The debut album by Freebass, It's A Beautiful Life, is available to pre-order online at Play, HMV and Amazon.

Labels: Freebass

Congratulations to Section 25 on their newly-retrofitted official website at section25.com. The new site is an enhanced merger of the original site and its newer sister section25.co.uk.

SXXV's Vin Cassidy said "We have completely overhauled it with a new forum for user interaction, opportunity for people to vote on different stuff if they want and new pictures and generally we hope it's easier and better to use."

Labels: Section_25

Lindsay Reade's new book about her life with Tony Wilson, Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl: The Story of Tony and Lindsay Wilson, is published by Plexus on 1 September 2010 and is available to pre-order now on Amazon.co.uk.

Discuss this book on the Message Board.

Labels: Lindsay_Reade, Tony_Wilson

The Distractions, best known for FAC 12 Time Goes By So Slow, are back with their Black Velvet EP available for digital download with a limited number of CD promos available for purchase.

Check out the Occultation Recordings website for details of how to order, and keep an eye on The Distractions official site for news of the forthcoming 12" EP due in Oct/Nov and CD album due in 2011 (and featuring both sides of FAC 12).

With thanks to Dan on the Cerysmatic Factory Message Board for info.

Labels: The_Distractions

Check out the new column by John Hood at Black Book Magazine by John Hood (ex-The Hood) launches this week where he promises "what’s what right now, up close and of the moment" in the world of Miami.

Labels: The_Hood

The Belgian composer, pianist and classical guitarist (and former Factory Records artist) Wim Mertens will make his long-awaited live UK debut at Kings Place in London on Thursday 4 November 2010 as part of the London International Festival of Exploratory Music.

Tickets are available from the venue priced GBP 9.50 and upwards.

Thursday 4 November 2010
Hall One
Kings Place
19:30

Labels: Wim_Mertens

Peter Hook and The Light's performance of Unknown Pleasures at Vintage at Goodwood with a full orchestra and choir is now available to buy as a limited edition CD (3000 copies only) and as a digital download.

Labels: Peter_Hook, The_Light, Unknown_Pleasures, Vintage

The debut Freebass album, It's A Beautiful Life will be released in the UK on Monday 20 September 2010 on Hacienda Records / Essential Music. The CD version (which follows the download from earlier this year) will come with three extra unreleased tracks and a bonus disc of instrumental versions of the whole album.

Tracklisting

CD One

1. It's Not Too Late
2. The Only Ones Alone
3. Lady Violence
4. World Won't Wait
5. Kill Switch pt 141
6. Stalingrad
7. Secrets and Lies
8. She said
9. The God Machine
10. Plan B
- plus additional unreleased tracks -
11. Bury Me Standing
12. Sister Surrender
13. Believer

CD Two

Instrumental versions of all tracks listed above

Labels: Freebass

LTM has details of Section 25's 7th studio album Retrofit which is set for release on 13 September 2010. The 11-track set of remixes from throughout their career, clad in a cover by Beth Cassidy, includes a remix of Looking From A Hilltop by New Order's Stephen Morris and the brand new track Uberhymn.

Tracklisting

The Process
Looking From a Hilltop
Beating Heart
Desert
Uberhymn
Garageland
Dirty Disco
Girls Don't Count
New Horizon
Wretch
Another Hilltop (Stephen Morris mix)

Labels: LTM, Section_25

Foruli has announced details of the EP that Hooky has recorded for inclusion with the forthcoming limited edition version of his book The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club.

The Hacienda EP was recorded by Peter Hook and Phil Murphy in 2010 and will be released on 4 October 2010 as part of the boxed set which will include a signed & numbered book, 10" vinyl record in custom die cut sleeve and a signed art print. It's a limited edition of only 400 Standard copies and 100 Deluxe copies.

Tracklisting

1. Elegiac
2. Later Than You Think
3. The Joyful One
4. The Vikings

Labels: books, FAC51_The_Hacienda, Peter_Hook

Today's Joy Division Plan K screening was abandoned after 30 minutes due to a power cable being cut by workers digging up the road outside the Heritage Centre in Macclesfield. With all power gone to the Cinemac cinema (which had played host yesterday to the triple bill of Factory Records-related films) the organisers had no choice except to cancel with full refunds being promised to the forty-odd people who had attended. The abandonment was taken in good spirit by most of those there, including Jon Savage who introduced the film, with the whole unlikely sequence of events being considered to be "very Factory".

It was a shame because the rarely-seen Plan K footage was highly gripping in all its fuzzy, raw, primitive glory. With both nights at the Manchester Apollo also on the programme it was just getting going when after about 35 minutes everything drew suddenly to a stop.

We decamped to the cafe downstairs and then to the Joy Division exhibition upstairs. Mark Reeder's stark black and white portrait of Ian Curtis was blown up to gigantic proportions on the far wall, various posters adorned the walls and display cases contained all manner of artefacts including contracts, setlists, invoices, press cuttings, photos, records, tapes, books, artwork and miscellaneous personal items (the best of which was a postcard from Steve Morris to Gillian sent whilst on a European tour which said how bad it was but how he thought it would only get worse!).

The one item which has probably generated the most interest is a handwritten letter from Ian Curtis to Rob Gretton about the release of Closer which reads:

"Judged purely on my own terms, and not to be interpreted as an opinion or reflection of mass media or public taste but a criticism of my own esoteric and elitist mind of which the mysteries of life are very few and beside which the grace of God has deemed to indicate in a vision the true nature of all things, plus the fact that everyone else are a sneaky, japing load of tossers, decree that this LP is a disaster. IK Curtis."

Every item tells a story and a lot of detail is crammed into a relatively small exhibition space and it's all well worth the two pounds entry fee. The exhibition continues at the Heritage Centre in Macclesfield until Sunday 8 August 2010.

Labels: artefacts, exhibition, Jon_Savage, Joy_Division, poster, review

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