gerald Simpson (A Guy Called Gerald). The single acts as a taster for the album 'Prebuild (Acid House)' which is due for release on 27 September (CAT 807 LP/CD).

The details

New Order Acid House Remixes by 808 State (1988)

UK 2004 12" Rephlex CAT 806 EP
Expected release date: 13 September 2004

Side A: 07:46 New Order "Blue Monday" So Hot Mix by 808 State
Side B: 04:55 New Order "Confusion" Acid House Mix by 808 State

Thanks to Mike.

Labels: 808_State, New_Order

Fac 345 PALATINE / The Factory Christmas Gift 1991.

A Factory find for your edification with thanks to OMNY and John Macklin.

Labels: artefacts, Christmas, John_Macklin

Don't forget that Silent Partners, Dermo's (ex-Northside) new band play Night and Day in Manchester this Saturday 10 July. The night features Ampersand, Saving Grace and Anechoic and "a whole lotta Rosy R'n'R in all its varied forms".

Night and Day
Oldham Street
Manchester
Sat 10 July 2004
£4

Silent Partners are also one of the many acts supporting Happy Mondays at Get Loaded in the Park on 22 August at Clapham Common, London. Tickets are still available.

Labels: Happy_Mondays, Northside

Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement by Minny Pops first appeared on the Dutch label Plurex in September 1979. It is now re-released as an enhanced CD including video by those nice people at LTM for the price of 10 UK pounds (LTMCD 2384). This album is "an uncompromising genre classic, the 13 track set mixes hard-edged electronica with modernist noise, and shares much in common with contemporaries Cabaret Voltaire, The Normal, Suicide and early Human League".

Tracklisting

Springtime I
Minny Pops
Hologram
Total Confusion
Dolphin's Spurt
Motor City
Springtime II
Monica
Flash Goes the Eye
MD Mania
RU 21
Mono
New Muzak
Kojak
Footsteps
Nervous
Dolphin's Spurt (Remix)
New Muzak (live)
Total Confusion (live)
Mono (live)
MD Mania (live)
Dolphin's Spurt (live)

For full details on this and other releases including 'Night Air' by Blaine L. Reininger visit LTM's official website. Most albums can be ordered direct from LTM ahead of the store release dates - just drop them a line for details of how to order.

Labels: Cabaret_Voltaire, LTM, Minny_Pops

From its amusing acknowledgements through to its detailed dissection of the recording of the album Unknown Pleasures via a thorough history of Joy Division, the book 'Unknown Pleasures' by Chris Ott (in the 33 1/3 series) is essential reading.

The book 'I Swear I Was There' by David Nolan [Milo Books; May 2001; ASIN: 1903854024] referenced herein, would also seem to be worth checking, detailing as it does the infamous Lesser Free Trade Hall gig by the Sex Pistols. It's now out of print but is probably available through the usual sources.

33 1/3 - Unknown Pleasures
by Chris Ott
US: $9.95
UK: £6.99
ISBN: 0-8264-1549-0
Publisher: Continuum

Labels: books, Joy_Division

Another Magnetic Fields interview. Highlight: Stephin Merritt's bon mots, including this, on touring - "With 69 Love Songs, we did the whole album in the order that it appeared on the album, over two nights, and with intermission -- four hours. But with this tour, we're actually going to play songs from various records. If we played i all the way through, it would only be, say, 45 minutes long. Shorter than your standard show, though longer than your typical Jesus and Mary Chain show."

Thanks again to Paul.

Labels: Magnetic_Fields, Stephin_Merritt

"Magnetic Fields brain trust Stephin Merritt harbours a secret desire to be a Teen Beat pin-up. This will come as a blow to many among his cult fan base who revere the man behind the Fields' fey synth 'n' strings ballads, the electro-pop irony of the Future Bible Heroes and the Gothic Archies' bubble-gum goth". Sarah Liss writes an amusing interview with Stephin Merritt for TorontoNow.com.

Live activity to coincide with the album 'i' continues apace:

The Magnetic Fields with support from Andrew Bird
Trinity-St. Paul's Centre (427 Bloor West, Toronto)
Fri/Sat 2/3 July
Admission 25 dollars
Call 416-870-8000

Thanks to Paul for info.

Labels: Magnetic_Fields, Stephin_Merritt

The Soul Jazz website reports the release of A Certain Ratio's classic third album Sextet on compact disc. This is the third in the series coming after The Graveyard and the Ballroom and To Each.

The bonus tracks are (as widely predicted) 'Waterline' and 'Funuzeakea' originally released as the Fac 52 twelve inch on Factory Records. As with the other reissues there is also a DJ-friendly vinyl version with the bonus tracks on 12".

Labels: A_Certain_Ratio

Silent Partners, featuring Dermo (ex-Northside), will be playing Night and Day, Manchester (Tel: 0161-236-4597) on 10 July 2004.

Labels: Northside

From interviews with Q Magazine in 2002 and Mojo in 2004 it transpires that in late 2000, John Frusciante and Flea out of Red Hot Chili Peppers (or the 'Red Hots' as Anthony Kiedis refers to them) not only "moonlighted" on Tricky’s Blowback album but also formed an unnamed Joy Division covers band for just one gig. As Q reported then, Flea now "owes more to Peter Hook than Bootsy Collins".

According to NME.com, at their recent sold out gigs in London's Hyde Park the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed a series of covers including Joy Division's 'Transmission'.

Labels: Joy_Division, Peter_Hook

- - - -

08.03 | 09.03 | 10.03 | 11.03 | 12.03 | 01.04 | 02.04 | 03.04 | 04.04 | 05.04 | 06.04 | 07.04 | 08.04 | 09.04 | 10.04 | 11.04 | 12.04 | 01.05 | 02.05 | 03.05 | 04.05 | 05.05 | 06.05 | 07.05 | 08.05 | 09.05 | 10.05 | 11.05 | 12.05 | 01.06 | 02.06 | 03.06 | 04.06 | 05.06 | 06.06 | 07.06 | 08.06 | 09.06 | 10.06 | 11.06 | 12.06 | 01.07 | 02.07 | 03.07 | 04.07 | 05.07 | 06.07 | 07.07 | 08.07 | 09.07 | 10.07 | 11.07 | 12.07 | 01.08 | 02.08 | 03.08 | 04.08 | 05.08 | 06.08 | 07.08 | 08.08 | 09.08 | 10.08 | 11.08 | 12.08 | 01.09 | 02.09 | 03.09 | 04.09 | 05.09 | 06.09 | 07.09 | 08.09 | 09.09 | 10.09 | 11.09 | 12.09 | 01.10 | 02.10 | 03.10 | 04.10 | 05.10 | 06.10 | 07.10 | 08.10 | 09.10 | 10.10 | 11.10 | 12.10 | 01.11 | 02.11 | 03.11 | 04.11 | 05.11 | 06.11 | 07.11 | 08.11 | 09.11 | 10.11 | 11.11 | 12.11 | 01.12 | 02.12 | 03.12 | 04.12 | 05.12 | 06.12 | 07.12 | 08.12 | 09.12 | 10.12 | 11.12 | 12.12 | 01.13 | 02.13 | 03.13 | 04.13 | 05.13 | 06.13 | 07.13 | 08.13 | 09.13 | 10.13 | 11.13 | 12.13 | 01.14 | 02.14 | 03.14 | 04.14 | 05.14 | 06.14 | 07.14 | 08.14 | 09.14 | 10.14 | 11.14 | 12.14 | 01.15 | 02.15 | 03.15 | 04.15 | 05.17 | 06.17 | 07.17 | 08.17 | 09.17 | 10.17 | 11.17 | 05.18 | 12.18 | 01.19 | 08.19 | 09.19 | 10.19 | 11.19 | 12.19 | 03.20 |

- - - -