As you will know from Back in the Cellar (Part 1), since February 2016 involving repatriating a large collection of videotapes that used to belong to Tony Wilson that were stored in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

I made some good initial progress returning tapes to various people but then run out of steam slightly. At this point there was still a large number of tapes, film reels and other audiovisual material inside my storage unit. Most of was clearly labelled and I knew who it should go to. I just hadn’t managed to make contact with anybody at that stage or I had but a delivery or pick-up was yet to be arranged.

However, there was also a pile where I was completely in the dark as to who to they belonged to - either through the description being vague or missing or just cryptic. In this category there was six film canisters labelled GREIF. I like a bit of a mystery so I left the canisters where they were and the project went on hiatus (again).



Time passed and then we cut forward to February/March 2017 when I restarted work on my other website factoryrecords.org. I was editing the page for Round and Round by New Order and I noticed that the video for that single had been directed by a Paula Greif.

It suddenly clicked that it must be the film reels for the video that were in storage. My hunch was correct. When I opened one of the canisters (I know - schoolboy error - should have done this first time round!) it contained shooting notes that confirmed the provenance.

At this point, I must digress slightly, and talk about the track itself. The video was done in black and white, featured a series of young female models looking at the camera but not really interacting. They sometimes laugh (whilst trying not to) and occasionally strike different poses. The song continues in the background and there are occasional short blips of graphic inserts. It caused a minor stir at the time as I recall due to its unusual nature.



Round and Round itself is a real stormer and is very much a highlight of the Technique album. Tony Wilson was very confident in it as a single - so much so that he made a bet with Rob Gretton that, if it didn't get into the Top Five of the UK Chart, he would resign as Chairman of Factory Records. It peaked at number 21. It is understood that AHW may have stood down notionally for a day or two but that it was seen as being more of a gentleman’s wager than a serious bet. FAC 253 Chairman Resigns was assigned in honour of the momentous occasion.



Anyway, back to the Greif reels...

The shooting notes state the date and other technical details relating to the shoot including the name of the model or models. This set includes Veronica (Webb), Kathie, Cynthia (Bailey), Patty (Sylvia), Marieke, Pam and Kim.



According to Wikipedia there is a second cut of the video that only features Patty [update: see Vimeo].

I understand that there are more reels numbered 10-17 that complete the set and that these are already in the safe hands of New Order. And that is where reels 1-9 are off too very shortly thanks to the always helpful Andy Robinson in their management team.

Labels: back_in_the_cellar, film, New_Order, Paula_Greif, video

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