Altsounds - Factory Records Box Set on January 12th 2009

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Factory, Manchester’s most well known record label, Rhino records UK is pleased to announce the release of “A Factory Box Set”. Founded in 1978 when former Granada TV presenter Tony Wilson teamed up with Alan Erasmus, an unemployed actor and band manager, soon to be joined by maverick producer Martin Hannett, The Factory name was first used for a club featuring local bands including The Durutti Column, Cabaret Voltaire and Joy Division. The founder members of the label decided to release an EP of music by the acts who had performed there; “A Factory Sample” - and Factory Records was born.

The first album on the label was Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures', followed by the stand alone and hit single 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. Lead singer Ian Curtis tragically committed suicide, but the rest of the band renamed themselves New Order. In May 1982 Factory and New Order converted a former yacht showroom into The Hacienda nightclub and, to complete the achievement, had Bernard Manning perform the official opening,

Factory was however much more than just its’ headline acts. “A Factory Box Set” celebrates the label from the first release “A Factory Sample” through an extremely diverse roster of acts from the cutting edge post punk of A Certain Ratio, Cabaret Voltaire, The Railway Children, OMD, James and Joy Division to obscurities such as Section 25, Biting Tongues, Crispy Ambulance, Miaow and Swamp Children via early dance culture – ESG(who are sadly not featured due to licensing problems) and 52nd Street, to the full flowering of the ‘Madchester scene’, ending fittingly with the last Factory release, “Sunshine and Love” by Happy Mondays.

Nothing if not idiosyncratic, Factory was also known for the way it catalogued its assets - all the records had catalogue numbers being with FAC, but everything else connected to the label came under the same system. So the poster advertising the nightclub was FAC1, the Hacienda's cat was FAC191, the office sellotape was FAC136 and a bet between two of the partners was even given the number FAC253.

Tracklisting Disc One:
1. Joy Division / Digital
2. Cabaret Voltaire / Baader Meinhof
3. A Certain Ratio / All Night Party
4. OMD / Electricity (Original version)
5. Joy Division / She’s Lost Control
6. The Distractions / Time Goes By So Slow
7. Joy Division / Transmission
8. The Durutti Column / Sketch For Summer
9. X-O-Dus / English Black Boys
10. Joy Division / Love Will Tear Us Apart
11. A Certain Ratio / Shack Up
12. Section 25 / Girls Don’t Count
13. Crawling Chaos / Sex Machine
14. A Certain Ratio / Flight
15. The Names / Night Shift
16. New Order / Ceremony (Original version)
17. Minny Pops / Dolphin’s Spurt
18. John Dowie / It’s Hard To Be An Egg
19. Crispy Ambulance / Deaf
20. Section 25 / Dirty Disco

Disc Two:
1. New Order / Everything’s Gone Green
2. Tunnel Vision / Watching The Hydroplanes
3. The Durutti Column / Messidor
4. A Certain Ratio / Knife Slits Water (LP
version)
5. Royal Family and the Poor / Art on 45
6. Swamp Children / Taste What’s Rhythm
7. New Order / Temptation
8. 52nd Street / Cool As Ice
9. New Order / Blue Monday
10. Cabaret Voltaire / Yashar (John Robie Remix)
11. Quando Quango / Love Tempo
12. The Wake / Talk About The Past

Disc Three:
1. New Order / Confusion
2. Marcel King/ Reach For Love
3. Section 25 / Looking from A Hilltop (Restructure)
4. Stockholm Monsters / All At Once
5. Life / Tell Me
6. Durutti Column / A Little Mercy (Duet)
7. James / Hymn From A Village
8. Kalima / Trickery
9. A Certain Ratio / Sounds Like Something Dirty
10. Quando Quango / Genius
11. Happy Mondays / Freaky Dancin’
12. Miaow / When It All Comes Down
13. The Railway Children / Brighter
14. Biting Tongues / Compressor
15. New Order / True Faith
16. Happy Mondays / 24 Hour PartyPeople

Disc Four:
1. New Order / Fine Time 9. Happy Mondays / Kinky Afro
2. Happy Mondays / W.F.L. (Think About the Future) 10. The Durutti Column / Home
3. Revenge / Seven Reasons 11. Electronic / Get The Message (DNA remix)
4. Happy Mondays / Hallelujah (Club Mix) 12. Northside / Take 5
5. Electronic / Getting Away With It 1 13. Cath Carroll / Moves Like You (Remix)
6. Happy Mondays / Step On 14. The Other Two / Tasty Fish (12” mix)7. Northside / Shall We Take A Trip 15. Happy Mondays / Sunshine and Love 8. England New Order / World In