The Goo 1
Books PAUL MCDERMOTT I Thought I Heard You Speak:
WOMEN AT FACTORY RECORDS BY AUDREY GOLDEN - WHITE RABBIT Books about Factory Records have usually focused on the five male figures at the centre of the record label: directors Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus and Rob Gretton along with producer Martin Hannett and designer Peter Saville. Indeed, the only lead female featured in Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People biopic is Lindsay Reade (Tony Wilson’s first wife) as portrayed by Shirley Henderson and Reade’s Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl: The Story of Tony and Lindsay Wilson was until this oral history the only book which offered an account of the famed label from a female perspective. I Thought I Heard You Speak seeks to upend the given orthodoxy and portray the women who were there. After Factory collapsed New Order were going around record companies in London trying to negotiate a new deal. At one meeting Gillian Gilbert was asked what her ambitions were? “I said ‘Writing for New Order,’ and the whole room burst out laughing,” she recalls. The chauvinistic attitude was at odds with her experience on Factory: “It was so good how so many women worked for Factory because in those days, in most other industries, it was still ‘Benny Hill country’ with mother-in-law jokes and men running around making fun of women,” she says. “But it was never like that in ‘the bubble’ I’d say, the Factory bubble.” Inside “the Factory bubble” women were involved in all aspects of the iconic label, filling key roles in: design, PR, promotions, management, distribution, video and film production and of course writing and recording some of the most iconic music released on Factory. Golden has conducted almost 100 interviews and weaves together an exhilarating new history. Cath Carroll, whose England Made Me is one of the most under-rated albums released on the label, says that when she thinks about Factory at the beginning, “I still think about arty boys and gloomy baritones but I don’t think it’s a fair representation because the tone quickly shifted for the label. There was a lot of jazz and dance coming out, amplified when the Hacienda opened, and artists like Ann Quigley of Kalima and Gonnie Rietveld of Quango Quando really typify.” Tracey Donnelly who worked at both the Hacienda and at Factory remembers that, “it was a very special time, and I think we even knew it then. But I don’t think we ever dreamt that, all these years on, people would still be talking about it.” Julia Adamson, studio sound engineer, sums things up perfectly when she says, “the women are always there, aren’t they, just invisible in history much of the time.” Golden’s book puts the Factory women front and centre. I Thought I Heard You Speak needs to be filed alongside James Nice’s Shadowplayers: The Rise & Fall of Factory Records as one of two essential books on the label and its cultural significance. MY #FACTORYWOMEN TOP 5 Cath Carroll – ‘Moves Like You’ (England Made Me – FACT 210, 1991) One of my favourite Factory singles from one of my favourite Factory LPs. Carroll had previously fronted Miaow who featured on the NME’s C86 tape. A gorgeous Latin-infused single. New Order – ‘Doubts Even Here’ (Movement – FACT 50, 1981) I spent years trying to work out Gillian Gilbert’s spoken word section on this, the penultimate track from Movement, the band’s debut. 3. Section 25 – ‘Looking From a Hilltop’ (From the Hip – FACT 90, 1984) A Factory classic. Jenny Ross Cassidy sings lead on the standout track from S25’s From the Hip LP. Jenny died from cancer in 2004 at the age of 42. 4. A Certain Ratio – ‘Knife Slits Water’ (Sextet – FACT 55, 1982) “Knife Slits Water is about sex, plain and simple - but also desire and sexual politics,” says Martha Tilson in the sleeve notes for the Sextet reissue. Tilson joined the original ACR quintet for their 3rd Factory LP. Quando Quango – ‘Go Exciting’ (Pigs + Battleships – FACT 110, 1985) Gonnie Rietveld, singer and keyboardist of Quando Quango and now Professor of Sonic Culture, a leading academic in the field of music studies. ‘Go Exciting’ is one of many highlights of QQ’s only LP. PAGE 35