Jez Kerr's new single Play Sumthing Fast is out now on iTunes UK as a download single with the additional track Chick Huh also available on this 2-track single which is out via Higuera Records.

Labels: Jez_Kerr

From the House of Tomorrow newsletter:

Obscurities, a collection of new and hard-to-find recordings made by Stephin Merritt, will be released as a CD, LP, and digital download on Merge Records on 23 August 2011. The CD's 14 tracks include five Merge-era recordings from The Magnetic Fields (and a couple of tracks by The 6ths).

Forever and a Day, a previously unreleased selection from The Song From Venus, Merritt's collaboration with author Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snickett, is available today as a free download from the Merge Records website:

Tracklisting

1. Forever and a Day (previously unreleased)
2. Rats in the Garbage of the Western World (The Magnetic Fields)
3. I Don't Believe You (The Magnetic Fields)
4. Plant White Roses (Buffalo Rome)
5. Rot in the Sun (the 6ths)
6. The Sun and the Sea and the Sky (previously unreleased)
7. Yet Another Girl (the 6ths)
8. Scream (Till you Make the Scene) (previously unreleased)
9. The Song from Venus (previously unreleased)
10. Beach-A-Boop-Boop (The Magnetic Fields)
11. When I'm Not Looking, You're Not There (The Magnetic Fields)
12. Take Ecstasy with Me (The Magnetic Fields)
13. When You're Young and In Love (previously unreleased)
14. You Are Not My Mother and I Want to Go Home (The Gothic Archies)

Labels: Stephin_Merritt, The_Sixths

8vo's Mark Holt and Hamish Muir talked about their work at the Working With Wim event at the Design Museum in London on 9 May 2011.

Meanwhile, the catalogue for the ongoing Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey exhibition itself features an interview with Wim Crouwel by exhibition curator Tony Brook. There are couple of snippets for Factory fans:

Were you surprised to see New Alphabet used on the cover of a Joy Division record cover (Substance 1977-1980), designed by Peter Saville and Brett Wickens?

I discovered this at the end of the 1990s, and I was flattered that people had used it. I have seen it in pop magazines - mostly as headlines, and sometimes made a little more readable. They always made it by hand and didn't always follow my strict rules and guidelines. Suddenly, at the end of the 1990s, there was interest in this thing that had been developed 25 years before. That was also the time The Foundry came to me and asked if they could digitize my typefaces for their series of experimental typefaces by people like Jan Tschichold. I was greatly flattered. I immediately gave them permission, and I worked on the project with David Quay from The Foundry.

During your time at the Boijmans Museum you started working with the renowned English design group 8vo - how did that come about?

... I was invited by 8vo to do an article on lower-case typography for their magazine, Octavo. By doing this I got to know the three of them - Hamish Muir, Mark Holt and Simon Johnston - and I was impressed by their work. Hamish and Simon had trained in Basel and there was a strong influence from Swiss design, but different from what the Swiss did. I was impressed by their work, and also by the work, and also by the magazine, the layout of the Octavo magazine. In Holland during the 1980s, nothing of that direction was visible. I was so impressed that I immediately invited them to do the posters and catalogues for the museum. That was quite difficult, because we had a production manager in Holland, and a printing company in Belgium, and they were in London. We didn't have enough money to have them travelling back and forth all the time, so they invented a way to do it all by fax machine - we didn't have email at that point, so it was all done by fax and telephone.

Working like that must have been difficult. What did 8vo do that was so different?

8vo developed a direction for each department in the museum, and if you see the whole range of catalogues, you will see that they created a very recognizable series. It was difficult for me to be a commissioner, but when I started with them I said, the only thing you have to do is use Futura, because that was the museum's typeface. The size of the catalogue and the size of the posters was more or less fixed. The biggest difficulty they had was with Futura - they were really Helvetica people. For them it was a shock to have to work with Futura. But I think what they did was fantastic. I was very happy with that period. For about five years, they did all my catalogues and posters.

--

Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey
Unit 04

Catalogue for the exhibition
Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey
at the Design Museum, London
30 March - 03 July 2011

144pp, 152x230mm
Cover No. 3
Printed in the Netherlands

Unit Editions
www.uniteditions.com

ISBN: 978-0-9562071-3-5
£16.95

Labels: 8vo, design, graphic_design, Joy_Division, Peter_Saville, Wim_Crouwel

The Light featuring Rowetta's debut EP 1102 / 2011 is out now as a digital download via Hacienda Records.

The videos for unreleased Joy Division track Pictures In My Mind and Atmosphere are now out via YouTube alongside those for Insight and New Dawn Fades.

The E.P. is dedicated to Ronan "Rex" Sergeant who sadly died last year.

Meanwhile, The Light's performance of Closer at The Factory on 18 May 2011 is completely sold out but some tickets remain for the additional Thursday 19 May date. The support act on both nights is now confiirmed as Kevin Hewick.

--

Download 1102/2011 EP [MP3/WAV, instrumental versions available]

Labels: Kevin_Hewick, Peter_Hook, The_Light

We proudly present a selected gigographical collection of New Order memorabilia courtesy Cerysmatic fan Rob Searle.

Rob collected these tickets, photos (using his trusty Kodak disc camera) and setlists during the period 1982 to 1986.

Labels: events, gigs, New_Order, photography

Jez Kerr has a string of upcoming dates:

Sat 28 May - The Trip Festival, Bangor, North Wales
Sun 12 June - SUDEP Awareness @ De Bees, Winsford
Sat 18 June - The Bay, Glasgow
Sat 25 June - North Bar, Blackburn

Meanwhile, the new single Rip You Right Back is out on 23 May with the debut album Numb Mouth Eat Waste out in September via Higuera Records.

Labels: events, gigs, Jez_Kerr

Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records by James Nice is out in paperback (in blue cover) on 1 June 2011 according to Amazon.co.uk. The book was first published in hardback in (pink cover) May 2011 by Aurum Press.

Labels: books, Factory_Records, Shadowplayers

Original memorabilia and posters from FAC 51 The Hacienda go on display at the Richard Goodall Gallery, High Street Manchester from 18-28 May 2011 in the Then Hacienda Now exhibition. Peter Hook's private collection will feature heavily including artefacts salvaged from the skip on Whitworth Street West outside the Hacienda when it was closed in 1997. The collection includes posters from gigs by New Order, Cabaret Voltaire, The Fall plus those for legendary club nights such as Shine, Flesh and Hallucienda.

Also on display and on sale at the gallery will be the artwork by James Chadderton for Peter Hook And The Light's debut EP 1102/2011 plus Ben Kelly's two digital reconstructions of the famous Hacienda interior.

To celebrate the exhibition there is a private event on Friday 20 May featuring original Hacienda DJ Graeme Park, Manc poet Mike Garry plus classical musicians, Litmus will be providing their interpretations of Joy Division and New Order's music. An aftershow will be at The Northern in the Northern Quarter.

--

www.peterhook.co.uk [for sale of selection of posters / memorabilia]

www.fac51thehacienda.com [The site
is being fully launched at this event and is the exclusive home of Hacienda Records plus news/updates about The Hacienda's current and forthcoming events/release schedule; plus contains classic and modern FAC 51 mixes]

Labels: artefacts

A reminder that this weekend sees the first ever UK display of the full Factory Records discography in the music medium, including all releases & variations on all formats.

The exhibition is at The Ducie Bridge Pub in Manchester on 7 & 8 May 2011.

--

The Ducie Bridge
152 Corporation Street
Manchester M4 4DU

Sat & Sun 7 & 8 May 2011, 10.00am - 4.30pm

Facebook event page

Official website

Labels: events, exhibition, Factory_Records

Chronicle, the new album by The Durutti Column which was premiered last week in York and Manchester is available to buy now direct from Kooky Records. The album was initially sold exclusively at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Saturday 30 April 2011 and comes with a 16-page colour booklet of photographs by Vini Reilly.

The album is priced at 15.00 including Worldwide postage and packing and is available whilst stocks. The album will receive a full release later in the year.

Labels: Kooky_Records, The_Durutti_Column

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