James Nice's history of Factory Records, Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records is published by Aurum Press on 1 June 2010. The book features a foreword by Jon Savage.

In the years since the collapse of Factory, the label has become both a legend and a cautionary tale, yet its definitive, authentic story has never been told - until now. Shadowplayers is the most complete, authoritative and thoroughly researched account of how a group of provincial anarchists and entrepreneurs saw off bankers, journalists and gun-toting gangsters to create the most influential, acclaimed and adored music of modern times.

The Shadowplayers book builds on the original feature length documentary Shadowplayers: Factory Records and Manchester Post-Punk 1978-81 released on DVD in 2006 by James Nice's LTM label but is extended in scope to cover the complete history of Factory Records.

To celebrate the publication of the book please come along to the official book launch at Rough Trade East on Thursday 20 May 2010 from 6.30pm until 8.30pm. Original Factory band Blurt will be performing live and there will be DJ support from Tom Moderne.

Rough Trade
East Dray Walk
Old Truman Brewery 91 Brick Lane
London E1 6QL

Nearest overground/Tube: Liverpool Street or Aldgate East

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Shadowplayers
James Nice
The Rise and Fall of Factory Records
Foreword by Jon Savage

Format: hardback book
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Aurum Press Ltd
Publication date: 1 June 2010
ISBN-10: 1845135407
ISBN-13: 978-1845135409

Labels: books, Factory_Records, Shadowplayers

The official release of the debut Two Worlds Collide E.P. [HAC 002] by Freebass is available from Monday 29 March 2010 as a digital download only via fac51thehacienda.com. The release is available as both the complete six-track EP and as individual tracks.

Tracklisting

1. Intro
2. You Don't Know (This About Me) [Vocals By Tim Burgess]
3. The Milky Way Is Our Playground [Vocals By Pete Wylie]
4. Dark Starr [Vocals By Howard Marks]
5. Live Tomorrow You Go Down [Vocals By Peter Hook]
6. That's Life

Instrumental versions are also available at www.fac51thehacienda.com.

Labels: Freebass

Tickets for the live Manchester debut of Freebass on Wednesday 2 June 2010 @ The Factory will now go on sale on Monday 29 March 2010 via factorymanchester.com. There was some confusion over the date of the gig, with it being listed in some quarters as 3 June so the original on-sale date has been postponed.

Tickets for the London date @ the 100 Club on Tue 1 June went on sale today as planned and are still available at the time of writing via TicketWeb, GigsAndTours and other outlets priced 12.50 GBP.

Labels: FAC251_The_Factory, Freebass, Peter_Hook

According to the Official OMD MySpace a new OMD album, provisionally entitled The History of Modern is scheduled for release via 100% Records in late August / early September 2010 with Andy McCluskey and Peter Saville handling sleeve design duties.

Labels: OMD, Peter_Saville

Tickets for the long-awaited first Freebass gigs go on sale Friday 26 March 2010:

June

Tue 1 - 100 Club, London [tickets available via gigsandtours.com]
Wed 2 - The Factory, Manchester [tickets available via factorymanchester.com]

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Freebass on Facebook

Labels: FAC251_The_Factory, Freebass

From Facebook:

On 2 April 2010, The Whiskey Dregs in New York City will host a free discussion with Dave Haslam, called From Joy Division To New Order at Angels and Kings.

Using various media, Haslam will explain the transition from Joy Division to New Order as well as the city that birthed its bandmates, the scene that influenced their sound, and why it still matters.

Meanwhile, read the Dave Haslam interview @ The Whiskey Dregs.

--

From Joy Division to New Order: A Discussion With Dave Haslam
@ Angels and Kings
FREE

8-9pm

500 East 11th Street (Between Avenue A and B)
New York, NY
USA

Labels: Dave_Haslam, Joy_Division, New_Order

Outpost (featuring Ike Yard's Stuart Argabright) will do their JG Ballard project this coming Saturday 27 March 2010 on London's Exotic Pylon Show with Jonny Mugwump on Resonance FM. The performance will be archived online.

The JG Ballard Project features JGB-inspired music and spoken word pieces and further nights are planned in Oporto, Portugal and London, England for around November 2010. More info to follow.

Meanwhile Ike Yard is currently working on the remix of Vladislav Delay's cut (from around 2000) Sistol for Phthalo Records.

Labels: Ike_Yard, Outpost, Stuart_Argabright

German/French TV arts station Arte will feature a segment on FAC 51 The Hacienda on its Tracks show on Thursday 1 April 2010 at 22:40 (CEST).

Labels: FAC51_The_Hacienda

As previously announced, Peter Hook embarks on a UK theatre tour this April with Howard Marks in a spoken word, musical and Q&A based show that sees the duo open up about their rock and roll shenanigans and pasts. The tour starts on 11 April in Birmingham and runs until 2 May.

Cerysmatic Factory is offering one lucky reader the chance to win a pair of tickets to a show of their choice (not including Salford). The full prize includes a chance to meet Hooky and Howard before the gig, a signed copy of The Hacienda: How Not To Run A Club and a Hacienda goodie bag.

To be in with a chance of being drawn from the Cerysmatic hat, just send your name and choice of date to us by email.

Competition closes 4 April 2010 and the winner will be notified by email shortly after. One entry per person please.

The Peter Hook Unknown Pleasures Tour with Compere Howard Marks - full itinerary:

April

Sun 11 - Birmingham, Glee Club [0871 472 0400]
Mon 12 - Bolton, Albert Hall [01204 334400]
Tue 13 - Worcester, Huntingdon Hall [01905 611 427]
Thu 15 - Milton Keynes, Stables [01908 280800]
Sun 18 - Middlesbrough, Town Hall [01642 729729]
Tue 20 - Gateshead, The Sage [0191 443 4661]
Wed 21 - Durham, Gala [0191 332 4041]
Thu 22 - Burnley, Mechanics [01282 664400]
Sun 25 - Cardiff, Glee Club [0871 472 0400]
Mon 26 - Oxford, Academy [0844 477 2000]
Tue 27 - Wakefield, Theatre Royal [01924 211 311]
Wed 28 - Gloucester, Guild Hall [01452 50 30 50]
Thu 29 - Derby, Assembly Rooms [01332 255800]
Fri 30 - Norwich, UEA [01603 508050]

May

Sat 1 - Salford, The Lowry [0843 208 6000]
Sun 2 - Hull, Truck Theatre [01482 323638]

Labels: FAC51_The_Hacienda, Joy_Division, New_Order, Peter_Hook

DJ Shred presents...

NEW YORK MEETS MANCHESTER

Saturday 3 April 2010

9pm - Frank Sidebottom

10pm til midnite - The Sons & Heirs [Smiths/Morrissey tribute band]

Midnite til 4am - DJ Shred spins with DJ Dave Haslam featuring 80s and 70s post punk, 80s and 90s acid house, Hacienda hits, 90s Manchester indie hits and more

$10 entry

Glasslands
Brooklyn
NYC
USA

Frank Sidebottom
DJ Shred
Dave Haslam
The Sons & Heirs

Event page on Facebook

Labels: Dave_Haslam, DJ_Shred, Frank_Sidebottom

Mat Cook is a graphic designer / director whose client list ranges from Robbie Williams and Archive to Moby to Depeche Mode and the Aphex Twin.

He is also the designer of the sleeve for FAC 2.02 A Factory Sample Too, the Factory Too double 7-inch and CD single.

Mat has now produced a series on limited edition screen prints which have been shaped and influenced by his times and 'experiences'. The prints are available to order now from matcook.info.

Labels: Factory_Too, labels, Mat_Cook

The Music Artefact Exhibition featuring Joy Division and John Peel related artefacts is back at Heywood Library foyer for around six weeks. Admission is totally free.

The exhibition covers the links between recording studios in Heywood and Rochdale recording studios, Joy Division and John Peel is back in the foyer of Heywood Library foyer by popular demand. It was originally opened by Peter Hook and Chris Hewitt on 23 September 2009 on the day of the unveiling of two new music blue plaques. The exhibition could only run until early November owing to prior commitments by the library display area.

But now it is back for another six weeks and includes exhibits about the musical heritage of Heywood and Rochdale, links to John Peel and Joy Division (including equipment used by them and Martin Hannett), the history of the Seven Stars as a music venue, other local rock groups, Wigwam Acoustics, the Imaginary record label, Deeply Vale Festivals and much more.

Heywood Library
Church Street
Heywood
OL10 1LL

Labels: artefacts, Chris_Hewitt, Heywood, Joy_Division, Martin_Hannett, Peter_Hook, Rochdale

The Wake follow up their recent appearances at Plan K in Brussels and London Popfest with a couple more international dates in Paris and New York City in May 2010.

--

The Wake + Young Michelin (Live in Paris)

Saturday 8 May 2010
8:00-12:00pm

Point Ephémère
200 Quai de Valmy
Paris 75010
France

Bulle Sonore Records 5th Birthday Party at Point Ephémère Paris
Live: The Wake (Factory, Sarah, LTM) + Young Michelin
DJs: Tod Brownies (Bulle Sonore) + Cosensation (La Forme Lente) + guests

Ticket details to follow.

--

The Wake (NYC Popfest 2010)
+
Boat
My Teenage Stride
Bears
World Atlas
Very Truly Yours

Saturday 22 May 2010
From 6:30pm

The Bell House
149 7th Street
Brooklyn
NY 11215
USA

Tickets: $15 advance / $18 day of show
Ages: 21+

Labels: The_Wake

Pierre Perrone writes Larry's obituary in The Independent.

Labels: Larry_Cassidy

The funeral of Section 25's Larry Cassidy took place on Friday 12 March in Poulton-le-Fylde. Kevin Hewick was there and has written about it on his blog, an extract of which follows:

"In the impressive, imposing Catholic church of St John the Evangelist, Poulton-le-Fylde, Larry Cassidy was given a suitably lively send off that was deeply moving yet very funny and surreal too.

People either laughed or gasped as the hearse drew up with a stunning Soviet flag resplendent with hammer and sickle in flowers in pride of place.

Brother Vin's lovely red guitar wreath also stood out."

Others who attended the funeral alongside the extended Cassidy family included Ian Butterworth, Roger Wikeley, Steve Stringer, Peter Hook, Alan Erasmus, Jez Kerr, John Robb and James Nice.

Read Kevin's full account of the funeral in Kevin's Blog at www.kevinhewick.co.uk.

Labels: Larry_Cassidy, Section_25

FAC 51 The Hacienda presents:
Easter Bank Holiday Sunday

4 April 2010 at The Factory, Manchester
8-11pm

SWR: The Very Best of Shaun Ryder
Full Live Show

Shaun Ryder and a full live band performing the hits of Happy Mondays, Black Grape and the World Premiere of his new solo work!

Followed by a Club Event from 11pm-4am

Hacienda: Past, Present & Future

Room 1 – 808 State (DJ set) and Jon Dasilva
Room 2 – Justin Robertson / Jon Carter
Room 3 – Murkage Cartel vs Jay 'Backchat' Fontaine

Advance tickets

£26.50 - SWR Live Show plus Club Event (8pm-4am)
£15.00 - Club Event only (valid from 11pm only)
24 hr ticket hotline: 08444 771000

Tickets available from factorymanchester.com on sale midday Friday 19 March 2010.

Labels: FAC251_The_Factory, FAC51_The_Hacienda, Happy_Mondays, Shaun_Ryder

Gabrielle's Wish, Honestly Express Yourself and Factory Floor confirmed as UK support acts.

Bad Lieutenant have confirmed that the support acts on the UK leg of their upcoming tour later this month will be as follows:

Sheffield and Glasgow - Gabrielle’s Wish
Preston and Liverpool - Honestly Express Yourself (H.E.Y.) [new band featuring Denise Johnson]
London - Factory Floor

Tickets are still available for all dates:

March

15 - Leadmill, Sheffield
16 - Garage, Glasgow
18 - Electric Ballroom, London
20 - 53 Degrees, Preston
21 - Masque, Liverpool

Twist of Fate, the second single off the album Never Cry Another Tear is released 22 March in the UK (23 in the US).

Labels: Bad_Lieutenant

A series of six long scale EB2/335-shape bass guitars are to be custom built by Brian Eastwood with HAC numbers HAC 51 to 56 utilising pieces of the original maple wood dancefloor of FAC 51 The Hacienda.

The design ideas have been put together by Peter Hook and Chris Hewitt and are being turned into reality by custom guitar builder Brian Eastwood.

The initial idea came from discussions between Hooky and Chris Hewitt about how pieces of the original Hacienda maple dance floor they were sorting for another project were about the right width to make a maple fretboard for guitar necks. And so the idea of a Hacienda Peter Hook Bass Guitar was born.

A lot of the innovative features of the Hacienda internal design / architecture will be incorporated into various parts of the guitar, the first of which will be ready and in use when Hooky performs at The Factory in Manchester on 18 May 2010.

Labels: FAC51_The_Hacienda, Peter_Hook

Vincent Cassidy has written a touching tribute to his brother Larry on section25.com.

The funeral is to be held at midday on Friday 12 March at:

St John The Evangelist R.C. Church
Breck Road
Poulton-le-Fylde
Lancashire FY6 7HT

Flowers may be sent or donations if so desired to St Vincent House or Trinity Hospice c/o C.T. Hull Funeral Directors, 2 Birchway Poulton-le Fylde, FY6 7SF.

Labels: Larry_Cassidy, Section_25

Spin Magazine has uploaded its extensive back catalogue to Google Books and amongst the delights for FAC fans you'll find the following:

- New Order Technique review
- Barbara Kruger interview
- Happy Mondays
- Morrissey / Viva Hate
- Blurt
- New Order May 1988
- Cabaret Voltaire
- James / The Nightingales Oct 85
- New Order Sep 1985

Plus, loads of unbelievable vintage ads for cigarettes and this incredible Casio digital guitar.

With thanks to Marcus for spotting.

Labels: Cabaret_Voltaire, Google_Books, Happy_Mondays, James, Joy_Division, New_Order

Manchester (and London) came to Brighton's Concorde 2 last night for The Sunday Social featuring A Certain Ratio.

Transformer kicked off live proceedings with an energetic set packed with catchy hits and accompanied by an impressive light show.

The audience started swelling ahead of ACR's headline live set and the excellent bass-crunching soundsystem was showcased in the immediately preceding DJ set.

The full 6-strong ACR (with Denise back after she had to miss Brussels) took to the stage shortly after 9pm. They kicked off with the classic Do The Du before launching straight into Wild Party. This indicated that this would be a fairly unusual setlist. Don't get me wrong, all the cool tunes were, it's just they were in a different order! Later highlights included a crunching Wonder Y where the bass was bone-crunching and the old-but-new fave Waterline. In between, the Mind Made Up album was showcased - watch out for that being re-released via LTM later in the year. Full setlist to follow.

Sadly we had to dash after Ratio in order to catch the last train and so had to miss Justin Robertson's and Danny Rampling's DJ sets. Well done to Ash for putting on a great show - and Happy Birthday.

Thanks to James Nice for giving Paul, Emita and I back to the station in the freezing cold.

Labels: A_Certain_Ratio, review

The 4 March 2010 paper version of the Manchester Evening News revealed that Hooky plans to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of Ian Curtis on 18 May by playing a Joy Division set at The Factory.

"Everyone's talking about what they're going to do and I think i'm going to be playing some Joy Division songs to celebrate Ian's life on May 18. I mean, we're never going to do it together again, but it just seems right. Especially to do it at The Factory, there's a definite need to celebrate one of the most momentous days of your life."

Labels: FAC251_The_Factory, Joy_Division

The 4 March 2010 paper version of the Manchester Evening News also revealed that the Macclesfield Joy Division Festival - also set to commemorate the death of Ian Curtis through a six-week series of events in May 2010 - are GBP 40,000 short of the GBP 200,000 needed to go-ahead.

Potential patrons should contact the Silk Heritage Trust.

Labels: Ian_Curtis, Joy_Division, Macclesfield

You may have noticed that we have undergone some major surgery. This was due to Blogger, on which the news blog part of the site has run since 2003, will stop supporting website publishing by FTP in May 2010. After an initial period of "WTF are we gonna do!?" it became clear that this enforced upgrade would actually enable us to implement a number of improvements which we've been mulling over for quite some time. Technical issues with the way the site is constructed prevented us from making that change then but now, with the news blog shifted over to news.cerysmaticfactory.info, the path was clear. And so we proudly roll out some new features which you will hopefully like including post pages, comments, and tagging/labelling.

This, the main front page, remains as it is, albeit with a slimmed down look. Links to the most recent news items are below or you can select News on the left to see all the news. All the other 1500+ regular pages remain unaffected by the changes to the blog. The old blogposts are still there too if you really wanna look. You'll work it out.

We are only human, and regretfully every year have to turn down at least one prospective work experience applicant, so if anything goes awry during this launch period please bear with us and we will endeavour to fix it as soon as possible. Please let us know if you have any comments too.

Labels: Cerysmatic_Factory

The Warehouse Project
in association with 13 Artists presents:

Ian Brown [live]

plus special guests:

UNKLE [live]
Bad Lieutenant [live]
The Whip
Scratch Perverts
Mike Pickering
A Certain Ratio [live]
Mr Scruff
Justin Robertson
Peter Hook
Unabombers
El Diablos
Krysko
Now Wave DJs

Friday 11 June 2010
Platt Fields Park
Fallowfield
Manchester

Tickets on sale from 25.00 GBP from Thursday 4 March (with presale for Ian Brown fan club members on now) via Ticketline, SeeTickets and TicketMaster.

More info on ianbrown.co.uk, Facebook and The Warehouse Project.

Labels: A_Certain_Ratio, Bad_Lieutenant, Peter_Hook

Kevin Hewick pays tribute to Larry Cassidy of Section 25 who died at the weekend in the Blog/News section of his website.

Labels: Kevin_Hewick, Larry_Cassidy, Section_25

An early start last Sunday saw hundreds of indie pop kids descend on Islington for London Popfest 2010 featuring headliners The Wake making only their second live appearance in nigh on 20 years. Some slightly older IPKs made their way to The Lexington via a pleasant diversion in one of London's finest hostelries, The Wenlock Arms (where a rather apt Wake Ale pumpclip was spotted atop the bar).

Horse Shoes, comprising one guy out of The Drums, a guitarist and a backing tape were the third band on and the first one we caught. The tunes were catchy enough and they had a certain stage presence but what was going on with those guitar solos!?

The Wake headlined the afternoon session and came on stage to a dreamy backing tape. The performance was as tight as it had been in Brussels contained something Factory- and Sarah-era Wakeheads alike. Thanks to David Cooper for making a good first stab at the setlist.

Afterwards, Caesar revealed that more dates are in the pipeline with Paris and NYC in May being first up. More details when we have them.

It was good to see Paul, Emita, Mark, Iain and David. Let's do it again next weekend in Brighton for ACR.

Approximate setlist

Testament
Uniform
Oh Pamela
Talk About The Past
Here Comes Everybody
Favour
Something Outside
Holy Head
English Rain
The Sands

Photo gallery on Facebook (no Facebook account required).

Labels: review, The_Wake

Now available via iPlayer, BBC Northwest edition of Inside Out has Oliver Wilson revealing some of his dad's never-seen-before home video footage of the Hacienda and discussing Manchester's past, present and future. Includes brand new interviews with Leroy Richardson, Graeme Park, Peter Hook, Mike Pickering and Shaun Ryder.

This programme is available for the next week on iPlayer. Sadly this is not available to non-UK users.

Belated congratulations to Oli who's moved from BBC Manchester to become Entertainments Reporter for Newsbeat on Radio One. Well done Oli!

Labels: FAC51_The_Hacienda, Oliver_Wilson, Peter_Hook

An official announcement on section25.com regarding the passing of Larry Cassidy reads:

"It is with great regret we have to report that Larry Cassidy founder of Section 25 passed away on the 27th of February. Obituary and full funeral details to follow."

Labels: Larry_Cassidy, Section_25

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