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Concerts
A
Certain Ratio
 Manchester,
1978. In the beginning there were four: Jeremy Kerr
(bass), Martin Moscrop (guitar/trumpet), Peter Terrel
(guitar/effects) and Simon Topping (vocals/trumpet).
Four thin boys with a name borrowed from a Brian Eno
record, the intense, drummerless quartet initially
drew influence from Wire, Eno, the Velvets and Kraftwerk,
and gained a manager in Anthony Wilson. May 1979 saw
the release of their first single, the dark "All
Night Party", although the sound and musicianship
of the band would be transformed by the arrival of
funky drummer Donald Johnson (DoJo). Over the next
few months the band gigged widely, often with Joy
Division as part of Factory packages, and recorded
with Martin Hannett. Post-punk, ACR now reflected
the influence of Funkadelic, George Clinton, Bootsy
Collins, The Bar Kays and James Brown. The next proper
ACR record was the epochal "Shack Up", released
by Factory Benelux in July 1980. The debut album To
Each… was recorded in East Orange,
New Jersey. ACR's third single was the astonishing
"Flight", released in October 1980. Hypnotic,
transcendental funk produced by Martin Hannett, and
all three tracks marking ACR as the artistic equals
of Joy Division. Released in January 1982, the next
album Sextet attracted rave
reviews. The original ACR quintet made just one more
album, I'd Like to See You Again,
cut in February and March 1982. By now Martha Tilson
had departed, and Kerr and Moscrop were already working
on their latin and jazz chops as members of companion
band Swamp Children, soon to be re-branded
as Kalima. The new music offered
dry, disciplined latin disco, inspired in part by
Cameo. With Tilson gone, and Topping content to play
trumpet, percussion, and keyboards, the band also
now lacked a willing singer. The new look ACR - Connell,
Johnson Kerr and Moscrop - now elected to try for
mainstream commercial success. In July 1983 the single
"I Need Someone Tonite" revealed this new
approach. After a brace of singles at the end of 1984
("Life's A Scream" and "Brazilia"),
and now with sax player Tony Quigley on board, a revitalized
ACR returned to form in June 1985 with a back-tobasics
double-header, "Wild Party" and "Sounds
Like Something Dirty". A US tour was captured
and later released as Live In America,
further proof that they were becoming a tighter, funkier
and better live act. The next year saw a Factory singles
comp The Old And the New
and a new studio release, Force.
It was their last record for Factory and the beginning
of a major label period. Good Together,
their first album for A&M, was arguably too polished,
and bettered by raw remix album ACR:MCR.
Here they embraced another movement, working with
the likes of Shaun Ryder, Norman Cook and Bernard
Sumner on hazy acid tracks as Manchester enjoyed another
period as the music capital of the world.
A switch back to a smaller label, Rob's Records, saw
the album Up In Downsville
released in 1992. The 12" mixes became sought-after
club classics, and Creation Records released a remix
album, Looking For A Certain Ratio,
featuring reworks from 808 State, Sub Sub and The
Other Two. In 1996 Rob’s released a new full-length,
Change The Station.
Without splitting up, they lay low for a few years
until the musical landscape finally caught up with
them. As the post-punk explosion in the early 21st
century grew, the band found themselves appearing
on compilations and recommendation lists and returned
to gigging. They found themselves playing to a new
audience as Soul Jazz and LTM took the opportunity
to reissue their classic albums. In 2008, ACR returned
with a new album released by Le Son du Maquis: Mind
Made Up.
Links:
A
Certain Ratio - Myspace
Section 25
 Founded
in Blackpool, Lancashire, UK in 1977 by brothers Larry
(bass guitar, vocals) and Vincent Cassidy (drums,
electronica), Section 25 gave their
first concert in June 1978. Their first single, "Girls
Don't Count", produced by Ian Curtis and Rob
Gretton, was released in July 1980, followed by "Charnel
Ground" (Factory Benelux) and, in August 1981,
the album Always Now, produced
by Martin Hannett. The band toured Great Britain and
Europe together with other Factory bands like Joy
Division, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Crispy
Ambulance and New Order. Their second album,
The Key of Dreams, was released
in 1982, containing improvised, hypnotic or even psychedelic
tracks. The album was well received and in 1982 the
group undertook their first American tour.
While the post-punk movement drew to an end, Section
25, like New Order, began to explore new directions
and recruited Jenny Ross on keyboards and vocals.
This new orientation gave birth to the album
From the Hip, produced by Bernard
Summer of New Order. The single "Looking from
a Hilltop" became a club hit worldwide, and in
the USA had an important influence on the acid techno
scene, as did their second US tour in 1985.
In 1986, the band fell apart, leaving only Larry Cassidy
and Jenny Ross, who recorded the album Love
& Hate. Due to a series of problems,
the album was released only discreetly in 1988, and
marked a pause in the band's career.
Core members Larry, Vin and Jenny regrouped in 2001,
joined by guitarist Ian Butterworth (formerly with
Tunnelvision) and Roger Wikeley. Although work on
the new album was set back by the untimely death of
Jenny Cassidy from cancer in November 2004, the group
began gigging again in May 2006 and have since visited
France, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Dublin, London and
Poulton-le-Fylde. A new studio album, Part-Primitiv,
was released in 2007, together with a live DVD, Communicants,
filmed at various shows, including their large homecoming
gig with New Order at Blackpool Winter Gardens on
16 October 2006.
On 20 June 2008 the group performed a 30th anniversary
show in their Blackpool hometown, supported by Tunnelvision,
and gifted an exclusive CD to the first fifty punters
in attendance. This event was followed in November
by a short European tour with Peter Hook of Joy Division/New
Order, performing in Paris, Brussels, Oss and Krefeld.
As well as playing a set of Section 25 songs (with
new bassist Steve Stringer), the group were joined
by Hook for a set of early Joy Division/New Order
songs. Section 25 finished 2008 with a Christmas show
in Blackpool on 19 December, with guest DJ Peter Hook,
and three tracks of the deluxe Factory: Communications
1978-92 box set released through Rhino/Warner.
In June 2009 Section 25 released their sixth studio
album, Nature + Degree,
featuring new bassist Stuart Hill and with guest vocals
on four tracks by Bethany Cassidy, daughter of Larry
and Jenny. Self-produced, this excellent set again
combined electro, postpunk and post-rock styles, and
was launched with an appearance at the WGT festival
in Leipzig. Future plans for 2009 includes dates in
Italy and the US West Coast.
Links:
Section
25 (I) - Section
25 (II) - Myspace
(I) - Myspace
(II)
Biting
Tongues
 Emerging
out of the grey dawn of post-punk Manchester, Biting
Tongues represented an uncompromising attempt
to blend electronics, text and dance beats to harsh
and overwhelming effect. Renowned for their unique
high-energy performances and experimental video projects,
the band’s original line-up featured writer
Ken Hollings on vocals, multi-instrumentalist Graham
Massey, filmmaker and saxophonist Howard Walmsley
working together over the fiendish rhythm engine made
up of Colin Seddon on bass and Eddie Sherwood on drums.
The band first performed together at one of Tony Wilson's
Factory nights at the Russell Club in Hulme, providing
a live soundtrack for a 16 mm silent epic called Biting
Tongues. The film itself, a flashing series of
negative images, became a memory; the name –
and the band – remained. One of Manchester's
most adventurous groups, Biting Tongues combined aggressive
funk rhythms with musique concrete, incorporating
film and slide projections into their performances.
They would never play the same set twice, constantly
adding new material and unafraid of experimenting
with new ideas in front of a live audience. For an
eighties band they clearly had a lot of nineties musical
language going on: Northern industrial psychedelia
at its hardcore best. In close collaboration with
premier Manchester labels New Hormones and Factory
Records, Biting Tongues went on to record five albums,
including Don't Heal (1981),
Live It (1981), Libreville
(1982), Feverhouse (1985)
and Recharge (1989), as
well as producing Feverhouse,
their ambitious independent film project released
on video by Factory Ikon in 1985.
In 2003 the original Biting Tongues reformed to perform
selected shows at the ICA and Islington Mills, with
Hollings, Massey and Walmsley also working together
on new audiovisual presentations such as "Dr
X" at the Royal Institution in London as well
"Ego In Exotica" and the "Lonely Creatures"
series of short films at the Green Room Theatre in
Manchester. With their back catalogue available on
CD, the band is currently enjoying some long overdue
credit for their innovative pre-digital slicing and
dicing of sound, text and vision. "Effortless
ferocity", The Wire remarked of Biting Tongues'
return to live performance, "as exhilarating
and as urgent as ever."
Links:
Biting
Tongues - Myspace
The
Wake
 The
Wake formed in Glasgow (Scotland) in April 1981, after
singer/guitarist Caesar joined forces with drummer
Steven Allen and a keyboards player Carolyn Allen.
The new group financed a single on their own Scan
45 label, "On Our Honeymoon", a copy of
which New Order manager Rob Gretton admired, and invited
The Wake to record for Factory. The group went into
Strawberry Studio to record a seven-track mini album.
Harmony, released on Factory
in December 1982, which in some respects represents
the missing link between the sound of Postcard and
early Factory. 1983 saw the release of a new single
for Factory Benelux, their last recording with bassist
Bobby Gillespie (who went on to Primal Scream), followed
by sprightly single "Talk About the Past"
in 1984, featuring Vini Reilly (of Durutti Column)
on piano.
The second album, Here Comes Everybody
appeared in November 1985, featuring excellent songs
such as "Torn Calender", "All I Asked
You to Do" and "O Pamela" (covered
by Nouvelle Vague in 2006), as well as a smooth studio
production by Oz. It's undoubtedly a pop album, but
a sombre one. Two further non-album singles would
appear through Factory: "Of the Matter"
(7" only, 1985) and a swansong 12" ep, "Something
That No-One Else Could Bring" (1987). In 1989
The Wake transferred to Sarah records with a well-regarded
single, "Crush the Flowers". 1991 saw a
new album, Make it Loud,
followed by another single, "Major John".
After another period of relative silence, in 1994
Caesar and Carolyn returned with a fourth studio album,
Tidal Wave of Hype. After
Sarah shut up shop in 1995 The Wake found no suitable
outlet for new material, and elected to call it a
day. However, after two album collaborations with
Bobby Wratten (The Field Mice,
Trembling Blue Stars) as
The Occasional Keepers, a new Wake
album will be released on LTM in December 2009.
Links:
The
Wake @ LTM - Myspace
The
Names (with strings)
 Brussels,
1977: Marc Deprez, Michel Sordinia and Christophe
Den Tandt form The Passengers. After
a few concerts opening for Simple Minds and Magazine
in 1979, the band lands a record deal at WEA and releases
the single "Spectators of Life", just after
changing their name to The Names.
On January 17, 1980, contact is made with Factory
Records during a Joy Division concert at the Plan
K. A few months later, the band is joined by Luc Capelle
and records the single "Nightshift" with
producer Martin Hannett. Released in November, the
first pressing is rapidly sold out. In May 1981, the
second single, "Calcutta", is recorded,
and released on Factory Benelux. It is followed by
the album Swimming, again
recorded with Martin Hannett and released through
Les Disques du Crepuscule. After recording a final
single, "The Astronaut", The Names disband.
The four original members, joined by Eric De Bruyne,
reunite in 1994 under the name Jazz
and they record the album Nightvision,
released in 1997. The Names then returned on 15 December
2007, performing at the A Factory Night (Once Again)
event at Plan K ahead of recording a new studio album,
Monsters Next Door, released
in 2009 via French label Str8line Records.
At A Factory Night (and then again), The Names will
play a short special set accompanied by a string quartet.
Links:
The
Names - Myspace
|
DJ
Sets & Afterparty
In between concerts,
short DJ-sets will revisit the sound of Factory and
its influence on past and present music. An afterparty
will follow after the last concert with dj sets and
a concert of Re:Order, a great tribute
to New Order.
Graham
Massey (808 State)
Graham Massey of Biting
Tongues and founding member of legendary
UK electronica pioneer 808 State
will perform a special DJ set, pearl diving the depths
of his extensive record collection and up to the sunlight
with brand new remixes and personal hard drive filth.
Links: Graham
Massey - The
Sisters Transistors -Tooshed
- Biting
Tongues - 808
State
Tom
Moderne (LTM/Crépuscule)
Tom
Moderne plays a selection of electro, cold wave, post-punk
and European sides (always tuneful), and is a director
of LTM Recordings.
Links:
LTM
Recordings - Myspace
- Les
Disques du Crépuscule
Re:Order
 A
tribute to New Order ? Yes. Why not ? Putting aside
the longevity of the iconic hit singles, New Order
cut an inspirational swathe through the 1980's and
influenced countless musicians and fans, including
Re:Order, who first picked up their instruments to
play along to the deceptively sophisticated melodies
and rhythms of Joy Division... Then put them down
again. As New Order and Factory Records moved through
the 80's, the formative elements of Re:Order followed
behind - trying to get their head around a new, layered
world of music, technology and oblique home-made cassette
design. Now, just like salmon returning to spawn,
it feels only natural to be re:playing the songs that
inspired them in the first place.
Re:Order have been playing live since 2004 and their
setlists include material from: all the studio albums,
the hit singles and the not-hit singles. Over the
last 5 years they've played verbatim gigs, entire
albums in order, peel sessions, songs that were never
played live before and even ill-advised re:mixes...
because they love it.
They say "you are what you eat"... Well,
Re:Order must have eaten something that sounds and
smells just like a New Order tribute band.
Links:
Re:Order
- Myspace
Other DJ's will also
participate to the afterparty:
Gore (Cruise
CTRL, Fantastique.Nights)
- Muffin (Club Terror, :Codes)
- X-Pulsiv (Pilgrimage,
Fantastique.Nights).
|
Exhibitions
& signing sessions
Kevin Cummins
 Kevin
Cummins is the man behind many iconic rock photographs.
For twenty years he worked as a photographer for the
NME and you could find his pictures on album covers
and bedroom walls; today his work is exhibited in
the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and
Albert Museum. September has seen the release of Manchester.
Looking for the Light through the Pouring Rain,
his ode to his hometown of Manchester and its musicians,
who dominated British pop culture for a long period
of time: Joy Division, The Fall, Buzzcocks, New Order,
The Smiths, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Oasis...
The book features writings of Paul Morley among others
and interviews with Johnny Marr, Peter Hook and Mark
E. Smith, but at the focal point are without a doubt
the beautiful pictures by Cummins, still vibrant with
the anarchic energy the portrayed artists had back
in the days.
Links: Kevin
Cummins
Philippe Carly
Philippe Carly is a firmly established
Belgian photographer. In the late seventies and early
eighties, he photographed all major artists of the
alternative scene. His photographs were abundantly
used in numerous publications and his website New
Wave Photos is very famous. Phililippe Carly
will sign his new book of photos taken at the Plan
K during the late 70's - early 80's. A few photographs
will also be on display.
Links: Philippe
Carly - New
Wave Photos
Daniel Oeyen
February 12, 1986, Paradox Antwerp.
Being a young Art School student at St. Lukas Brussels
at the time, I needed images for a school work. Bringing
along my Pentax Spotmatic Camera of the 1960's and
my one and only lens (a 50 mm.) I went to the A Certain
Ratio concert. My only motivation to make pictures
there, was to get a few good shots of a musician for
that school work poster. Concentrating on getting
the framing and the timing right it was not really
the idea to shoot every member of the band. Most pictures
were taken from the front row. In fact, at the time
I hardly knew the music of ACR, and probably even
less that they were on Factory Records. And how little
could I know that the pictures I was making than would
later surpass their original intention as much as
they are doing now. It were also my very first concert
pictures ever, taken long ago, 5 days after my 19th
birthday. But seeing them again after 23 years, in
the best way and the biggest size they were ever printed,
they instantly bring me back to the atmosphere and
the music of that gig. And it feels wonderful!
|
Factory
Records, founded in 1978 Manchester by Tony Wilson,
Peter Saville and Alan Erasmus, was one of the most
important independent record labels.
The links between Factory and Brussels have always
been close: Factory Benelux and Les
Disques du Crépuscule, Brussels band
The Names and the legendary Plan
K all are connections between the label and
the post-industrial city.
