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 Wake live @ Subterania, London 11 Sep 2020

2019-12-12T08:16:00.002+00:00

2020 is set to be a big year for The Wake with a Factory Benelux slbum and live shows in the offing. The first of these has already been confirmed and is set for 11 September 2020 at the excellent Subterania in West London underneath the Westway.

Tickets are available now priced £22.00 (plus booking fee) via seetickets.com.

Scream City 5 - The International Edition

2019-10-22T07:00:00.000+01:00

Scream City 5 was the last edition of the fanzine that I produced, back in 2010 after a 2-year gap from the fourth edition. I didn't know at the time that there wouldn't be any others. In fact, for quite a while after this edition I had an active concept for SC6 "the Video Edition" which would have delved into the world of Ikon, Doublevision, Play at Home, etc and probably come with a free VHS tape glued to the front cover (seriously, this was in the concept!). I did some tests for video titles and had some ideas for articles including the Ikonathon (a non-stop marathon of video-watching that would somehow morph into a critical masterpiece plus, on a more serious note, the extensive interview by Brian Nicholson with the late Malcolm Whitehead that eventually made it onto Cerysmatic (and which, in turn, inspired the whole Scream City digital archive).

Back to Scream City 5 and its international theme, starting with the cover and Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion projection which has absolutely nothing to do with Factory but just seemed right for this edition. I stopped short of doing the fold-out inside front cover which would've enabled a build-it-yourself Dymaxion globe but I resolve to make the template available for those who are geometrically inclined. This, and other supporting materials such as alternate covers, source materials, etc will be made available once the main issues are published.

There were 10 different articles spread across 60 pages: Andrew James took a Factory Trip Around the World, I interviewed Fiona Allen about The Area and The Haçienda, James Nice presented an extract from his Shadowplayers book and discussed the background, David Quantick sleevenoted The Distractions, Ian McCartney gave us his magnum opus on Mozart vs Joy Division, Matthew Robertson had an exclusive interview with Andrew Penhallow of Factory Australasia, I talked to Mark Reeder, Ike Yard and Michael H Shamberg and David Nolan paid tribute to Larry Cassidy.

To top things off there was a limited edition compilation CD featuring Section 25, Ike Yard, Thick Pigeon, The Wake, The Names, The Durutti Column, Biting Tongues, The Distractions, Shark Vegas and Fidelity Kastrow & Spartak.

Phew! Enough fanzines already!!

New Wave of Hype - Indonesia does The Wake

2019-09-17T07:59:00.002+01:00

'New Wave of Hype' is a compilation of 5 Indonesian bands covering classic songs by The Wake's classics in their own unique style. This album is out now digitally via Dismantledjkt on bandcamp and, physically, as a limited edition of 50 copies 5-inch CDR, via heavenpunks [->].

Tracklisting

1. Turks & Caicos - Provincial Disco
2. Ultraviolence - Solo Project
3. Les Mains Immaculees - Carbrain
4. The Sensitive - On Our Honeymoon
5. Sharesprings - Talk About The Past

New Wave Of Hype by Various Artists

A change of pace - a change of style

2017-10-16T20:56:00.003+01:00

FACTORY RECORDS

Releases Late Winter / Spring / Early Summer

EARLY MARCH

FAC 97 "ACT ON INSTINCT" STREETLIFE
12" single from Belgian Band led by Wally Van Middendorp

FAC 96 "TELSTAR" - AD INFINITUM
7" Reworking of classic antique. The lyrics are implicit and vocoded. Only available with special holographic sleeve

MARCH 29TH

FAC 88 "TALK ABOUT THE PAST" - THE WAKE
12" + 7" Single by Glasgow's hottest young things. Produced by Oz at Revolution Manchester. Extra Piano by Vini Reilly

APRIL

FACT 90 "FROM THE HIP" - SECTION 25
New Album from the seaside, a change of pace - a change of style. A Be Music production.

FAC 103 "THIEVES LIKE US" - NEW ORDER
12" Single De Chirico Reconstruction Sleeve. Engineered by Michael Johnson. B/W "Are you lonesome tonight". Instrumental Mix available B/W "Murder" from Factory Benelux.

FAC 92 "KEEP ON DANCING / REACH UP FOR LOVE" MARCEL KING
Double A 12" Single Sweet sensation dances out and back on a BeMusic - Dojo production.

--

Handwritten Factory Records release schedule for Late Winter / Spring / Early Summer 1984 featuring Streetlife (not sure about the Belgian description), Ad Infinitum, The Wake, Section 25, New Order and Marcel King. From the AHW collection.

Caesar talks about the past (part one)

2017-06-28T08:30:00.000+01:00

The Wake formed in Glasgow (Scotland) in April 1981, after singer/guitarist Caesar joined forces with drummer Steven Allen and a bassist, Joe Donnelly. Caesar had previously played with Altered Images and wrote their first single Dead Pop Stars, but elected to leave shortly before the band crashed into the UK charts.

- extract from the LTM biography by James Nice

The interview that follows was conducted via email with Caesar between around 2010 and 2012. Originally planned for Cerysmatic Factory's print fanzine Scream City, it never saw the light of day. This was my fault and down to my dilatory approach. The interview process should take, ideally, about 90 minutes. In this case we're talking 18 months. By which time Scream City's editor had decided it was time for the print project to rest (at least for the moment. Ed.). So, what follows is some talk about the past, from the (5+ years) past.

- Ian McCartney

In a VBS TV "Soft Focus" interview a few years ago, ex-The Wake bassist Bobby Gillespie tells the story of how the band signed to Factory. His version of events seems pretty simple: you basically knock on Rob Gretton's door and hand him a tape, leading to the band recording for Factory. Is this how you remember the events leading up to The Wake's being on the label?

Bobby's version of events is basically right. Some of us went to Manchester. It must've been around January 1982. I'm not sure who was there from the group and who wasn't. Anyway, a Wake delegation went down.

The idea was to visit Richard Boon at the New Hormones office - as well as Rob - to give them a copy of our self-released single On Our Honeymoon. We might have handed in a tape as well as the single - I can't remember - but the main thing was to give both a copy of the record. We were looking to support Buzzcocks or New Order. Also, obviously, we hoped that something might happen label-wise eventually.

Anyway, New Hormones wasn't really operating as a label anymore. Richard Boon had his hands full just managing Buzzcocks of course. But he was very friendly and helpful when we went to see him. I'm not sure how we got Rob's home address. It could be that Richard Boon gave it to us - I can't think how else we would've got it. But Richard Boon was kind enough to advise us a little and he was very encouraging.

However, we managed to find him, Rob was hugely approachable when we turned up at his door. We gave him the single and I got in touch with him shortly after to see if we could do any gigs with New Order. Sure enough something came up immediately; I'm not certain where it was - one internet site mentions Trinity Hall in Bristol 26th Feb 1982 and that sounds about right to me. After playing with them a few times he spoke to us about doing something with Factory. He'd already had a word with Tony about us.

As well as seeing us live, I guess Rob liked the fact we'd done the single independently and had the initiative to take it down to him and so on… The brilliant thing about people like Rob and Richard Boon was that they kept in touch directly with new music. Well, NEW Hormones and NEW Order after all.

Cheekily enough, when Rob asked us to do something - probably having in mind a single or an EP - I said we wanted to do a mini-album even though we were completely unknown. Again, the great thing about Factory then was they just went with an idea and enabled you to do it if they thought there was something behind it. No demos, no proposals, no need to explain what you were trying to achieve. If they believed in you, they backed you.

They booked us into Strawberry Studios in Stockport to record - it was a pretty state-of-the-art studio at that time, part owned by 10cc. I suppose Rob liked the fact they'd provided that facility outside of London.

And that's how we came to make Harmony.

A release like The Wake's debut single On Our Honeymoon would, I'm sure, have had the likes of Virgin records knocking on the door. Were labels other than Factory making offers at the time, and were they considered? Also, how many copies of On Our Honeymoon were pressed?

As for the notion that On Our Honeymoon (1,000 copies pressed) might have had the likes of Virgin Records approaching us that certainly wasn't the case...

I had been signed to a major label for a short time as part of the original line-up of Altered Images. I was the guitarist and wrote quite a lot of their early songs - first single Dead Pop Stars for instance - and I was still potentially contracted to CBS/Epic when I left to form The Wake. Even though I could've been tied to them legally they had absolutely no interest in keeping me on fortunately. We didn't contact any majors re The Wake.

It's hard to realise now the impact the new independent labels were having - we think of indie music as a genre, a style of music, whereas back then it was actually an explosion of small labels like Fast, Rough Trade, Factory and Postcard - and they were just the better known ones. It wasn't a guitar based beat group style of music at all - there were all kinds of musical approaches out there - it was more a way of thinking about how to keep creative control.

Unlike previous independents like, say, Stiff Records, labels like Factory weren't just calling cards to try and get a major deal, they were labels that appeared to be saying this is a way ahead - responding to the supposed ideals of punk - a new way of doing things, a new way of releasing music, and we were really attracted to that and thought it was the way forward for The Wake. Personally speaking, I would've seen The Distractions single on Factory, Time Goes By So Slow, that record, the song itself, the way it was presented by Factory, as some sort of ideal, that was what I wanted the group to be doing, that was the template.

Major label interest actually came later around the time of Talk About The Past. Just as that was about to come out on Factory we signed a publishing deal with Blue Mountain Music which was a company connected to Island Records. When we signed that deal, which came off the back of a headlining gig at the Hacienda, the boss of Island at the time - it was Dave Robinson who had started Stiff Records - heard Talk About The Past playing in the Blue Mountain office - and in true corny showbiz style burst into the room saying, ‘That‘s a hit! Who is it? They‘ve got a deal.'

Not too surprisingly, in subsequent meetings, when it came down to the details of signing to the label for real, some conflicts arose. The main problem was our determination to choose which songs could be released as singles. Another big stumbling block was our suggestion that singles might not necessarily appear on albums as was our way of doing things at Factory. Also we wanted final say on - and the option to design - all artwork including any advertising. Basically we were trying to retain the creative controls we had at Factory. This was the ultimate test for us - had this so-called major learned any lessons from smaller labels like Factory? And, of course, they hadn't taken the slightest bit of notice. So the deal never happened.

In any case, Tony really encouraged us to follow up on any major label interest. He was always very open about that. He was pleased when bigger labels took an interest in the Factory groups.

Around the same time, we recorded a session for the David Jensen Show on BBC Radio and the broadcast led to phone calls from - and meetings with - a few other well-known labels but it never came to anything.

We were always trying to move forward on a creative level - that was the main thing - and Factory was the right place to be when working on the Here Comes Everybody album which was coming next.

The Wake's time at Factory was about five or six years. Starting round about sometime in 1981, with the final release Something That No One Else Could Bring being in 1987. Now, I'm not trying to be a cheeky bastard (and please correct me if I've got it wrong) but by my reckoning the sales of the records wouldn't have paid enough to live off. Did you have another way of making money during these years?

...and did you have any discussions about moving elsewhere?

You're so wrong - we were living the dream and owned properties across the world. OK - I'm only kidding.

Record sales weren't enough to live from on a regular basis but we got occasional royalties and made money from gigs. Basically, we went through phases of having enough to get by on and some times of signing on and doing a few part time jobs now and then. The publishing deal made a big difference as it involved an advance.

Certainly now we make more from the LTM reissues than we ever did from the original Factory recordings. Then again, the records wouldn't exist at all without Factory's considerable financial input.

As mentioned before, we had major label interest around the time of Talk About The Past. The one we took most seriously was when Sounds journalist Dave McCullough, Geoff Travis (Rough Trade) and Mike Alway (Cherry Red) started up Blanco y Negro Records through Warners and there was definite interest from Dave in his new role as head of A & R. In the end we stuck with Factory for as long as we felt a connection. Possibly it was the right place for us to be all that time although it changed later.

--

End of part one.

See also: part two

C88 3CD box set on Cherry Red

2017-06-27T06:30:00.000+01:00

More indie-pop compilation goodness from Cherry Red in the form of C88, a 3-CD box set out 30 June 2017.

This time the Factory Records interest comes from The Wake with a demo version of Crush The Flowers. This song was originally the a-side of a single on Sarah Records in 1989 (SARAH 21)

"C88 is another celebration of the Eighties Indie scene, documenting a golden era when tuneful guitar-based bands made records on shoestring budgets, often issued on small labels with hand-made artwork, with little hope of mainstream exposure."

- Cherry Red

--

Title: C88
Format: 3CD
Release date: Friday 30 June 2017
Catalogue number: CRCDBOX36

Releases of time to come

2017-06-05T18:39:00.000+01:00

Transcript of typewritten Factory Benelux release schedule from the archives with, as ever, a few unexpected twists on the FBN catalogue as we know it. Check the explanatory notes at the end for more info.

December 30th 1983

Releases of time to come

FBN 15
CRISPY AMBULANCE 'Sexus'
1982 recording in Brussels. Sleeve Patrick Roques. testpressings just arrived ¹
12"

FBN 22
from the december 83 recordings; no edit known as yet; song still to be selected; sleeve? this is for NEW ORDER. ²
12"

FBN 26
SURPRIZE
'In movimento' A Dojo Be Music production for this Italian act; sleeve by the band in the Mussolini style; cutting in Belgium Jan 9th. ³
mLP

FBN 28
NYAM NYAM
'Fate/Hate' Hookie on production; cutting done in London recently; testpressings soon to be available; sleeve by the band currently being processed in Brussels. ⁴
12"

FBN 31
JAMES
recordings to happen in Brussels early February with an appearance at Interferences, latest nightspot in Grand-Place, Bruxelles. ⁵
12"

FBN 32
ACR
If Donald was less upset about Benelux recent foolishness, we'd know more about this project... but it shouldn't remain a questionmark for much longer... ⁶

FBN 33
Section 25 'From The Hip'
To be released simultaneously by Brussels and Manchester and France, etc. Sleeve by Saville; masters and films impatiently expected; a memorable release for start of 84; thank you Wally. ⁷

FBN 34
LAVOLTA LAKOTA 'Mitawin/Prayer'
Testpressings just arrived. A Hookie production again; one side is 33rpm; sleeve by the band currently being processed in Brussels ⁸
7"

FBN 35
THE WAKE 'Talk About The Past'
Masters and films expected anytime. Release to be launched with a Benelux and German tour late February. ⁹

FBN 35
THE DURUTTI COLUMN 'Short Stories for Pauline'
From the December recordings in Brussels. Picture sleeve for the back (c.f. Tony's choice) Release schedule to be discussed according to Portuguese LP and the next FAC album. ¹⁰
LP

Notes:

¹ - released as FBN 18 (instead of FBN 15) in April 1984
² - released as FBN 22 (Murder b/w Thieves Like Us (instrumental)) in May 1984
³ - released as FBN 26 in April 1984
⁴ - released as FBN 28 in April 1984
⁵ - unreleased by James but FBN 31 eventually became Alma Mater by Stockholm Monsters
⁶ - released as FBN 32 (Brazilia) in December 1984
⁷ - released as FBN 33 and FACT 90 (From The Hip) in March 1984
⁸ - released as FBN 34 (Prayer / Mitawin) in July 1984
⁹ - unreleased FBN version of FAC 88 Talk About The Past
¹⁰ - unreleased until it eventually surfaced on the resurrected Factory Benelux on CD and LP in 2012

The Wake - Here Comes Everybody [FBN 35 CD]

2015-02-25T20:23:00.000+00:00

'Here Comes Everybody', the 1985 album by acclaimed Factory band The Wake, will be re-released in a special remastered double disc 30th anniversary CD edition by Factory Benelux on 4 May 2015. Comprising the entire original album plus time-appropriate singles Talk About The Past and Of The Matter, radio session tracks, the Something That No-One Else Could Bring E.P. and seven (count 'em) unreleased demos from 1988-90 this is indeed a very special package.

And that's not all pop-pickers...

Captured Tracks, the specialist boutique vinyl re-releasers, will be putting out a double vinyl edition very soon and the Sarah Records back catalogue is also set for long-overdue re-release later in the year.

Enjoy!

Here Comes Everybody 2CD [FBN 35 CD] Tracklisting

CD1

1. O Pamela
2. Send Them Away
3. Sail Through
4. Melancholy Man
5. World Of Her Own
6. Torn Calendar
7. All I Asked You To Do
8. Here Comes Everybody
9. Talk About the Past (7" version)
10. Of the Matter
11. Talk About the Past (radio session)
12. Rise and Shine (radio session)
13. Make You Understand (radio session) 
14. The Calendar (radio session) 
15. Torn Calendar (dub version)
16. Everybody Works So Hard (7" version)

CD2

1. Gruesome Castle
2. Pale Spectre
3. Furious Sea
4. Plastic Flowers
5. Hated Forsaken (demo)
6. English Rain (demo)
7. The Plastic Flowers (demo)
8. Bob's Empty Head (demo)
9. Are They Chaste? (demo)
10. Crush the Flowers (demo)
11. Carbrain (demo)
12. Pale Spectre (7" edit)
13. Talk About the Past (12" version)

The Wake - Clouds Disco [FBN 94]

2015-02-20T08:53:00.000+00:00

The brand new single by The Wake is Clouds Disco b/w The Sun Is a Star which will come in a special limited edition of 500 vinyl 7" on Record Store Day 2015 (18 April) via Factory Benelux.

Clouds Disco is taken from last year's Testament 'best of' and was produced by the group with Ian Catt (St Etienne, Field Mice).

"These recordings were made during sessions for the A Light Far Out album," says singer/guitarist Caesar. "Clouds Disco is about the burgeoning Glasgow music scene of the early 1980s and our perceived place within it. The idea was to capture a little bit of the atmosphere of the time for the present day, rather than be nostalgic. Clouds Disco was an actual venue, later renamed Satellite City, which in turn became the title of an early Orange Juice song."

B-Side The Sun Is a Star is exclusive to this 7" single, and will not be made available elsewhere.

The cover art for FBN 94 is based on an original design by Peter Saville for an unreleased Factory cassette box edition of Here Comes Everybody.

Tracklisting

1. Clouds Disco
2. The Sun is a Star

The Wake - Testament (Best Of) [FBN 95]

2014-07-05T09:59:00.000+01:00

Factory Benelux has announced a compilation of material by The Wake for 8 September 2014 release with the FBN 95 catalogue number.

Testament (Best Of) looks set to revive the never-used Wake brown boxed cassette style (for more info on box colours etc see our sister site factoryrecords.org).

Captured Tracks vs Stockholm Monsters?

2013-12-21T20:38:00.000+00:00

A message on Captured Tracks' Facebook page rather suggests that they will re-release material by Stockholm Monsters in 2014.

You may remember that Captured Tracks did several re-releases by The Wake for Record Store Day 2011 and, hey, one of their bands is Thieves Like Us.

The Wake on Soundcloud

2013-12-21T17:50:00.000+00:00

Recovery (Instrumental) and The Sands are just two of the songs on The Wake's Soundcloud which is well worth checking out.

More info via The Wake on Twitter.

The Wake - Here Comes Everybody [FBN 35 CD]

2013-12-17T20:36:00.000+00:00

Factory Benelux has announced a new CD edition of the second Factory album by The Wake.

No firm details as yet but we are promised FBN 35 CD will be out soon(ish).

Facs In The Attic Part 2

2013-09-26T21:56:00.000+01:00

And so we continue with our trawl through the Factory rarities in order to dig out some valuables, some to be found in the unlikeliest of places. All prices are extracted from the 2014 Record Collector Guide, some eager Discogs listings and my own experiences.

Wim Mertens

Take one Belgian neo-classical composer and two simultaneously issued albums (on Les Disques Du Crepuscule), switch the logos and alter the labels and what happens? Er, very little. By the time Factory got its act together and added them to its catalogue, both Educes Me (FACT 190) and the soundtrack to the heavy Peter Greenaway art-house film Belly Of An Architect (FACT 195) had already sold as many copies as they could muster a few months earlier. To be fair, Belly did fairly well and shifted a few units off the back of the film's VHS release (on Palace, sigh) and via continued interest in Greenaway's work. Educes Me, on the other hand, didn't exactly benefit from being on Factory but it did get a curious re-release as a boxed-cassette. If you happen to have such an item - smartly packaged in a bright yellow hue with a colourful inlay booklet - then have a seat. Record Collector valuations clock in at an eye-watering £200. For a tape. No, really. Check out our Wim Mertens discography to feast your eyes on his other work (much of which fetches serious money - see Part 3 of our Facs In The Attic series).

Various Artists

Inevitably, that most frequent purveyor of releases comes up trumps when it comes to Factory valuables. Various Artists releases include the A Factory Quartet double-album (FACT 24 - £20), the Palatine box-set (FACT 400 - £40 to £100), particularly the vinyl and CD sets and two curios that don't feature in the RC book of dreams. The first is the 4 x 12" promo pack which has no number but comes loosely-housed in a PVC sleeve with each track's BPMs helpfully printed on it, plus four white-label copies of Pleasure Crew's I Could Be So Good For You (FAC 169), Fadela's N'Sel Fik (FAC 197 - worth a tenner on its own), The Hood's Salvation (FAC 182) and Meatmouth's Meatmouth Is Murder (FAC 196). I'd estimate a £15 price-tag, partly for at least two of the enclosed records but also for the attractive Johnson Panas sleeve. The second is Martin (FACD 325), a collection of Hannett's finest production work including Joy Division, U2 and A Certain Ratio etc.. I'd pitch this at £15 to £20 all day long for the CD and vinyl.

All of which is peanuts when compared to A Factory Sample. FAC 2 was the first release on the label, came packaged in expensive polythene outers, bolstered by some natty stickers and four sides of music. No wonder it's valued from around the £200 mark. Without the stickers, it's probably worth £100 - £125 and with a scruffy sleeve minus the polythene, around half that again.

The Wake

Before jumping the sinking Factory ferry and high-tailing it to the Sarah label, Glasgow's The Wake released some of the most beautiful songs to ever grace the label. Vinyl copies of debut-album Harmony (FACT 60) and gorgeous (and delayed) follow-up Here Comes Everybody (FACT 130) command around £20 - £25 each, although the former has just been exquisitely reissued as a double-vinyl version on Factory Benelux which may or may not have an effect on prices. The band's singles aren't too hard to come by although the 7" of Talk About The Past (FAC 88) is trickier to track down (£8).

Stockholm Monsters

This under-rated outfit feature in this article due to their two earlier singles, Fairy Tales (FAC 41) and Happy Ever After (FAC 58), both capable of reaching £15 in top condition. There are two different-coloured sleeves for Fairy Tales, a burgundy and a green one, both as easy (or as hard) to find as each other. The band's only album, Alma Mater (FACT 80) is worth £10 of anyone's money, while their superb Partyline 12" (FAC 146) might scrape a few quid less (a travesty) with 7" test pressings doubling the price.

The best of the rest

In no particular order are just some of the other least likely (and most probable) rarities worth seeking out.
The braille sleeved Electricity (FAC 6) by OMD - £60
The only Distractions single on Factory (FAC 12) - £15
The first (and only) reggae 12" by X-O-Dus (FAC 11) - £15
That infamous Sex Pistols cassette (with gold tape, pouch and card) (FACT 30) - £20 - £50
The one and only ESG 7" (FAC 34) - £30
The majestic Nightshift by The Names (FAC 29) - £15
The white vinyl John Dowie 7" with feather (!) (FAC 19) - £15
The two Dutch masters by Minnypops, Secret Story (FAC 57) and Dolphin's Spurt (FAC 31) - £12
The cassette version of Pigs and Battleships by Quando Quango (FAC 110c) - £18
The rare as hen's teeth CD promo and invite of The Other Two's Loved It (FACD 251) - £25 to £40
The first James single Jimone (FAC 78) - £12
The stand-alone Thick Pigeon album (FACT 85) - £40
The sleazy Crawling Chaos 7" Sex Machine (FAC 17) - £20
and the under-rated Chicken Rhythms by Northside on vinyl (FACT 310) - £12

Thanks to Record Collector and Discogs for prices.

Part 3 will feature rarities recorded by Factory artists and issued on Factory Benelux and Les Disques du Crepuscule.

The Wake - Harmony FBN 29 double vinyl LP

2013-07-28T21:36:00.000+01:00

Factory Benelux is set to release a new double vinyl edition of Harmony, the debut album by The Wake, originally released by Factory Records at FACT 60 in December 1982.

Bonus tracks on this special edition 2LP include the Factory Benelux single Something Outside b/w Host, as well as their John Peel session from July 1983.

The Harmony double vinyl edition is released on 28 October 2013.

Tracklisting

Side 1

1. Judas
2. Testament
3. Patrol
4. The Old Men

Side 2

1. Favour
2. Heartburn
3. An Immaculate Conception
4. Chance

Side 3

1. Something Outside
2. Host

Side 4

1. The Drill (Peel session)
2. Uniform (Peel session)
3. Here Comes Everybody (Peel session)

The Caesar Stupefied Playlist

2013-07-10T15:46:00.000+01:00

The latest in Stupefaction's Stupefied Playlists with a Factory Records theme is this week's with Caesar out of The Wake. Scream City's regular writer Ian McCartney contributes excellent background notes.

Also in this series: The Donald Johnson Stupefied Playlist and The Vini Reilly Stupefied Playlist.

Vini Reilly's Stupefied Playlist

2013-06-18T18:43:00.000+01:00

Vini Reilly's handwritten Stupefied playlist for our friends at Stupefaction as part of their ongoing series which quite recently featured ACR's Donald Johnson. There's also a return for the Professor of Factory Records (who he? Ed.)

Watch out for Caesar of The Wake's playlist in coming weeks.

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 Wake live in Sweden and Scotland

2013-03-09T12:53:00.000+00:00

A couple of new dates confirmed for The Wake:

23 March 2013 - Stockholm (Sweden) Debaser

The Wake + Tiger Tape
DJs: On Our Honeymoon + Christian Lilja (Labrador Records)

1 June 2013 - Glasgow, Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) (with The Pastels)

20:00
Adult: GBP 12.00
Advanced tickets: GBP 11.00
Ages: 15 and over