How Soon is Now?: The Madmen and Mavericks who made Independent Music 1975-2005 by Richard King Page B
Authors: Richard King
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and, although he didn’t understand his references to modernist typography, he suggested Saville design a poster for the club. To Saville’s surprise, the next commission he received from Wilson was not for further concert posters but ideas for a record sleeve. The nights at The Factory had prompted Wilson into taking a further step towards embracing the DIY ethos and releasing a single. ‘We got together Christmas ’78 at Alan’s flat,’ he says, ‘and, very surprisingly to both Alan and I, Tony said, “Let’s do a record from the club – I’ve got five grand or so my mother left me – some of the bands that have played the club don’t have record deals yet.’
Having seen Buzzcocks sign to United Artists and the immediate wave of Mancunian bands that had followed them become the subject of major-label interest, Wilson felt it was necessary to intervene. ‘I remember Wilson saying to me, “Wecan’t keep losing bands out of Manchester,” ‘says Richard Boon. ‘He was definitely one for civic chauvinism.’ Boon had had long conversations with Wilson over the morality or otherwise of Buzzcocks’ departure to a London record company. ‘Pride is one thing,’ he says. ‘I’d sit down and talk to Tony and he’d say, “Why have you done that, love?” Manchester is full of men who call each other ‘love’ and sometimes mean it.’
Wilson had become aware of the groundswell of new independent labels through promoting the concerts at The Factory. He realised that many of the bands were beginning to release their own music and sensed that, having made an initial DIY move, most bands were hoping to sign to a major. Still convinced of the broader possibilities of seizing control that had been suggested by punk, he started to consider whether The Factory could become some form of record company.
‘I was in the car’, he said, ‘thinking, this guy does it, that guy does it. Everyone thinks of Factory as the arty label but Fast Product was the first arty label. I had got around to the point of view that you merely take your artist on to the major label. Bob Last had done it with Fast. At the time it seemed like a good idea; looking back it seemed like a terrible mistake. Joy Division were getting really hot, and Andrew Lauder became interested in them.’
Along with Cabaret Voltaire, John Dowie and Durutti Column, Joy Division were one of four bands featured on A Factory Sample , the first Factory release. Inspired by the sleeve of an imported Asian copy of Santana’s Abraxas , in which he’d been absorbed while tripping one night, Wilson suggested A Factory Sample should be housed in rice paper.
Saville duly obliged and produced a minimal design which featured clean lines against a silver tone and used numbers to indicate the bands and their track listing. ‘It seemed appropriate that this first record, which was a collective of different people,should just basically echo that … so the numbering system crept in – we like numbers … numbers were Kraftwerk, industry, technologies, the reductive notion of model numbers as opposed to the kitsch of names. I mean BMW 3 series, compared to Ford … Capri!’
The Factory numbering system, although playful and innovative, would become something of an albatross around the label’s neck. Dental work, unfinished projects and drug deals would all be assigned individual Factory catalogue numbers. ‘It was the kind of coolly abstract element of numerology that was appealing’, says Saville, ‘but it became a bad habit; it became banal, I’m afraid … this notion of giving numbers to everything, and that was it really.’
Jon Savage, newly relocated to Manchester, found himself duly summoned to what would be the Factory premises for the next twelve years: Alan Erasmus’s flat on Palatine Road, in leafy Didsbury.
‘It was very much quid pro quo with Tony,’ says Savage. ‘He got me the gig at Granada, and one of my first tasks when I went up to
Having seen Buzzcocks sign to United Artists and the immediate wave of Mancunian bands that had followed them become the subject of major-label interest, Wilson felt it was necessary to intervene. ‘I remember Wilson saying to me, “Wecan’t keep losing bands out of Manchester,” ‘says Richard Boon. ‘He was definitely one for civic chauvinism.’ Boon had had long conversations with Wilson over the morality or otherwise of Buzzcocks’ departure to a London record company. ‘Pride is one thing,’ he says. ‘I’d sit down and talk to Tony and he’d say, “Why have you done that, love?” Manchester is full of men who call each other ‘love’ and sometimes mean it.’
Wilson had become aware of the groundswell of new independent labels through promoting the concerts at The Factory. He realised that many of the bands were beginning to release their own music and sensed that, having made an initial DIY move, most bands were hoping to sign to a major. Still convinced of the broader possibilities of seizing control that had been suggested by punk, he started to consider whether The Factory could become some form of record company.
‘I was in the car’, he said, ‘thinking, this guy does it, that guy does it. Everyone thinks of Factory as the arty label but Fast Product was the first arty label. I had got around to the point of view that you merely take your artist on to the major label. Bob Last had done it with Fast. At the time it seemed like a good idea; looking back it seemed like a terrible mistake. Joy Division were getting really hot, and Andrew Lauder became interested in them.’
Along with Cabaret Voltaire, John Dowie and Durutti Column, Joy Division were one of four bands featured on A Factory Sample , the first Factory release. Inspired by the sleeve of an imported Asian copy of Santana’s Abraxas , in which he’d been absorbed while tripping one night, Wilson suggested A Factory Sample should be housed in rice paper.
Saville duly obliged and produced a minimal design which featured clean lines against a silver tone and used numbers to indicate the bands and their track listing. ‘It seemed appropriate that this first record, which was a collective of different people,should just basically echo that … so the numbering system crept in – we like numbers … numbers were Kraftwerk, industry, technologies, the reductive notion of model numbers as opposed to the kitsch of names. I mean BMW 3 series, compared to Ford … Capri!’
The Factory numbering system, although playful and innovative, would become something of an albatross around the label’s neck. Dental work, unfinished projects and drug deals would all be assigned individual Factory catalogue numbers. ‘It was the kind of coolly abstract element of numerology that was appealing’, says Saville, ‘but it became a bad habit; it became banal, I’m afraid … this notion of giving numbers to everything, and that was it really.’
Jon Savage, newly relocated to Manchester, found himself duly summoned to what would be the Factory premises for the next twelve years: Alan Erasmus’s flat on Palatine Road, in leafy Didsbury.
‘It was very much quid pro quo with Tony,’ says Savage. ‘He got me the gig at Granada, and one of my first tasks when I went up to
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