Check out our new companion site on Tumblr for Cerysmatic and Scream City artefacts such as used and unused images and other snippets we like the look of.

For starters, My cat's Eric has a full set of Scream City covers.

When's the next Scream City coming out we hear you ask? Well, that's a good question but be we don't quite know the answer yet. But it will be soon(ish).

Labels: artefacts, Cerysmatic_Factory, My_cats_Eric, Scream_City, Tumblr

The last day of the Factory Records' office at One Charles Street in Manchester is documented in a new dvd entitled 'Black Monday' (as the fateful day became to be known).

The first part of the dvd is a rough but compelling film by Tosh Ryan shot on hand-held video outside the Factory Records office on 23 November 1992 following a tip-off that something was afoot. We see all the comings and goings, including the Factory workers, managers (Phil Saxe, ex-Happy Mondays manager) and the directors (Rob Gretton, Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus). As the day progresses, it becomes clearer that something is going down...

In part two we see inside the newly-vacated offices. Be amazed (but perhaps not surprised) to see loads of now-priceless posters and artefacts strewn over the floor and the FAC 331 Temporary Contemporary Table is in the boardroom in a very broken state.



The extras comprise a piece on the subsequent conversion of the building many years later into the FAC 251 The Factory club plus an excellent short film showing the making of the cast iron FAC 73 anvil (to commemorate 500,000 sales of Blue Monday).

Tom Hewitt and Chris Hewitt put the whole 'Black Monday' project together in conjunction with Peter Hook and with thanks to Tosh Ryan, Aaron Mellor and Tighe Grainger. A donation has been made already from the future sales proceeds of the film to Peter Hook's favoured charity NSPCC.

The 'Black Monday' dvd is available as a pre-release version by mail order only. Paypal GBP 12.00 + 2.00 postage and packing to hawkethos@which.net or telephone +44 (0)1565 734066 to make an order by card.

Total running time: 2 hour 40 minutes
Format: DVD NTSC Region 0

Labels: Alan_Erasmus, artefacts, FAC251_The_Factory, Factory_Records, Tony_Wilson, Tosh_Ryan, video

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

Joy Division is the long-awaited and lavishly hardbacked collection of photographs by Kevin Cummins published by Rizzoli. Whereas 2007's Juvenes (To Hell With Publishing) was clearly, by virtue of its two hundred pound plus price tag, an art book, Joy Division, priced at forty-five US Dollars is pitched at a wider audience.

Despite the lower price, no expense has seemingly been spared on the book construction or the design and layout by Farrow Design. The orange-on-white text is mighty stylish if just a tad difficult to read. At a hefty 208 pages with over 100 photos there is a good balance between the stunning portfolio of black and white photographs and the supporting material comprising a foreword by Jay McInerney, preface by Kevin Cummins and an extended conversation between Joy Division's Bernard Sumner and Cummins.

In the Foreword, Jay McInerney, the author of Bright Lights, Big City, recalls how he had Joy Division's Closer on heavy rotation and at high volume during the writing process. He notes that it provided him with "a far richer emotional palate" than the Sex Pistols (the band who famously were the catalyst for the formation of Joy Division). Furthermore, he asks us to consider the track titles: "Failure, Disorder, Isolation, The Eternal, Something Must Break, In a Lonely Place. Joy Division indeed. In those pre-Internet days, I imagined that the name was purely ironic." McInerney's shrewdest observation though is that Kevin Cummins' photos are there for those of us not lucky to have been "there".

At the beginning of the conversation with Bernard Sumner, Kevin Cummins confesses that he kinda knows the history of Joy Division but that he would like to hear it from Bernard. So even the most basic band interview question "How did the band come about?" is lent a new angle. Who would have thought that Bernard was a Santana fan but it turns out that an early performance of theirs was "one the most amazing performances I've ever seen"!? We also learn that Bernard gives the Campaign for the Ian Curtis Bridge the thumbs-up. But perhaps the most appropriate exchange goes: Cummins - "I didn't want to do rock 'n' roll pictures"; Bernard - "I don't think we did, interestingly."

Kevin Cummins most certainly was "there". He notes in his Preface that he didn't always take his camera along with him because he didn't always want to be working when he saw the band and he wanted to "enjoy his youth". Another important detail was that taking his camera and shooting photos necessitated remaining sober but being one of the audience didn't. Fair enough! We can also perhaps deduce from the memorabilia photos which act as a preface to the book proper (and which also include other images of access passes, artwork, badges, lyrics, NME, notebooks, a postcard, setlists and tickets) that the gigs Cummins attended but didn't photograph included February 1980 at the New Osbourne, Manchester, November 1978 at the Check Inn, Altrincham, December 1979 at Les Bains-Douche, Paris, and September 1978 at The Band on the Wall, Manchester.
As a novice photographer in his first year out of art school, Kevin Cummins had no money and had to pay for his own film and processing. This set of circumstances could have proved to be a hindrance for most photographers but Cummins believes that the constraints forced upon him were a blessing in disguise: "Without the restrictions posed by film, I doubt that the photos would achieved such iconic status."

The iconic photos of Joy Division by Kevin Cummins can roughly be broken down into three main categories: the NME-commissioned shoot in Hulme/Manchester on 6 January 1979, the ones in T.J. Davidson's rehearsal rooms and, lastly, the gigs.
There are 17 photos from the famous snowbound session on that freezing cold Saturday in January 1979 which only took place because Manchester City's match was postponed. Everyone remembers these photos for the group shot on the footbridge in Hulme and the one of Ian Curtis smoking a cigarette and looking directly into the lens. Those are included here but so are fifteen others shot before and after. The band wanted to pose in front of a curved building near Victoria Station (it looks eerily prescient of rounded corner of the building which would later house the Hacienda) whereas Kevin suggested the bridge shots as it was on the "road out of Manchester". The other shots of the group, such as the band waiting for a bus or hanging around outside Manchester Cathedral have not quite attained such iconic status but they are fascinating historical documents. When viewed with the assistance of Cummins's note that the band kept on playing around trying to make Ian laugh (woe betide the editor who would ever include a photo of Ian smiling though!) it makes you wonder how, with such limited resources, Cummins got the moody shots he and the band were after.

Cummins visited Joy Division at their T.J. Davidson's rehearsal rooms on numerous occasions but his shots of them there all come from one day in August 1979. The darkness and shadows (the black compared to the snowbound Hulme's white, notes Cummins) are the perfect setting in which to have captured the band in a key moment of their development. Ian is pictured alone in the foreground of the room which is empty apart from isolated pieces of equipment and debris strewn everywhere. Ian is in suitably contemplative mood. There are further shots, both informal and posed, of Ian plus others of Steve, Hooky and Bernard and the famous group shot which adorns the sleeve of the UK version of the Joy Division film. There are 21 shots in all and not a smile to be seen!

The gigs section comprises 13 July 1979 @ The Factory but also De Montford Hall, Liverpool University, 2 October 1979, Futurama, Queen's Hall, Leeds, 8 September 1979 and the fabulously-named Stuff The Superstars Special, The Mayflower Club, 28 July 1979, the Last Night at the Electric Circus, 2 October 1977 and the Leigh Open Air Pop Festival (aka the Leigh Rock Festival), 27 August 1979. My favourite of these shows Ian Curtis flanked by Bernard and Hooky wielding their guitars and it's just a great shot of a rock group.

There's just one colour shot. According to Kevin Cummins he only ever took six such shots and those were sneaked in on the end of a roll of film featuring Buzzcocks. It was just "pointless" (and also a waste of money) to do Joy Division in colour. As Hooky would later point out to Cummins: "I only visualise them in bleak monochrome".

Labels: artefacts, badges, books, Joy_Division, Kevin_Cummins, review

Mark Holt (ex-8vo) is selling a few items from his Factory collection including FAC 2 A Factory Sample, FAC 6 Electricity by OMD, FAC 86 Hacienda model kit, FAC 235 Blue Monday flicker book, FAC 245 Madchester postcard set and FAC 251 Factory HQ opening invitation plus cd.

He is also selling a copy of the mega-rare Sordide Sentimental SS 45005 Enigma / Danny by The Durutti Column.

Mark's eBay ID is yellow_mark and you can find a complete listing of all his items here.

Labels: 8vo, artefacts, Christmas, FAC251_The_Factory, Joy_Division, New_Order, OMD, The_Durutti_Column

Friday 12th November will see PMT House of Rock present An Evening with Peter Hook at their Salford music store - just down Regent Road from Joy Division's first rehearsal room.

In addition to the usual no-holes-barred Q&A session and book-signing, Hooky will present other - as yet unannounced - unknown pleasures.

The evening will also showcase a greatly expanded version of the excellent exhibition of Joy Division/New Order/Factory equipment and artefacts first shown for four days in May at FAC251, while out in the car park Ronnie Lane's mobile recording studio - returning from the previous night's recording of The Light's Unknown Pleasures - will be available for viewing.

Only 251 tickets - priced GBP10 - are available from the PMT store itself.

Labels: artefacts, Peter_Hook, The_Light, Unknown_Pleasures

Today's Joy Division Plan K screening was abandoned after 30 minutes due to a power cable being cut by workers digging up the road outside the Heritage Centre in Macclesfield. With all power gone to the Cinemac cinema (which had played host yesterday to the triple bill of Factory Records-related films) the organisers had no choice except to cancel with full refunds being promised to the forty-odd people who had attended. The abandonment was taken in good spirit by most of those there, including Jon Savage who introduced the film, with the whole unlikely sequence of events being considered to be "very Factory".

It was a shame because the rarely-seen Plan K footage was highly gripping in all its fuzzy, raw, primitive glory. With both nights at the Manchester Apollo also on the programme it was just getting going when after about 35 minutes everything drew suddenly to a stop.

We decamped to the cafe downstairs and then to the Joy Division exhibition upstairs. Mark Reeder's stark black and white portrait of Ian Curtis was blown up to gigantic proportions on the far wall, various posters adorned the walls and display cases contained all manner of artefacts including contracts, setlists, invoices, press cuttings, photos, records, tapes, books, artwork and miscellaneous personal items (the best of which was a postcard from Steve Morris to Gillian sent whilst on a European tour which said how bad it was but how he thought it would only get worse!).

The one item which has probably generated the most interest is a handwritten letter from Ian Curtis to Rob Gretton about the release of Closer which reads:

"Judged purely on my own terms, and not to be interpreted as an opinion or reflection of mass media or public taste but a criticism of my own esoteric and elitist mind of which the mysteries of life are very few and beside which the grace of God has deemed to indicate in a vision the true nature of all things, plus the fact that everyone else are a sneaky, japing load of tossers, decree that this LP is a disaster. IK Curtis."

Every item tells a story and a lot of detail is crammed into a relatively small exhibition space and it's all well worth the two pounds entry fee. The exhibition continues at the Heritage Centre in Macclesfield until Sunday 8 August 2010.

Labels: artefacts, events, exhibition, Jon_Savage, Joy_Division, poster, review

Wednesday 19 May is now confirmed as both the debut gig for Sum Ratios, the new band featuring Jez Kerr, Peter Terrell and Simon Topping and a second date (following on from the 18th) for Peter Hook and The Light who will be performing Unknown Pleasures live at The Factory.

Furthermore, Hooky revealed last night on his spoken word tour that Simon Topping is replacing Crispy Ambulance's Alan Hempsall on vocals and that he will also be joined by Rowetta (who sang with The Light at the opening night of The Factory).

Meanwhile, check out the new Sum Ratios page on Facebook.

In the light of the recent cancellation of the Ian Curtis exhibition in Macclesfield due to a funding shortfall, further details have emerged of the exhibition of Joy Division artefacts which will run in the boardroom of The Factory on and around 18/19 May. There will be at least six display cases of Joy Division artefacts. Scenes of Joy Division in rehearsal and in the recording studio will be recreated using original equipment including original items belonging to the late Martin Hannett.

Update: The exhibition will run from 12 noon on Sunday 16 May until 6pm on Wednesday 19 May.

Labels: Alan_Hempsall, artefacts, FAC251_The_Factory, Joy_Division, Peter_Hook, Sum_Ratios

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

Over the years, a huge array of T-Shirts were produced for FAC 51 The Hacienda. Various shirts were made for the individual club nights (even those outside of the Hacienda itself) but there was also an impressive side industry in Staff, Security and even Customer T-Shirts. FAC 201 Dry also had its own birthday night, Staff and Security shirts. A selection is presented here, courtesy of Ang Matthews, ex-Hacienda manager, who takes up the story for Cerysmatic Factory:

"I worked at the Haç, behind the bar, '83 to '84 whilst I was a student: then went back as Assistant Manager '89 to'90: then, after the police court case & we re-opened, I became Manager & Licensee from '91 to '96.

"So, the T-Shirt thing. T-shirts had always been a major part of the Factory artefacts since the Hacienda had opened. The first T-Shirts, the Birthday T-Shirts and the Staff / Security T-shirts were always freebies but then we started selling some from the Haç cloakroom and they did OK. It was then decided to do this 'properly' & sell them from FAC 281 The Area. In true Factory fashion we never made a penny on them. This was a constant question of Wilson's - how come we lost money on our T-Shirts, especially the World in Motion ones - a large part of FAC 301 Factory Conference was taken up debating this. And no, we never came up with the answer.

"It was easy to get sponsorship from the drinks companies for the T-shirts - I'd just ask. The staff were always on at me to get new ones for them. I later found out why, they were selling them on the side. I found this out when I saw more than a few holiday-makers in Pasha, Ibiza wearing staff T-shirts - they told me they'd paid £50 for them off various members of the bar staff.

"Anyway, I got all the T-shirts together and decided to sell them. I love that pic of them all stacked up. Why did I sell them? Well, I didn't see any point in just keeping them in boxes - there were far too many to frame, so to eBay they went. There are 3 T-Shirts I've kept - the Black 'Haç '90 Hoodie', 'The Haçienda Must Be Built' and 'Haç Flowers' - these 3 were my favourites and, for me, epitomise a certain time long ago."

Many thanks to Ang for her memories and to Eastie for photography.

Labels: artefacts, FAC201_Dry, FAC51_The_Hacienda, T-Shirt

From Manchester District Music Archive:

Macclesfield Museum is currently searching for interesting Joy Division artefacts for a proposed exhibition due to take place in May 2010. The Curator of the exhibition is Jon Savage.

The museum would like to hear from anyone who may be interested in loaning unseen photos, live recordings or footage, flyers, posters or general rare memorabilia.

If you think you may be able to contribute, please email MDMA at info@mdmarchive.co.uk.

Labels: artefacts, Joy_Division, Macclesfield, poster

The previously announced Wythenshawe Community exhibition at MoSI in Manchester features a number of Factory artefacts as follows:

FAC 263R New Order Round & round (12", 1989)
FBN 36 The Durutti Column Circuses and Bread (LP, 1985)
FAC 128 A Certain Ratio Wild Party (12", 1985)
FACUS 2 Joy Division She's Lost Control (12", 1980)
FAC 73 New Order Blue Monday (12", 1983)
FAC 257 Electronic Getting Away With It (12", 1989)
Hacienda traffic post
Seagull Chair from FAC 331, "The Temporary Contemporary Table"
FAC 2 A Factory Sample
FACDR 2.41 The Durutti Column Time Was Gigantic / Reissued Experiments
New Order tour badges, US tour 1989

Wythenshawe runs until 28 February 2010 and admission is free.

Thanks to Dave @ MoSI for confirming the details.

Labels: A_Certain_Ratio, artefacts, FAC51_The_Hacienda, Joy_Division, New_Order, The_Durutti_Column

A new exhibition opens at the Museum of Science and Industry (MoSI) in Manchester on 3 October. Entitled 'Wythenshawe' it features objects from the Museum's collections alongside community-produced work.

There several themes in the exhibition, one of which is Creativity. As some of you will be aware, a few Factory acts hailed from Wythenshawe (as well as Rob Gretton) and there are Factory artefacts on display in the gallery. In addition, where possible MoSI has used the display material to work with young people in Wythenshawe to create work based on similar ideas. In particular MoSI worked with a Youth Panel to produce icons based on the four themes, to include on text panels and publicity, with clear links to Peter Saville's icons for Factory.

The exhibition is on display from the 3 October 2009 to 28 February 2010.

--

Museum of Science and Industry
Liverpool Road
Manchester M3

Tel: +44 161 832 2244

Labels: artefacts

Cerysmatic was intrigued last week to receive a small jiffy bag containing a small silver badge and a business card saying "(Almost) a Factory Records product. The badge is based on the FAC 47 anvil (first used on FACT 45 Always Now) logo.

But, hang on, I hear you say there WAS no FAC 47 badge. Quite right. Hence the "Almost" designation. This is in fact a limited edition of 47 badges created as an affectionate tribute. Some of you may have been lucky enough to buy one on eBay recently.

Labels: artefacts, badges, Factory_Records

A Certain Ratio play The Button Factory, Dublin, Republic of Ireland tomorrow night. This is the first of a few dates spread across March, April and May.

Doors open at 19:00 and new ACR badges will be on sale.

The rest of those ACR tour dates in full...

10 Apr - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium [Doors 20:00]
11 Apr - Motel Mozaïque Festival indoor, Rotterdam, The Netherlands [Doors 20:00]
27 May - Ninkasi, Lyon, France [Doors 20:00]
28 May - Leposteagalene, Marseille [Doors 20:00]
29 May - Primavera, Barcelona [Doors 20:00]

Cheers to Tim B.

Labels: A_Certain_Ratio, artefacts, badges

Cerysmatic Factory, in association with 1 Top Class Manager and the Manchester District Music Archive, brings you a chance to win a copy of 1 Top Class Manager: The Notebooks of Joy Division's manager 1978-1980 together with a special pack of goodies.

The full prize is:

- the book 1 Top Class Manager signed by Lesley Gilbert (with personal dedication if required)
- a unique A1 artwork print proof
- a full set of 1 Top Class Manager badges
- a limited edition postcard

All you have to do it send an email to info@1topclassmanager.co.uk with the subject "Rob Gretton competition". The closing deadline for entries is Friday 27 March 2009. At the close of the competition a winner will be picked out of the hat at random.

1 Top Class Manager is still available to buy direct from 1topclassmanager.co.uk priced 20.00 GBP + p&p. The book is a collection of Rob Gretton's working notebooks kept during his time as Joy Division's manager.
It condenses twenty notebooks into one volume, and also contains posters, letters, invoices, diaries and studio notes, dating from August 1978 to late 1980. It is a full-colour, 220-page softback with a foreword by Jon Savage.

Labels: artefacts, badges, books, Joy_Division, poster

Many thanks to curator Oliver Tepel for the following English translation of the complete story of the current exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Köln, Germany:

Après Crépuscule - Na Schemering - After Twilight - Nach Dämmerung
in the archives series (the crucial point)
curated by Oliver Tepel
7 February - 5 April 2009

With contributions by J.Louis Again, Michael Bracewell, Enrico David, Devine & Griffiths, Christian Flamm, Julian Goethe, Benoit Hennebert, Julia Horstmann, Linder, Lucy McKenzie, Claus Richter, Hanna Schwarz, Claude Stassart, Lawrence Weiner, Detlef Weinrich, Denyse Willem

Der springende Punkt

When you love music, you want everything related to it, closely or not, to be beautiful too.

Benoît Hennebert, December 1984.

The Belgian record label Les Disques du Crépuscule has created one of the most influencing yet in a systematic way hardly developed cultural phenomenon in-between pop and High Art.

Starting in the 1980s in the course of the emerging New Wave, the record label formed its identity on the basis of current music, covertexts and a nonpareil visual appearance. Based on the interplay of ideas from early Modernism, old commercial graphics and a comic style named "Ligne Claire", head designer Benoit Hennebert and his colleagues developed a flittering style. An enticingly sophisticated as well as complex parallel world originated, in the centre of which Les Disques du Crépuscule acted as show object and as a means of identification. The label presented itself as a coffeetable-book, where one could every now and then cut his fingers when turning the pages.

However, the label's oeuvre achieved only in Japan a musical impact that reached beyond limited art scenes. While artists such as Lawrence Weiner, Linder or Denyse Willem worked for Les Disques du Crépuscule, there was no close link to the gallery scene of Brussels in the 1980s. Merely for the last years artists like Enrico David, Christian Flamm, Julia Horstmann, Lucy McKenzie, Claus Richter, Hanna Schwarz or Detlef Weinrich have referred directly to the label, its music and graphics.

Therefore, it is all the more important to look into this enthralling, instantaneous but often clandestine effective history The exhibition consists of two parts: The exhibition hall shows historic works of Linder, Lawrence Weiner, Benoit Hennebert et al., resulting from the active time of the label, and shows exhibits of young international artists, who deal with the label from a modern perspective. The seminar room on the third floor of the building shows historic documents, archive materials, drafts, records and posters that mirror the method of operation and the environment of Crépuscule. This part of the exhibition will be open to the public over a period of about five months, and will give an opportunity for an examination.

Après Crépuscule places particular focus on the principle of "What if ...", which is based on the idea of using an undogmatic assembly of artefacts of Modernism in order to create a new, not only aesthetically effective reality. In this reality, the boundaries between design and art are not blurred but form an "alternative space" of historical reference, open for happenings.

This exhibition shows an exemplary mediation between pop and art, far away from known stereotypes and from mutual demands. It covers a time when even renowned artists acted far away from the all-star glamorous ways of our days, and delivers insight into sources that are far from being depleted; it also shows how an aesthetic training from the end of the 20th century onwards really works.

In the form of an annually changing exhibition, Der springende Punkt (the crucial point) provides an insight into the archives of institutions or individuals forming important points of reference for the work of the Kölnischer Kunstverein because of their experimental character and special curator's hand. The exhibition will be designed in close cooperation with an artist or a curator, in this case with Oliver Tepel. The artist/curator is invited to screen archive material and develop an adequate form of presentation for it. It is a matter of selecting a certain moment in history, a moment with personal relevance to the exhibitors, rather than presenting an entire archive.

The series started in 2007 with Marcel Odenbach's archive project for the exhibition , Kölnischer Kunstverein 1970, and continued in 2008 with a project by Olivier Foulon on Marcel Proust. is the third project of this series.

Since 1992, guest curator Oliver Tepel has written about music, art and other cultural phenomena; in particular for newspapers and magazines like Spex, Tagesspiegel, Frankfurter Rundschau, Texte zur Kunst, Mode Depesche and Artnet, as well as for diverse art publications and catalogues. He works as lecturer (for the Städelschule, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and the Kunsthochschule Dresden among others) and as curator. Tepel is about to start his own art journal named Organdy, for which he was granted a studio scholarship of the Kölnischer Kunstverein in 2008.

Guided tours on every Friday at 5 pm.

Side-event of the lit.Cologne:

20 March 2009 at 8.30 pm – Michael Bracewell and Devine & Griffiths
Reading and concert

Cultural novelist Michael Bracewell (*1958, London) explores in his book the stylized aesthetics of Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno and their band Roxy Music. He will relate Roxy's concept of pop to the exhibition. In the 1980s, Ian Devine and his band Ludus and Alison Statton created an elegant Chamber pop for "Les Disques du Crépuscule". Ian Devine’s latest project, will perform during the reading.

Labels: A_Certain_Ratio, artefacts, New_Order, poster

After their European success with Peter Hook, Section 25 have announced a special one-off SXXV Xmas Party at the Beat Club in Blackpool on Friday 19 December. The line-up will comprise Section 25 plus a special aftershow DJ set from Peter Hook plus support from Pink Hearse, Dave Mac and DJ Stu Diggle. Tickets are only 8 quid in advance or 10 on the door.

A source close to the band informs Cerysmatic that Peter Hook's involvement will in fact be a bit more than DJing and that he will be joining SXXV on stage for the first UK outing for Peter Hook Section 25. So this is indeed an event not be missed.

--

Friday 19 December 2008

SXXV XMAS PARTY

Section 25
Peter Hook (DJ Aftershow Set)
Support: Pink Hearse & Dave Mac +1
DJ: Stu Diggle

The Beat Club
22 Corporation Street
Blackpool FY1 1EJ [map]

Doors 9 'til late.

Advance Tickets: 8.00 GBP
Pay on door: 10.00 GBP

Labels: artefacts, Christmas, Peter_Hook, Section_25

Phill Pennington designed several key Factory Records pieces whilst working at Peter Saville Associates.

He talks exclusively to Cerysmatic Factory about this intriguing time in the development of Factory:

"I designed the Factory logo which is simple factory symbol, initially with five other symbols for a poster to be used by Alan Erasmus in Moscow (FAC 126). My approach to designing the symbols was inspired by the well known Isotype system designed by Otto Neurath and Gerd Arntz in the 1920s.

The factory symbol went through several variations as I tried different proportions different numbers of roofs, windows, waves in the smoke and so on before arriving at what seemed to be the most minimal version possible. The symbol was not at the point intended to be the Factory logo, but as I mentioned, one of a set specifically designed for FAC 126. I did produce one other symbol a Christmas tree in the same style, which was used on a Factory Christmas card.

Confusion (FAC 93) was the only New Order sleeve I actually designed in its entirety. The idea came from seeing small colour registration letters on a type of printers proof known as a Chromalin. These letters were made of squares and printed in the basic 4 colours (CMYK) with the words overlapping in a confusing way, this seemed to tie in with the title, and I found that the words New Order and Confusion had the same number of characters (including the space).

So it was possible to overlap them in a confusing way. I wanted the finished piece to look like it was part of a spacecraft from some time in the future, sort of markings in the same way that military aircraft have markings, a piece of space wreckage from the future. To this end, my original version had the FAC number (93) made out of dots. It was Brett Wickens who decided that it should be in Gill.

I still feel it would have been stronger the other way. The sleeve was printed in four colour, plus four special colours, plus embossing. I think that they lost money on each copy produced, and the embossing was dropped after the original run, nobody talked about costs at the time.

I did also design a seven-inch version of the sleeve, which consisted of a set of different parts of the 12 inch cropped to seven inches. A full printer's proof was produced, but for some reason the sleeve was never used. The record label used a blown up sample of dot matrix letters (fairly new technology at the time).

I did the artwork for the follow up single, 'Thieves Like Us' (FAC 103), the numbers around the central image were taken from an Eighteenth Century board game which Peter had seen in a magazine (and which coincidentally turned out to be called 'the Jews game'), we decided to make them completely random and then wait for people to read some arcane or sinister message into them, which they did in the music press.

I designed the typography for the Factory boxed cassette series. The type arrangement is set in Bembo and is based on mathematical matrices. The most time-consuming part was Peter choosing the colours for the cloth bindings. I understand they were difficult for record shops to display.

I also designed, with Peter, the title sequence for the Channel Four series 'Play at Home', and a poster based on this, in our then new 'tech' style. We essentially had a computer animator record the process of constructing some titles then just used all the 'technical bits' which would normally would be edited out."

--

Many thanks to Phill.

Labels: artefacts, Christmas, Factory_Records, New_Order, poster

A diverse crowd of Hacienda regulars, Manchester musicians, Factory Records illuminati, friends and hangers on descended on Urbis last night to celebrate the launch of Hacienda 25: The Exhibition - FAC 491.

Rather appropriately as we waited outside some wag commented "it's just like the Hacienda itself - a large queue for no apparent reason".

Once inside and bolstered by a free drink courtesy of Stolichnaya (unfortunately it wasn't a typo on the invitation and it was only "a free drink" and not "free drinks") an energetic Peter Hook was DJing in the main space.

Gradually people filtered upstairs to the freshly-completed exhibition space itself. Spread out over several rooms and grouped both chronologically and thematically, it contained just about everything and anything from the history of the Hacienda.

Original artefacts began with the original '51' doors, Kevin Cummins's portrait of Tony Wilson, Hacienda 1 by Peter Saville and as such it evoked strong memories of stepping into the club itself.

A rather splendid Hacienda family tree by Elliott Eastwick charted the links between all the people who were ever linked to the club.

Films and videos of live performances, TV documentaries (including FAC 104) and original scratch videos by Claude Bessy and Swivel were available for your own viewing pleasure.

A whole section was devoted to the Visual Brand Signifiers of the Hacienda through the years. From original conceptual sketches for birthday posters to a brand new pair of FAC 51-Y3 trainers (via a bottle on Vin D'Usine) this was a particular highlight.

Downstairs the crowd spilled out to the popular smoking and drinking area to the sounds of Sasha and finally Graeme Park (who was introduced by Oliver Wilson who had just auctioned a pair of FAC 51-Y3s to a lucky lady for a cool grand).

[By the way, if you want to get your hands on a pair at the slightly-more-reasonable price of 345 quid then get yourself to the new flagship Y3 store in the Triangle, Manchester, on either Monday 23 or Monday 30 July. These are the only two days that the limited edition trainer is being sold.]

Proceedings came to end at a respectable midnight but continued into the wee small hours at One Central Street.

A non-exhaustive list of those in attendance: Ian Brown (sporting a pair of FAC51-Y3s), Pat Carroll, Pete Carroll, Andy Connell, Paul Cons, Terry Hall, Peter Hook, Karen Jackson, Trevor Johnson, Ben Kelly, Ang Matthews, Bruce Mitchell, moist, Damian Morgan, Martin Moscrop, Liz Page, Graeme Park, Suddi Raval, Lindsay Reade, Gonnie Rietveld, Matthew Robertson, Andy Robinson, Rowetta, Shaun Ryder (sporting a Y3 bomber jacket), Sasha, Peter Saville, Tim Sinclair, Ian Tilton, Oliver Wilson, Andrea Zapp.

Special Cerysmatic shout-outs to Andy Brydon, David Sultan, Iain Smedley (hope you caught your flight), Alex the Red and his mates, Rebecca, Damian Morgan, Suddi (I wanna see those pix!), the King's Arms, the Marble Arch and Tampopo, for pre-match entertainment, moist for beer, Jan Hargreaves, Liz Page & Andy Connell, Pete + Pat + Karen + Sam, Leroy Richardson and all at One Central Street for post-match entertainment, Colin (wish you coulda gone), Tim 'the greatest lover and photographer in the world' Sinclair & mates and Matt Robertson.

Labels: artefacts, Ben_Kelly, FAC51_The_Hacienda, Factory_Records, Kevin_Cummins, Leroy_Richardson, Martin_Moscrop, Matthew_Robertson, Oliver_Wilson, Pat_Carroll, Peter_Hook, Peter_Saville, poster, Section_25, Tony_Wilson

- - - -

08.03 | 09.03 | 10.03 | 11.03 | 12.03 | 01.04 | 02.04 | 03.04 | 04.04 | 05.04 | 06.04 | 07.04 | 08.04 | 09.04 | 10.04 | 11.04 | 12.04 | 01.05 | 02.05 | 03.05 | 04.05 | 05.05 | 06.05 | 07.05 | 08.05 | 09.05 | 10.05 | 11.05 | 12.05 | 01.06 | 02.06 | 03.06 | 04.06 | 05.06 | 06.06 | 07.06 | 08.06 | 09.06 | 10.06 | 11.06 | 12.06 | 01.07 | 02.07 | 03.07 | 04.07 | 05.07 | 06.07 | 07.07 | 08.07 | 09.07 | 10.07 | 11.07 | 12.07 | 01.08 | 02.08 | 03.08 | 04.08 | 05.08 | 06.08 | 07.08 | 08.08 | 09.08 | 10.08 | 11.08 | 12.08 | 01.09 | 02.09 | 03.09 | 04.09 | 05.09 | 06.09 | 07.09 | 08.09 | 09.09 | 10.09 | 11.09 | 12.09 | 01.10 | 02.10 | 03.10 | 04.10 | 05.10 | 06.10 | 07.10 | 08.10 | 09.10 | 10.10 | 11.10 | 12.10 | 01.11 | 02.11 | 03.11 | 04.11 | 05.11 | 06.11 | 07.11 | 08.11 | 09.11 | 10.11 | 11.11 | 12.11 | 01.12 | 02.12 | 03.12 | 04.12 | 05.12 | 06.12 | 07.12 | 08.12 | 09.12 | 10.12 | 11.12 | 12.12 | 01.13 | 02.13 | 03.13 | 04.13 | 05.13 | 06.13 | 07.13 | 08.13 | 09.13 | 10.13 | 11.13 | 12.13 | 01.14 | 02.14 | 03.14 | 04.14 | 05.14 | 06.14 | 07.14 | 08.14 | 09.14 | 10.14 | 11.14 | 12.14 | 01.15 | 02.15 | 03.15 | 04.15 | 05.17 | 06.17 | 07.17 | 08.17 | 09.17 | 10.17 | 11.17 | 05.18 | 12.18 | 01.19 | 08.19 | 09.19 | 10.19 | 11.19 | 12.19 | 03.20 |

- - - -