Bored in the City Flyer

Chelsea Space

Use Hearing Protection 
FAC 1 -50/40

Curated by Jon Savage and Mat Bancroft
13 September - 26 October, 2019

Tuesday - Friday 11am-5pm 

Saturdays 10am - 4pm and by appointment

Inspired by the Sex Pistols and the Situationist International, Tony Wilson started Factory with Alan Erasmus in Manchester in spring 1978. Factory began as a club night - marked by Peter Saville’s June 1978 poster - FAC 1. It became a record label with the release of A Factory Sample in late January 1979. Featuring music from Joy Division, John Dowie, Durutti Column and Cabaret Voltaire, this double EP set launched Factory as an idea: of independence, new music and high concept design. Debut singles by A Certain Ratio and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark were followed by the June 1979 release of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures - the record that created both their and Factory’s legend.

The label gained its first chart success in summer 1980, after Ian Curtis’ death, with the single Love Will Tear Us Apart and the album Closer. Other releases by A Certain Ratio and Section 25 - as well as singles by ESG, Minny Pops and Crispy Ambulance - maintained the label’s momentum, before New Order’s emergence with their first single, Ceremony, and their debut album Movement: FACT 50.

Use Hearing Protection: FAC 1 -50/40 celebrates and focuses on Factory’s formative years of 1978 - 1982 tracing a story through the first fifty numbered Factory artefacts. Supported by rare materials from personal Factory archives and items of influence, these combine to describe a period and atmosphere from which Factory was proposed and realised, underpinning its revolutionary cultural impact on the music, art, design and ideas of our times. The Factory Partners were Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus, Peter Saville, Martin Hannett and Rob Gretton.

Thank you to the following people for their support and generous loans to the exhibition:

Lesley Gilbert, Benedict Gretton, Laura Gretton, Simon Mason, Julie Matthews, The Situationist International: John McCready Archive - Liverpool John Moores University Special Collections and Archives - Research consultant: Prof. Colin Fallows, Mat Norman and Manchester Digital Music Archive, Peter Saville, The AHW Archive - Science + Industry Museum - Manchester, Linder Sterling, Isobel Wilson, Oliver Wilson.

The curators would like to thank the following people for their kind support throughout the exhibition process:

Alice Cahill, John Cooper, Alice Cowling, Alison Crook, Tracey Donnelly, Marie Eyries, Gaia Giacomelli, Jan Hicks, Morgan Hughes, Emily Huxley, Michael Iveson, James Nice, Gary Orme, Gemma Parsons, Cherie Silver, Donald Smith, Valerie Stevenson, Howard Wakefield, Stuart Wheeley.

Use Hearing Protection: FAC 1 - 50 / 40 is supported by Warner Music UK

Audio commentary on the Factory 1-50 items in the exhibition are on; www.usehearingprotection.com

LIST OF WORKS

READING ROOM:

1. Warner Music Factory Records merchandise

2. From right to left: Christopher Gray, ‘Leaving The 20th Century: The complete works of the Situationist International’ 1974; Rob Gretton’s notebook January 1978; Rob Gretton’s copy of ‘Internationale Situationniste 11 ’; letter from Tony Wilson to Rob Gretton 9 May 1978; Guy Debord and Asger Jorn, ‘Memoires’, 1959; letter from Tony Wilson to Rob Gretton 19 April 1978; ‘ten days that shook the university’, situationist international 1967; Vaeigem, ‘the totality for kids’, Internationale Situationniste 1966; ticket for Sex Pistols + Buzzcocks performance at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall, Friday 4th June 1976.

3. Le Retour de la colonne Durutti (The return of the Durutti Column), 1966, Internationale Situationniste.

RAMP

4. Poster advertising The Sex Pistols, and Slaughter & The Dogs at Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall, Tuesday 20th July, 1976. Designer unknown.

5. Poster ‘Shimmy..., Joy Division July, 1979 Designed by Jon Savage.

6. Poster with detail from Le Retour de la colonne Durutti  (item 3). Produced by Tony Wilson.

7. Poster ‘the Factory Fridays at the Russell Club 1979. Designer unknown.

8. Poster ‘A Certain Ratio/Durutti Column/Blurt’, c.1980. Designed by Jon Savage.

9. FAC 1 Poster, 1978. By Peter Saville.

MAIN SPACE

10. (table vitrine, right to left). Rob Gretton’s notebook, c. late 1978; Rob Gretton’s copy of FAC 2 sample promo copy, Dec 1978; FAC 2 January, 1979, A Factory Sample, by Various Artists; FAC 5 All Night Party by A Certain Ratio, 1979; FAC 6 Electricity by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark 1979; FAC 7 Factory stationary by Peter Saville, 1979.

11. FAC 3 Poster 1978, by Peter Saville.

12. FAC 4 Poster 1978, by Peter Saville.

13. FAC 8 Menstrual Abacus aka The Factory Egg Timer by Linder Sterling, 1979.

14. Show reel including: FAC 9 No City Fun aka The Factory Flick by Charles Salem and Liz Naylor, 1979; FACT 38 The Canal by A Certain Ratio; Tribeca by Michael H. Shamberg, 1980/1.

15. Main Wall, left to right: FACT 50 Movement by New Order, 1981; FAC 49 Little Voices by Swamp Children, 1981; FAC 48 Ophelia’s Drinking Song by Kevin Hewick, 1981; FACT 45 Always Now by Section 25, 1981; FACT 44 LC by Durutti Column; FAC 43 Art Dream Dominion by Royal Family & The Poor, 1982; FACT 42 The Double 12” by A Certain Ratio, 1982; FAC 41 Fairy Tales by Stockholm Monsters, 1982; FACT 40 Still by Joy Division, 1981; FAC 39 Watching the Hydroplanes by Tunnelvision, 1981; FACT 35 To Each by A Certain Ratio, 1981; FAC 34 You’re No Good by E.S.G, 1981; FAC 33 Ceremony by New Order (3), 1981; FAC 32 Unsightly and Serene by Crispy Ambulance, 1981; FAC 31 Dolphin’s Spurt by Minny Pops, 1981; FAC 29 Night Shift by The Names 1981; FAC 28 Komakino by Joy Division, 1980; FACT 25 Closer by Joy Division, 1980; FACT 24 A Factory Quartet by Various Artists, 1980; FAC 23 Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division (2), 1980.

15a. FAC 26 Durutti in Paris Poster by Stephen Horsfall concept by Alan Erasmus, 1980.

16. FAC 22 Flight by A Certain Ratio, 1980; FAC 19 It’s Hard To Be An Egg by John Dowie, 1981; FAC 18 Girls Don’t Count by Section 25 (2), 1980; FAC 17 Sex Machine by Crawling Chaos, 1980; FACT 14C The first aspect of the same thing by Martin Hannett (2), 1980; FAC 13 Transmission by Joy Division (2), 1979; FAC 12 Time Goes By So Slow by The Distractions, 1979; FAC 11 English Black Boys by X.O.Dus, 1979.

17. FAC 15 Zoo Meets Factory Half-Way 41 x 30.4” by Tony Wilson after Peter Saville, 1979.

18. Sandpaper from the AHW Archive at Science + Industry Museum, Manchester (top left), along with a selection of material from the same archive illustrated in the Chelsea Space publication, 1979-1980.

19. see plan above a) invoice receipt from Nigel Bagley for money received for Joy Division performance, 1979. b) Flyer for ‘Stuff the Superstars Funhouse at the Mayfair Club’, 1979. c) FACT 16 The Graveyard and The Ballroom by A Certain Ratio, 1980. d) Newspaper cutting advertising Joy Division, Killing Joke, A Certain Ratio and Section 25 at the Lyceum, London, 1980. e) Newspaper cutting advertising Joy Division, Killing Joke, A Certain Ratio and Section 25 at High Wycombe Town Hall, 1980. f) Advert for Final Solution, 1980. g) Zoom Magazine, Issue 65 September / October 1979. h) Jim, ‘La Baronne Steel’, relating to unrealised FAC 27 Crawling Chaos Revenge Sleeve by Peter Saville and Rob Gretton, c.1980. i) FAC 36 The US Closer campaign after Peter Saville, 1980. j) FAC 21 Fractured Music logo by Martyn Atkins, 1981. k) FACT 30 The Heyday by The Sex Pistols, 1980.1) FACT 37 Here Are The Young Men by Joy Division, 1982. m) FAC 47 Factory Anvil logo by Peter Saville, 1981. n) proof for FACT 37, 1982 o) New Order badge, 1981 p) FAC 46 The Video Circus US ticket by Various Artists, q) Factory Records Game Plan sticker, c. 1981.

20. Items related to Unknown Pleasures all from 1979 including: FACT 10+4 Posters by Peter Saville; page from Astrology Book, ‘Dense states of cosmic matter’ pill; Rob Gretton’s notes of tracks; album sleeve; inner sleeve notes; promotional sticker; Rob Gretton’s notebook; Final Solution advert.

EXTERNAL WALL

21. FACT 10 Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division, 1979