In the shadow of the great URBIS glass elephant - scene of several overpriced, over-designed, over-marketed, Factory-related exhibitions - a self-employed builder from Chadderton puts on a 1500 quid display of his personal record collection in a room above a pub and steals the show.

Colin Gibbins' 'Factory Records World First Exhibition in the Music Medium' which ran at the Ducie Bridge on 7-8 May reminded us that for all the high ideals, high art and high concept hi-fi, Factory Records relied on one very valuable, and oft-overlooked resource: the punter.

Arranged almost as a record (Peddlar) shop homage - with every vertical surface covered in hanging plastic vinyl wallets - each Factory release was on show, many complete with their duplicate formats and covers: snakeskin, cardboard, sandpaper.

No index cards, explanations nor intellectualisation, no counting nor box ticking: this was Factory with feet firmly on the ground rather than nose in the air.

A working class jewel in the belly of the increasingly middle-class beast.

[Better late than never!]

Labels: Factory_Records, Urbis

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