V.A. Saturday

There are several Factory Records various artist compilations worth writing about in this series- the 1991 box set Palatine is the motherlode, there are several post- bankruptcy compilations, a very good compilation of Be Music productions (the name used by members of New Order for productions done outside the group, often done along with ACR's Don Johnson) and the very first Factory release, Fac 2, was a four track various artists sampler called A Factory Sample. I'll probably deal with all of them before the year is over. For today though, I offer you a Factory compilation from 1987, released on Factory US (catalogue number FACT US 17), a ten track compilation for the American listener from a time when New Order were making some serious inroads into touring the USA but just before Factory and the Hacienda went supernova. In typical Factory fashion, this Factory compilation, has no New Order on it, their biggest act missing. It is also titled Young Popular And Sexy- the least Factory sounding title on any Factory album. Wilson must have been having a laugh at someone's expense (and if it was at someone's financial expense it was probably New Order's). 

Young Popular And Sexy has ten tracks/ songs by ten Factory artists that the label must have hoped might make some headway into the US, maybe via college radio. Happy Mondays kick off side one with the chaotic, lysergic indie- funk of Kuff Dam (Mad Fuck spelt backwards) followed by the beautiful guitar playing of Vini Reilly on Durutti Column's Our Lady Of The Morning. Factory's mid- 80s line up of artists that hardly sold a record anywhere outside the Manchester postcode areas then follows- Stanton Miranda, Stockholm Monsters,  Shark Vegas (the band formed by Factory's man in Berlin Mark Reeder), The Railway Children (from Wigan, signed to Virgin and didn't really hit the heights expected of them. The drummer from The Railway Children sold my wife her first car back in the 1990s), The Wake, Kalima, and Miaow. A Certain Ratio are also present with And Then She Smiles, a pop song from 1986's Force album that should have been massive- ACR also left for a major label within a year or two, an experience that they didn't find particularly fulfilling either.

Here's some songs from it. Stockholm Monster's were from Burnage, just up the road from where I grew up. This single came out in 1987, the same year the group broke up, a swirling, dense, off kilter song with lyrics attacking politicians and those who tow the party line. 

Partyline (Partylive Mix)

Miaow was Cath Carroll's band. They signed to Factory and released two singles in '87- When It All Comes Down and Break The Code. When It All Comes Down closes Young Popular  And Sexy, sparkling indie guitar pop, and would have sounded great blaring out of mid- 80s ghetto blasters. Cath Carroll went onto release a solo album on Factory, 1991's England Made Me, a lost gem. In fact, Young Popular And Sexy is stuffed full of lost gems. 

When It All Comes Down

It's a curious compilation, a Factory curio, but one that despite being a little uneven is a good snapshot of the label, its approach and its artists, songs which should have been much more widely heard than they were. I don't know how many copies it sold in the US or whether it turned a generation of young Americans onto the wider Factory catalogue. I suspect not. 

As a bonus this is Happy Mondays performing Kuff Dam live at Manchester's Free Trade Hall in November 1989, by which time they were arguably and briefly the best live band in the country- there was definitely no- one else like them.

All At Once

I passed up the opportunity recently to push my thumb on on a piece of clickbait I saw on my phone entitled 'are Oasis the best ever band from Manchester?' 'Don't be ridiculous' I thought, 'of course they aren't. In fact Oasis aren't even the best band Burnage'.

The honour 'best ever band from Burnage' lies with Stockholm Monsters, a little known band who formed in 1980, signed to Factory and released several wonderful records before splitting up in 1987. Their debut, 1981's Fairy Tales single, was produced by Martin Hannett. Wilson loved them for a while before the Happy Mondays replaced them in his affections. Peter Hook took them under his wing and produced their 1984 album Alma Mater. Their sound is very mid 80s indie- jagged, trebly guitars, cheap keyboards, the occasional trumpet and a non- singer on vocals (I mean this as a compliment. Non- singers on vocals are often my favourite singers).  In 1984 they put this single out (and in typical Factory/ 80s indie style the B-side called National Pastime is just as good- I posted it in January 2018).

All At Once

Later on they worked drum machines and New Order's Emulator into their sound and in the face of press and record buying public indifference bid farewell with a single called Partyline, a song that starts off wonky and unsure of itself, sparse bassline and swells of one fingered keyboards before it explodes into melody in the chorus. This performance on Granada TV is low key but entrancing, a glimpse of band who should be far better known than they are.



Partyline was their parting shot, a 1987 single on Factory (FAC 146 fact fans). It was produced by Hooky under the Be Music guise that members of New Order used for production work. There's plenty of reverb on the drums, too much probably heard now in 2019, and the instruments seem to be in competition with each other, overloaded and fighting for space, it's all very busy and singer Tony France is straining at the top of his register. But I love it, it's flawed but somehow perfect, and it's got a spark, a spirit and a heart that you can look for in any of the Oasis albums from [insert date here] onward and won't find.

Partyline (Partylive Mix)

Burnage, for those who don't know, is a suburb of south Manchester, bisected by a dual carriageway called Kingsway. I grew up in Withington, its neighbouring suburb a short walk west. As well as Stockholm Monsters and the Gallaghers Burnage was/is home to loads of people I went to school with, former Manchester United captain and Busby Babe Roger Byrne (who died in the muinich air disaster in 1958), actor David Threlfall and Dave Rowbotham, a former member of Durutti Column and The Invisible Girls (sadly murdered in 1991).

Burnage's Number One Band

Stockholm Monsters came from Burnage, South Manchester and spent much of the 80s trying to make a success of being on Factory Records. They had all the benefits- Peter Hook as producer and cheer leader, Anthony H Wilson's patronage, gigs with the other bands, some press coverage, beautiful sleeves. However as most Factory bands before '87 found out, if you weren't New Order you didn't sell records, not outside the Greater Manchester postcode areas anyway. They started out fairly sparse sounding and post-punkish, trumpet and keyboards as well as guitars and driving drums, and eventually prefigured some of the Madchester sound with electronics and grooves, and a Perry Boy (Mancunian scallies essentially) image. They split in 1987 having been overtaken at Palatine Road and in the press by Happy Mondays. This song came out at the end, Partyline, and it's flawed but worth your while. Produced by Hook, Partylive Mix from the 12", Fac 146 in case you were wondering.

Partyline (Partylive Mix).mp3#1#1