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

- - - -