Cerysmatic.Factory

The PKRP Cerysmatic Factory Favourites Playlist

2019-12-19T07:00:00.000+00:00

The PKRP Favourite Cerysmatic Factory Playlist is available now via Spotify and Apple Music for your musical factorial edification and here are the Playlist Sleevenotes:

Wim Mertens - No Plans No Projects

A prolific minimalism composer from small-town Belgium doesn't sound like a typical place to start a Factory Records playlist. But then No Plans No Projects isn't a typical Wim Mertens piece either. Built around a simple keyboard refrain, this superb track from the Educes Me album bursts into life around halfway through with LOUD synths and portentous piano. Mertens's other contribution to Factory was the soundtrack to Peter Greenaway's arthouse movie The Belly Of An Architect (Fact 195), while Educes Me holds the accolade of having one of the most sought after (and expensive) formats - the boxed cassette in the yellow case has been known to fetch up to a £200!

OMD - Almost (Hannett Mix)

The Wirral duo's sprightly iconic debut single Electricity has always been a favourite of mine, but this lo-fi Hannett mix of its attendant b-side has stayed with me since its release. Electricity has just been reissued in a new sleeve with a Vince Clarke remix of Almost on the b-side - it should have been the main attraction, not relegated to a flip. I've always liked the strange hissing sound and off-beat drum machine, the plaintive sorrowful lyric and vocal, Saville's braille sleeve and of course the fact Tony Wilson released the single for his then wife Lindsay. It really should have been a double a-side. Either track could have been a hit with a spread of radio play.

Joy Division - These Days

All those amazing and iconic album-tracks and I go and pick an often-overlooked b-side - is this bloke for real? Thing is, Love Will Tear Us Apart will always be one of the most important singles ever and needs no introduction. You'd need a heart of estuary mud to hate it. But tucked away on side two of both formats is what I consider to be one of three very important Joy Division tracks and the link to where the band were heading at the time. Isolation, Decades and These Days demonstrate the band's increased interest in electronics at the time, before Ian's sad demise. Almost 40 years on and still nothing on Movement comes close to any track on the second JD album Closer, with the possible exception of the synth-layered Doubts Even Here, but head to New Order's sophomore set Power Corruption and Lies and preceding single Everything's Gone Green and the link becomes a little more obvious. I love how this song bustles along - great drumming and driving bass from Morris and Hook.

Fadela - N'Sel Fik

Back in the '80s, when global sounds permeated the curious music-lover's conscience via John Peel's interest, Peter Gabriel's Real World and related WOMAD festivals, the public remained a bit nonplussed with the emotional synth-pomp of North African Rai. Wonderfully off-kilter and at odds with typical 4/4 beats being peddled across the pond, N'Sel Fik became a frequently dropped track at the more eclectic parties in Manchester and London. It's tenuous link to rave-culture is derived from the opening line of Fadela's lovely song being lifted and dropped onto "We Are E", a huge breakbeat tune issued in 1991. I suspect the originator was less than pleased with being associated with 'being on one' but it's a decent enough and sought after hardcore banger. Fac 197 itself remains a regular go-to when I'm playing out.

The Durutti Column - What Is It To Me (Woman)

In truth, I could have picked dozens of DC tracks to pop on this playlist but What Is It To Me (Woman) has always captivated me. It demonstrates everything great about the interplay between guitarist Vini Reilly, drummer Bruce Mitchell and attendant guests, including harmonica maestro Rob Gray. Taken from the Stephen Street-produced The Guitar and Other Machines (Fact 204) released in 1987, this track has aged very well and benefits from not being quite so drum-heavy as other tracks on the otherwise pin-sharp GOTM. It's more future jazz than art-rock (or whatever The Durutti Column were being tagged in those days) and is as contemporary as anything in Reilly's enviable and essential canon.

Marcel King - Reach For Love (NY Remix)

For a short spell in Factory's existence, the label acted as a springboard for soulful club tracks with a house twist. Soon-to-be M People luminary Mike Pickering made a decent fist of it with his Quando Quango project (Genius is just that, Love Tempo and Atom Rock were also rightfully regarded), while Section 25, New Order and A Certain Ratio embraced new technology to create the likes of Looking From a Hilltop, The Perfect Kiss and Life's A Scream. Straight out of the blocks came this bruising rework of former Sweet Sensation, er, sensation Marcel King's glorious Reach For Love. Velveteen vocals and a big-stringed 'n' synthed-up arrangement were given an overhaul by revered producer Mark Kamins, who coincidentally had mixed two of the aforementioned Quando singles. Its flip-side Keep On Dancin' was a favourite of mine for a while but this song translates better when pumped through a decent sound-system. Great record.

X-O-Dus - See Them A Come

When it came to sound-system mixes, reggae dub-lord Dennis Bovell certainly fitted the bill. The great man's deft touch can be found on one of the most collectable 12" on Factory, X-O-Dus's epic English Black Boys (Fac 11). It's such a shame that an album never materialised after such a fine landmark debut record, although LTM Records did curate a rather fetching round-up of studio material some years back. My personal preference, as with many Factory singles, is its speaker-scaring b-side See Them a Come. This is some serious heavyweight material and when piped through a capable mixing desk, is eight straight minutes of pure rib-cage rattling reggae euphoria.

Kalima - Take It Easy

I've got a soft spot for the unsung Kalima, a soul-jazz collective born out of the remains of the rather more avant-garde Swamp Children. Along the way, Kalima issued a handful of unjustly ignored singles like The Smiling Hour, Whispered Words and Weird Feelings, as well as a string of albums that had one foot in the golden age of crooners and one in the latter day Acid Jazz age. The band's final Factory album Feeling Fine (Fact 249) is perhaps their most consistent, least 'trad' set and includes some remarkable musicianship and decent songs, including this cracker. Languid, woozy and slinky, Take It Easy surpasses the album's curious single choice Shine and, in fact, most of the band's mostly likeable catalogue.

Section 25 - Inspiration

One of the first Factory albums recommended to me by one Nick Clarke who ran Rhythm Records in Plymouth during the early to mid '80s was Section 25's crystalline From The Hip. Fact 90 remains one of my all-time favourite LPs and still sounds timeless to this day. When most synth acts from the decade pummelled the hell out of our earholes with leaden drums, the Blackpool outfit wove featherlight beats with hopeful and er, inspirational songs that took the band to another level. many cite the single Looking From a Hilltop as the key track on this album but I'm positive that this epic closer made far better use of the available New Order-donated technology.

Stockholm Monsters - Partyline

The original scallies and Perry guys and gals weren't afraid to get all controversial and political on our asses with songs like How Corrupt Is Rough Trade?, Your Uniform and this stunning electro post-romantic belter. Issued as a 12" only, one can't help thinking that a radio 7" might, MIGHT, just have landed the Stockies with a minor cult hit back in the day. Somewhat unlike their usual edgy alternative jangle-pop, Partyline is the sort of tune that Pet Shop Boys or New Order might have made if they'd upped the speedball dosage at a Top of the Pops rehearsal. I love this record. Its flipside, Militia, is also essential, making this one of those archetypal Factory singles that works on both sides.

The Railway Children - Brighter

And here's another landmark single. Wigan's oft-forgotten songsmiths The Railway Children knocked out several sprightly singles and a pair of decent albums for both Factory and latterly Virgin Records. Brighter sported great b-sides in History Burns and Careful and sounded like a Top 10 hit all summer long. Great sleeve from Johnson Panas too. How, HOW, did this not strike a chord with the then radio DJs? It still sounds like a burst of summer some thirty years later.

The Wake - Torn Calendar

Melancholy is something that Factory Records was very good at. In Scotland's The Wake, they had it in litres. The band's debut album was Harmony, a solemn post-punk postscript that inadvertently invented twee-pop without actually being 'pop', while celebrated single Talk About The Past earned plaudits aplenty from media to fanbase. But it was the peerless much-delayed Here Comes Everybody LP that really put The Wake amongst the indie pigeons. The entire album is nothing short of a sad-face masterpiece, with the slightly trippy pretty Torn Calendar leading the field of many many centrepieces and would-be singles.

The Names - I Wish I Could Speak Your Language

My first non-JD/NO Factory single purchase was Fac 29, the exemplary Nightshift by Brussels-based rock 'n darkwavers The Names. Along with its powerful boundary-crossing flip I Wish I Could Speak Your Language, here was a 7" single that delivered some of Martin Hannett's most brutal production, without compromising the band's delicate and austere lyricism. Everything about this song demonstrates everything about those involved - the huge smash-snare drums typified by Hannett's dextrous hands, urbane almost paranoid lyrics and subtle uses of synth and guitar hooks. The Names' track record might not have spawned 'hits', but their concise canon contains few misses.

New Order - Everything's Gone Green

This is the record that kickstarted indie dance-music, no arguments. The likes of Franz Ferdinand, LCD Soundsystem, Friendly Fires and The Rapture probably wouldn't have had their 15 seconds / minutes / hours / years of exposure without this truly majestic record. It doesn't say or do much but it does everything. Never mind Blue Monday or Temptation, Everything's Gone Green remains New Order's first active foray into disco hi-hats and club mixes. Extended for a Factory Benelux 12" with new b-sides, EGG is not only one of New Order's most important records, it remains a masterclass by Martin Hannett who was ultimately swiftly spurned by band and label soon after they'd figured out how he operated his studio toys. Its attendant double 'A' Procession is also prime New Order material from the Movement sessions.

John Dowie - Idiot

Often dismissed as too surreal but revered by the likes of Stewart Lee (and myself), Birmingham's rather edgy humourist looked a bit like Jasper Carrott but couldn't have been more different. His attachment to Factory was all too brief with just three odd grin-worthy vignettes on the label's very first release, the double-7" A Factory Sample, and a lone headline single, the somewhat pub-singalong It's Hard To Be An Egg coupled with its 'visual' flip Mime Sketch. All five Factory tracks formed part of his then live poetry shows and were finally gathered together with his half-dozen Virgin label EP tracks and a slew of hilarious live tracks on the album An Arc of Hives. "I'm the kind of idiot who always ends a sentence with question. Don't I?" - we've all met someone like it and there are even more of Dowie's Idiots around nowadays.

Happy Mondays - Weekends

My first encounters with the Mondays were the Factory 'Supertent' gathering in Finsbury Park in 1987 when the band performed a somewhat chaotic set wearing huge parka jackets and puffing on suspect smoking material and the passable single Delightful, aka the Forty-Five E.P. I've always been of the opinion that Ryder's charges were more talented than people gave them credit (or abuse) for. But Delightful didn't help their cause. The two b-sides however certainly did, especially the song Oasis which eventually ended up in re-recorded form on their debut album Squirrel and G-Man 24 Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out). Recorded with a certain John Cale, 24 Hr (etc, etc) is an unexpected funky treasure in Factory's late canon. Perhaps a little more grown-up than the more familiar Madchester material, the gritty street funk of Kuff Dam (Mad Fuck backwards) and Tart Tart became a regular go-to for me at parties, as did Weekends (or Weekend S as it appears on some copies). Its odd galloping rhythm and barbed lyrics is short, sweet and might have made a hit-single in a parallel universe.

Minny Pops - Dolphin's Spurt

Dutch semi-industrialists with a near 7ft tall singer might not sound very Factory, but Minny Pops's brief honeymoon in Manchester spawned two pin-sharp electro-dance singles and an album for sister-label Factory Benelux. With the man Hannett at the helm for this single, both sides of the Dolphin's Spurt 7" are on point to this day, danceable and timeless, littered with its producer's trademark effects and atmospherics and lyrically insistent, nagging and a little confrontational. It's almost impossible to make out the words spat out by singer Wally van Middendorp but who cares? He's bigger than all of us.

Royal Family and the Poor - Visions

Liverpool's Mike Keane was the north-west's resident anarchic occultist, renouncing conventional mass-media and musical practice in favour of creating early demos and live shows of ritualistic chants, highly charged howling and the odd song here and there. After a few personal struggles, Keane's Factory output remains something of a treasure chest. Debut single Art on 45 was a sort of funky My Favourite Things and has since been given the nod by Maximo Park's Paul Smith and first album Temple of the 13th Tribe had a helping hand from Peter Hook and Stockholm Monsters' Lita Hira. For me though, sophomore set We Love The Moon - the Project Phase 2 continues to be Keane's masterpiece. Recorded with Pink Industry's Ambrose Reynolds, WLTM includes the superb Pagan Way (which still isn't on Spotify after all this time) and the 'hit' Visions, a glorious example of Keane's occasional foray into sensitive pop songs.

The Distractions - Time Goes By So Slow

Rightly acclaimed as one of Factory's most charming and rewarding singles, Time Goes By Slow was issued just after the band had already signed to Island. Musically and lyrically embedded in both '60s pop charm a la Adam Faith or The Hollies and post-punk favourites Buzzcocks, The Distractions followed up TGBSS with a handful of singles and a long-forgotten album Nobody's Perfect before taking a lengthy hiatus into the 21st century. More recently, the band have been busy writing and recording for Exeter-based indie Occultation, including the rather splendid sophomore album The End Of The Pier. For me, Fac 12 remains one of Factory Records' most important and timeless early singles.

A Certain Ratio - Waterline

A staple of the band's live set to this day, the funky near-instrumental Waterline was and still is a bit of a game-changer. Unmistakably ACR, the exclusively recorded Fac 52 single ushered in their post-Hannett future with an ankle-deep bassline, vocodered vocals, tight handclap drums and some speaker-bothering effects and atmospherics. Alongside the attendant album Sextet, Waterline with its bonged up and dubbed out flip Funaezekea turned the conventional Brit-funk sounds and ideals into the unconventional. And you can't get a much more unconventional ending to a track than the final 45 seconds on this 12".

- sleevenotes by Paul Pledger/Flipside Reviews for Cerysmatic Factory

The Railway Children live in Berlin

2017-07-05T09:00:00.000+01:00

The Railway Children play the Firestation Records 20 Years Birthday Allnighter on 21 October with support from New Street Adventure.

21 October 2017
Privatclub
Skalitzer Straße 85-86
Berlin Kreuzberg
Germany

Tickets are available now priced 22.20 Euro via koka36.de

The Railway Children and The Wendys live @ Audio

2017-06-05T19:03:00.000+01:00

The Wendys are late additions to an excellent bill on Saturday 17 June at Audio in Glasgow alongside The Orchids and headliners The Railway Children who continue their reunion gigs which started last year.

Tickets priced 15.00 in advance are available now via Tickets Scotland

--

The Railway Children
The Orchids
The Wendys [via archive live video stream]

Audio
14 Midland St
Glasgow G1 4PP

Facebook event
Official site

The Wendys 7.45pm - 8.10pm
The Orchids 8.25pm - 9.10pm
The Railway Children 9.30pm - end

The Railway Children live @ Audio, Glasgow

2017-05-17T07:00:00.000+01:00

[updated 5 June]

The Railway Children continue their reunion gigs that have seen them play New York City, Manchester, Wigan, Minehead (Shiiine On) and London over the last year.

This time they're heading north of the border to play Audio in Glasgow on 17 June with support from The Wendys and The Orchids.

Tickets priced 15.00 in advance are available now via Tickets Scotland

--

The Railway Children
The Orchids
The Wendys

Audio
14 Midland St
Glasgow G1 4PP

Facebook event
Official site

NME C86 compilation 3CD edition

2014-03-14T18:24:00.000+00:00

Cherry Red presents a new 3CD version of their excellent NME C86 compilation album and it features three ex-Factory Records bands. Disc 1 has Miaow's Sport Most Royal whilst Disc 2 has Darkness and Colour by The Railway Children. The ex-FAC fun is rounded off on Disc 3 by Happy Mondays' Freaky Dancin'. Amongst the wider highlights are offerings from pretty much any indie band who was around in the mid- to late-Eighties including Primal Scream, The Soup Dragons, Shop Assistants, McCarthy, The Weather Prophets, That Petrol Emotion, King of the Slums!, Pop Will Eat Itself and many many more.

It's released on 9 June 2014 and will come in a nice box with comprehensive illustrated sleevenotes by Neil Taylor.

More info including the full tracklisting on Facebook

Scared To Get Happy

2013-04-29T08:44:00.000+01:00

(Ex-)Factory artists feature on final tracklisting of Cherry Red's 5CD set Scared To Get Happy: A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989 as announced by Slicing Up Eyeballs.

The compilation will take an extensive look back at the golden era of British guitar-based indie-pop and features a veritable who's who of artists including Josef K, The Stone Roses, Primal Scream and The Wedding Present.

The Factory element (3 out of 134 tracks) is provided by James, The Railway Children and The Wake as follows:

James - Hymn From A Village (1985)
The Railway Children - A Gentle Sound (1986)
The Wake - Gruesome Castle (1988)

The collection is due out 24 June 2013, includes a 72-page booklet and is expected to cost about 50 GBP.

The Railway Children Rarities #2 Live

2010-12-11T21:26:00.000+00:00

A new collection of live recordings by The Railway Children is out now on download from Ether Records via www.railwaychildren.co.uk.

"Rarities #2 is a 10 song album, featuring live recordings from the period just before the release of Recurrence in '88. Available only from this site, via download, it includes three previously un-released tracks: Twirl, Step Aside and Different Animals. Note that the recordings have been digitally restored from cassette, so sound quality varies somewhat."

Rarities #1 (2007) is still available.

Tracklisting

Twirl
My Word
Step Aside
I Caught You
Chrysalis
Different Animals
No Great Objections
In The Meantime
Somewhere South
Swallowed

--

2010
Ether Records
ETH7D
$9.99

Yes Please, Always No

2008-12-13T11:50:00.000+00:00

Now that the Manchester congestion charge debate is over, the voting intentions (if indeed they were actually entitled to vote) of a couple of ex-Factory workers can be revealed.

Ex-Railway Children and ACR manager Colin Sinclair "added his weight to the 'yes' campaign", warning that Mancunians "either want Greater Manchester to be a global player or we don't".

Peter Saville went further by "throw[ing] his weight behind the congestion charge" - stating that the c-charge "very much matches the city's ethos as the original modern city".

They would say that though wouldn't they though? Sinclair is CEO of Manchester's inward investment agency MIDAS, and Saville is Manchester's 'Creative Director'.

Unfortunately, the Mancunians who voted 'No' 'added' up to seventy-eight percent, and the entire 'weighty' TIF proposal was 'thrown' out.

The Master Tapes

2008-12-07T10:08:00.000+00:00

If you're an avid or casual follower of the Cerysmatic Factory Message Board, the discovery of a cache of original Factory Records master tapes by artists such as The Wendys, Northside, Section 25, X-O-Dus and Cath Carroll by Oli Wilson whilst clearing his dad's Loft won't have escaped your attention.

A number of the artists in question (the full list also includes Hopper, Fadela, The Railway Children and Thick Pigeon) have already posted on the thread or been in contact with Cerysmatic and/or Oli regarding the find.

In his message, Oli describes what's happened "When clearing my dads loft out I found lots of original master tapes from Factory Records releases over the years. I intend to return these to their rightful owners (the artist) or preferably I would like to put them into an archive in Manchester (whether this is Museum of Science and Industry or somewhere else I dont know yet)."

"I would rather store them as so far they have been kept in great condition by my old man and it would be great to keep them that way... have a feeling that if they aren't kept like that they would just gather dust and rot away in a studio!!!"

That the tapes have been lovingly looked after for all these years is not a surprise given their custodian. Of course, under Factory's infamous "no contract" policy, all the artists owned their own music and Factory "owned nothing".

It would be difficult to begrudge the reunion of the tapes with their rightful owners (particularly if rare and unreleased, or even un-re-released) material exists. However, the donation of such historically significant material to an institution such as MoSI has a nice ring to it. Perhaps there is scope for both to happen.

Now... where's Fadela!?

Box Set Go-Going

2008-11-10T21:33:00.000+00:00

Latest news (from Amazon UK and Tower JP) sees the new 4-disc Rhino 'The Factory Box Set' released on 8 December. As noted before, it is compiled by Jon Savage, includes an essay by Paul Morley, and the artwork is by Peter Saville.

Tracklist is as follows:

DISC 1
1. Joy Division: Digital
2. A Certain Ratio: All Night Party
3. OMD: Electricity (Original version)
4. Joy Division: She's Lost Control
5. The Distractions: Time Goes By So Slow
6. Joy Division: Transmission
7. The Durutti Column: Sketch For Summer
8. X-O-Dus: English Black Boys
9. Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart
10. A Certain Ratio: Shack Up
11. Section 25: Girls Don't Count
12. Crawling Chaos: Sex Machine
13. A Certain Ratio: Flight
14. The Names: Night Shift
15. New Order: Ceremony (Original 7" version)
16. Minny Pops: Dolphin's Spurt
17. John Dowie: It's Hard To Be An Egg
18. Crispy Ambulance: Deaf
19. Section 25: Dirty Disco

DISC 2
1. New Order: Everything's Gone Green
2. ESG: Moody
3. Tunnelvision: Watching the Hydroplanes
4. The Durutti Column: Messidor
5. A Certain Ratio: Knife Slits Water (LP version)
6. Royal Family and the Poor: Art on 45
7. Swamp Children: Taste What's Rhythm
8. New Order: Temptation
9. 52nd Street: Cool As Ice
10. New Order: Blue Monday
11. Cabaret Voltaire: Yashar (John Robie Remix)
12. Quando Quango: Love Tempo
13. The Wake: Talk About The Past

DISC 3
1. New Order: Confusion
2. Marcel King: Reach For Love
3. Section 25: Looking from A Hilltop (12" Restructure)
4. Stockholm Monsters: All At Once
5. Life: Tell Me
6. The Durutti Column: A Little Mercy (Duet)
7. James: Hymn From A Village
8. Kalima: Trickery
9. A Certain Ratio: Sounds Like Something Dirty
10. Quando Quango: Genius
11. Happy Mondays: Freaky Dancin'
12. Miaow: When It All Comes Down
13. The Railway Children: Brighter
14. Biting Tongues: Compressor
15. New Order: True Faith
16. Happy Mondays: 24 Hour Party People

DISC 4
1. New Order: Fine Time
2. Happy Mondays: WFL (Think About the Future)
3. Revenge: Seven Reasons
4. Happy Mondays: Hallelujah (Club Mix)
5. Electronic: Getting Away With It
6. Happy Mondays: Step On
7. Northside: Shall We Take A Trip
8. England New Order: World In Motion
9. Happy Mondays: Kinky Afro
10. The Durutti Column: Home
11. Electronic: Get The Message (DNA remix)
12. Northside: Take 5
13. Cath Carroll: Moves Like You (Remix)
14. The Other Two: Tasty Fish (12" mix)
15. Happy Mondays: Sunshine and Love (Lionrock Remix)

Quiz Night

2007-10-02T17:16:00.000+01:00

As promised, the 'official' answers to the Urbis Haçienda quiz:

Round One

1. Name the first DJ and the first live act at The Haçienda.

Hewan Clarke; Bernard Manning (2 points).

2. Which famous spy was 'The Gay Traitor' bar named after?

Anthony Blunt (1 point).

3. Give the name (or type) of two businesses that were run from The Haçienda during the day.

Sandwich Express (sandwich delivery); Swing (hairdressers) (2 points).

4. Name the last DJ and the last live act at The Haçienda.

Elliot Eastwick (for it was he); Spiritualised (2 points).

5. 'Flesh' was the second gay night at The Haçienda. Name the first.

Gay Monday (1 point).

6. The Pet Shop Boys used an artist's films as a backdrop at their Haçienda concert. Name the artist.

Derek Jarman (1 point).

7. Name the two resident DJs at 'Wide'.

Dean Johnson; Dave Haslam (2 points).

8. Name the three designers of The Haçienda trainers.

Ben Kelly; Peter Saville; Yohji Yamamoto (1 point).

9. What was the building originally used for before becoming The Haçienda?

Yacht showroom (1 point).

10. Name the person that co-promoted 'Flesh' with Paul Cons.

Lucy Sher (1 point).

Round Two

1. Following closure, The Haçienda reopened with three new nights. Name them.

Beautiful 2000; Shine; Saturday at the Haçienda (3 points).

2. Name either the author or the work from which The Haçienda name was taken.

Ivan Chtchteglov: 'Formulaire Pour Un Urbanisme Nouveau' (1 point).

3. What was the name of The Haçienda's 1989 US tour?

United States of the Haçienda (1 point).

4. Name the band formed by Paul Morley and Trevor Horn.

Art Of Noise (1 point).

5. Name the building company responsible for The Haçienda flats.

Crosby Homes (1 point).

6. When Frankie Knuckles played The Haçienda on New Year's Eve 1996 was he paid:
a. GBP 5k?
b. GBP 15k?
c. GBP 25k?

b. GBP 15k (1 point).

7. Who bought The Haçienda DJ booth at the auction (and then lost it)?

Bobby Langley (1 point).

8. A regular performer at The Haçienda, born Alexander Coe in Bangor, worked at Shelley's in the mid-eighties, now a superstar DJ. Who am I?

Sasha (1 point).

9. Which internationally famous ex-Haçienda DJ started out as a chef at Dry Bar?

Laurent Garnier (1 point).

10. What was the Factory catalogue number of The Haçienda cat?

FAC 191 (1 point).

11. Which famous television music programme was recorded at The Haçienda in the mid-eighties?

The Tube (1 point).

Depending upon your score, award yourself the following title:

1-5: Thick Pigeon
6-10: Railway Children
11-15: Minny Pops
16-20: Adventure Babies
21-25: New Orders
26-27: Happy Mondays (You win The Shaun Ryder Cup!)

Where are they now file

2007-09-26T13:02:00.000+01:00

Colin Sinclair, one-time manager of one-time Factory artists The Railway Children and A Certain Ratio and now Chief Executive of Midas - the inward investment agent for Manchester - is interviewed in the latest Manchester Evening News.

"Mr" Sinclair rose from the ranks of Salford University Federation of Conservative Students to become the SUSU Entertainment Officer in the early eighties. After a stint as an independent Manchester promoter (first gig Lavolta Lakota @ Deville's!) Colin invested in property: renovating a dilapidated Victorian school building and turning it into the Boardwalk venue (of Nirvana fame) and rehearsal rooms (home to ACR, Happy Mondays and Oasis).

After managing the The Railway Children's releases on Factory Records (FAC 162, FAC 167 & FACT 185) and the signing of A Certain Ratio to A&M, Sinclair eventually sold The Boardwalk building in the nineties before going on to "produce major televised events like the Commonwealth Games handover in Manchester in 1998 and the opening of the Welsh National Assembly in Cardiff in 1999".

Railway Children rarities album

2007-08-19T19:50:00.000+01:00

A 10-song album of unreleased Railway Children rarities is available for download only direct from railwaychildren.co.uk, the official site run by Gary Newby (who lives in Japan).

The full tracklisting is:

Shopping Around
Dream Arcade (original version)
Like No Other
Railroad Side (original version)
Wait For The Worthless
Can't Follow The World
Darkness and Colour (original version)
Ready Amber
Sunflower Room
Because (live version)

The complete download (available in 192 kbps zipped mp3 format) costs only USD 9.99 and payment is via Paypal only.

Thanks to Tokoloshe Man on the Cerysmatic Factory Message Board for spotting.

Gary is also looking for musicians living in the Tokyo or Saitama area of Japan. Get in touch via his site if you are interested.

No Pain, No Gain

2004-10-19T22:16:00.000+01:00

This is the title of a forthcoming live album by Revenge to be released on LTM in February 2005. It features the whole of their 1991 performance at Cities In The Park in Manchester's Heaton Park, an event which also featured Electronic (with guests Pet Shop Boys), Happy Mondays (finishing the Pills 'n' Thrills tour), The Durutti Column, The Wendys, The Adventure Babies, Cath Carroll and by-then-non-Factory acts A Certain Ratio and The Railway Children. The remainder of the 14-track CD is from a show in Kawasaki, Japan, several months later.

Artist: Revenge
Title: No Pain, No Gain (Live 1991)
Label: LTM
Format: 1CD (14 tracks)
Catalogue number: LTMCD 2413
Release date: 7 February 2005

LTM also has the following new CD titles in stock (as usual, you can order any of them direct from LTM ahead of the store release dates):

Paul Haig LTMCD 2408 Rhythm of Life / New York Remix
Severed Heads LTMCD 2404 Rotund for Success
The Room LTMCD 2416 In Evil Hour/Clear

Also in the works at LTM are two new dvd releases. The Wake (Live at the Hacienda and Section 25 (A SXVV DVD) are slated for release early next year. More details soon.

Thanks to James at LTM.

Cerysmatic Factory Top Ten of 2003

2004-01-04T20:32:00.000+00:00

(in alphabetical order)

Clowns and Pet Sounds - Amateur Night In The Big Top (Off World Sounds)
Cool As Ice - The Be Music Productions - Various Artists (LTM)
Elephant - The White Stripes (XL)
Ether Song - Turin Brakes (Source)
Gentle Sound - The Railway Children (Ether)
Room On Fire - The Strokes (Rough Trade)
Sleep / Holiday - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci (Sanctuary)
Someone Else's Party - The Durutti Column (Artful)
Tour de France Soundtracks - Kraftwerk (EMI)
Youth and Young Manhood - Kings of Leon (Hand Me Down)

Weekend playlist

2003-11-16T15:21:00.000+00:00

My copy of Gentle Sound by The Railway Children arrived in the post on Saturday (it's only available direct from railwaychildren.co.uk) and that stayed on the stereo all Saturday. Duly inspired I dug out the original 'Brighter' and 'A Gentle Sound' 12" singles on good old-fashioned vinyl for a spin on Sunday. Jingle jangle pop rock at it's best.

'New York Heroes' is a cd compiled by Moby (apparently his first ever) and came free with the November 2003 edition of Mixmag. It's 12 tracks are all in some way connected with NYC. It contains a preview of the new Voodoo Child album which is the dance alter ego of Moby. The first Voodoo Child album 'The End Of Everything" was great, especially 'Dog Heaven'.

A Gentle Sound

2003-10-29T21:49:00.000+00:00

The new acoustic album on Ether Records by The Railway Children called 'Gentle Sound' is now available through their online store. In February 2004 it will be in record stores too.

The album features acoustic versions of classic Factory-era tracks from Reunion Wilderness including A Gentle Sound, Brighter, Big Hands of Freedom together with post-Fac favourites and the tracks from the aborted Skinship single.