Anthêsis, Charleroi Danses,
and LTM Recordings present
A
Factory Night
(once again)
Plan K -
Brussels - 15|12|2007
The organisation
wants to thank warmly all people who made this
event a success: visitors, artists, technicians,
the Raffinerie & Charleroi Danses, all benevolents
and all people who helped or supported us. As
announced, all profits will be donated to cancer
research. Click here
to see the best moments of this night.
From
1978 to 1992, Factory Records, founded in Manchester
by Tony Wilson, was one of the most important independent
record labels. Not only did Factory Records launch bands
as famous as Joy Division, New
Order or The Happy Mondays
and created the legendary Mancunian nightlife Mecca's
The Hacienda and Dry, but the label
also introduced avant-garde graphic art designed for
this extraordinary music scene, with artists or agencies
like Peter Saville, Central Station
design and 8vo.
The links between Factory and Brussels have always been
close: Factory Benelux and Les
Disques du Crépuscule, founded by Michel
Duval and Annik Honoré, were based in Brussels;
Brussels band The Names signed with
Factory Records; most Factory Records bands performed
in Brussels, at the legendary Plan K.
Although officially defunct for over 15 years, Factoy
Records is still very present. Its influence on present-day
cultural landscape is huge, to name only a few, Joy
Division and Section 25 for the rock
scene, Durutti Column for the post-rock
scene and New Order and Happy Mondays for the dance
scene. On the cinematographic level, Michael Winterbottom
directed 24 Hour Party People
(2002), a fictionalized history of Factory Records,
and Anton Corbijn has now made Control,
a biopic about Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. Finally,
an anthology with the complete visual creations of Factory
Records has been published by Thames & Hudson.
Among
all the bands discovered by Factory Records, those that
started the post-punk movement, precursor of cold wave,
new wave and gothic, are the most important ones. It
is to this aspect of Factory Records that A Factory
Night (once again) is dedicated, a reference to the
Factory Nights that were organised in Brussels in 1979-1982.
A Factory Night (once again) will offer concerts, DJ
sets, exhibitions and screenings of documents of the
era. The concerts will be followed by an afterparty
that will take you through the sounds of Factory, from
yesterday to today. This event will take place at the
Plan K, now better known as La Raffinerie. Tony Wilson passed away on Friday August 10 2007.
He was a visionary and a genius. The organisers offer
their condolences to his family and friends. This event
is now dedicated to his memory. All profits will be
donated to cancer research.
Founded
in Blackpool, Lancashire, UK in 1977 by the brothers
Larry (bass guitar, vocals) and Vincent Cassidy (drums,
electronica), Section 25 gave its 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, as well as Talking Heads. Their second
album, The Key of Dreams,
was released in 1982, containing improvised, hypnotic
or even psychedelic tracks. The album is well received
by the press and sends the band on tour in America with
Lee Shallcross, a new percussionist.
While the post-punk movement draws to an end, Section
25, like New Order, begin to explore and recruit Jenny
Ross on keyboards and vocals. This new orientation gives
birth to the album From the Hip,
produced by Bernard Summer of New Order. The single
"Looking from a Hilltop" becomes a club hit
worldwide, and in the USA has an important influence
on the techno scene.
In 1986, the band fell apart, leaving only Larry Cassidy
and Jenny Ross, who record the album Love
& Hate. Due to a series of problems,
the album is only released discreetly in March 1988,
and marks a pause in the band's career.
In 2001, Larry and Vin reunited and were joined by Ian
Butterworth (Tunnelvision) on guitar
and Roger Wikeley on bass. The band started performing
again in 2006 and released a fifth album in 2007: Part
Primiv, rock and brilliant.
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 the band
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. 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 is currently working on
a new album.
Crispy
Ambulance are one of the most underestimated
bands on Factory Records. Formed in Manchester in 1977
by Alan Hempsall and Robert Davenport, the duo were
soon joined by Keith Darbyshire and Gary Madeley.
Between 1980 and 1982 the band released four singles
and an album (The Plateau Phase), mostly
on Factory and Factory Benelux. The group split in late
1982, but released a posthumous live album (Fin)
and also a radio sessions set, Frozen Blood.
Crispy Ambulance reunites in 1999 for a concert in Manchester,
subsequently released on CD (Accessory After
The Fact). Two new studio albums follow:
Scissorgun (2002) and The
Powder Blind Dream (2004).
Kevin
Hewick is a singer-songwriter from Leicester
who worked with Factory in the early years. Kevin also
made the first studio recordings with the surviving
members of Joy Division in June 1980 (of which "Haystack”
appeared on the famous compilation From
Brussels With Love) and took part in several
Factory Night concerts. His recording for Factory include
one side of the double album A Factory Quartet
in 1981, and the single "Ophelia's Drinking Song".
He then left Factory for Cherry Red Records where he
released the album Such Hunger For Love
in 1982, as well as an EP with Adrian Borland of The
Sound (Reality/Unreal) in 1983. At the same time, he
participated to the poetico-musical collective Ghosts
of Individuals with Patrik Fitzgerald, Anne
Clark and John Hollingsworth. He then put his career
on hold in 1984, coming back to the scene in 1989 with
numerous concerts and collaborations. In July 2007,
he released a limited vinyl ("Something To Do On
The Bus") and a 4-track EP (That Side
of You).
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.
Peter
Hook (New Order / Joy Division)
When
Peter Hook and his fellow New
Order cohorts released "Blue Monday"
in 1983, disco was very much a dirty word. This brave
step into uncharted musical territory was to prove a
source of huge inspiration to dance music producers
throughout the late 80’s and 90’s, and New
Order are regarded as musical pioneers by many of today’s
leading lights.
As bass player of New Order, Peter Hook was heavily
involved in the development of this brave new sound.
And, with over two decades of quality music tucked into
his record box, Peter Hook is taking his place behind
the decks for a DJ set not to be missed.
His style is essentially a mash up of tracks which defined
a musical generation, where the genres of indie and
dance were fused together and where boundaries were
broken. Featuring tunes present to the Hacienda / Manchester
revolution, some New Order classics / exclusive remixes,
and, as you may expect from a man of Pete’s musical
calibre, plenty of upfront material to boot.
When one of the pioneers of dance music offers their
own personal insight into the music which defined and
styled a generation, you quite simply have to sit up
and take notice.
Martin
Moscrop is the guitarist-trumpet player of A
Certain Ratio, formed in Manchester with Jeremy
Kerr (bass), Peter Terrel (guitar) and Simon Topping
(vocals). The band manager was Tony Wilson himself.
Influenced by Wire, Eno, The Velvet Underground and
Kraftwerk, A Certain Ratio soon added funk and dance
to their music.
For many years, Martin Moscrop has proven himself as
a DJ all over the world.
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. Photographs by Philippe Carly, mainly
of Factory Records bands taken at the Plan K, will be
on display.
Katja Ruge was born in Germany in 1970,
and trained as a photographer in Manchester. She has
since shot 23 scenes and personalities connected with
Ian Curtis and Joy Division, which will be exhibited
at Plan K. In addition, Katja Ruge will also be signing
"Fotoreportage23 - in search of Ian Curtis",
her book to be published in November by Monitorpop/Berlin.
Red Zebra is a famous Belgian punk-band
founded in Bruges in 1978. One of their main influence
was... Joy Division. Today, they still cover 'Transmission'
in concert. Following the release of Anton Corbijn's
'Control', Red Zebra's members have collected Joy Division
& New Order objects and have exhibited them in Bruges
library. This collection will be moved to Plan K for
the Factory Night.
All night long, rare and unreleased documents (concert
excerpts, videos, interviews…) will be screened
by a VJ including the 2006 Factory/Factory Benelux/Manchester
documentary Shadowplayers.
From
1978 to 1992, Factory Records, founded in Manchester
by Tony Wilson, was one of the most important independent
record labels. Not only did Factory Records launch bands
as famous as Joy Division, New
Order or The Happy Mondays
and created the legendary Mancunian nightlife Mecca's
The Hacienda and Dry, but the label
also introduced avant-garde graphic art designed for
this extraordinary music scene, with artists or agencies
like Peter Saville, Central Station
design and 8vo.
Although officially defunct for over 15 years, Factoy
Records is still very present. Its influence on present-day
cultural landscape is huge, to name only a few, Joy
Division and Section 25 for the rock
scene, Durutti Column for the post-rock
scene and New Order and Happy Mondays for the dance
scene. On the cinematographic level, Michael Winterbottom
directed 24 Hour Party People
(2002), a fictionalized history of Factory Records,
and Anton Corbijn has now made Control,
a biopic about Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. Finally,
an anthology with the complete visual creations of Factory
Records has been published by Thames & Hudson.
Among
all the bands discovered by Factory Records, those that
started the post-punk movement, precursor of cold wave,
new wave and gothic, are the most important ones. It
is to this aspect of Factory Records that A Factory
Night (once again) is dedicated, a reference to the
Factory Nights that were organised in Brussels in 1979-1982.
Founded
in Blackpool, Lancashire, UK in 1977 by the brothers
Larry (bass guitar, vocals) and Vincent Cassidy (drums,
electronica), Section 25 gave its 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, as well as Talking Heads. Their second
album, The Key of Dreams,
was released in 1982, containing improvised, hypnotic
or even psychedelic tracks. The album is well received
by the press and sends the band on tour in America with
Lee Shallcross, a new percussionist.
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 the band
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. After recording
a final single, "The Astronaut", The Names
disband. 
Crispy
Ambulance are one of the most underestimated
bands on Factory Records. Formed in Manchester in 1977
by Alan Hempsall and Robert Davenport, the duo were
soon joined by Keith Darbyshire and Gary Madeley. 
Kevin
Hewick is a singer-songwriter from Leicester
who worked with Factory in the early years. Kevin also
made the first studio recordings with the surviving
members of Joy Division in June 1980 (of which "Haystack”
appeared on the famous compilation From
Brussels With Love) and took part in several
Factory Night concerts. His recording for Factory include
one side of the double album A Factory Quartet
in 1981, and the single "Ophelia's Drinking Song".
When
Peter Hook and his fellow New
Order cohorts released "Blue Monday"
in 1983, disco was very much a dirty word. This brave
step into uncharted musical territory was to prove a
source of huge inspiration to dance music producers
throughout the late 80’s and 90’s, and New
Order are regarded as musical pioneers by many of today’s
leading lights.
Martin
Moscrop is the guitarist-trumpet player of A
Certain Ratio, formed in Manchester with Jeremy
Kerr (bass), Peter Terrel (guitar) and Simon Topping
(vocals). The band manager was Tony Wilson himself.
Influenced by Wire, Eno, The Velvet Underground and
Kraftwerk, A Certain Ratio soon added funk and dance
to their music. 
