Come November, it’ll be almost three decades since Factory Records folded. But someone forgot to turn the music off on the way out.
Wherever you go in Manchester, you’ll hear the label’s records playing. The city remains as proudly black and yellow as the day Hacienda designer Ben Kelly wrapped up the superclub’s pillars in bumblebee coats.
Even the famous FAC catalogue – an inventory to which each Factory Records item was assigned – is still alive and well; the 40th anniversary edition of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures receiving a number in 2019.
The world has changed in the 43 years since Factory was formed, and three of its five founders aren’t with us anymore. But the label – and its legacy – endures; gaining a new lease of life with every salvaged anecdote or long-lost artefact plucked from the archives.
Not even FAC’s instigators – Tony Wilson, Peter Saville, Alan Erasmus, Rob Gretton and Martin Harnett – could have predicted they’d leave such a permanent mark on Manchester. Although the ambition was there from the beginning.
This quintet of movers and shakers did something different by taking the region’s industrial aesthetic and channelling it into art – and they brought aboard other people who thought like they did.
The artists that peddled the Factory sound were similarly open-minded, embracing trailblazing technology, instruments and techniques to produce a pioneering form of style and sound. It led to the label quickly acquiring its own unique look and feel – and any product befitting of ‘Factoryness’ was assigned a prestigious catalogue number.
All of it was new, exciting, and wildly ahead of its time. And this extended to representation.
As a new exhibition at Museum of Science & Industry reveals, an embedded narrative runs through the Factory story: The prominent role of women.
A new exhibition at Museum of Science & Industry reveals the prominent role of women in the Factory story – including Lindsay Reade (centre) and Lesley Gilbert (right)
Use Hearing Protection (UHP) – an exhibition chronicling the early days of Factory Records – currently houses the first 50 items of the FAC catalogue, including some items on display for the very first time.
Discontent with simply scratching the surface, UHP delves deeper into the origin story of the label – analysing the backdrop from which ideologies were born and what it was like to live in Manchester in the 1970s and 80s.
Beyond the series of display cases paying homage to the era, UHP moves towards the realms of sociological study. And in doing so, it awards spotlight to the lesser-known figures of the Factory family and beyond – including the females that helped push the label’s status beyond ‘visionary’ and into ‘immortality’.
1978 was a time when opportunities for women in music were limited at best. Yet, as UHP reflects, Factory would not have come to fruition or thrived without several key female members.
Use Hearing Protection explores the landscape that Factory Records – and its pioneers – grew from.
Use Hearing Protection explores the landscape that Factory Records – and its pioneers – grew from.
Several “relatively unsung pioneers” in the Factory story receive renewed recognition at UHP, with sections dedicated to the likes of general manager Lesley Gilbert – an essential behind-the-scenes leader who “ran the Factory office”.
The exhibition also focuses on Lindsay Reade – Wilson’s former partner who helped get Factory off the ground with her input and savings. Reade was a crucial participant in the early part of the story and even wrote a book all about it – Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl (which is on sale at the Museum shop).
Further tributes are paid to Gillian Gilbert, the talented keyboardist and guitarist for New Order, and artist Linder Sterling – whose conceptual work The Factory Egg Timer concept was assigned number FAC 8 in the Factory catalogue. Sterling would also form the group LUDUS – one of the first acts to perform at the Hacienda during the superclub’s opening year in 1982.
Another credited with contributing to the overall movement is Liz Naylor – a writer who worked on local music magazine City Fun and penned a film script titled Too Young to Know, Too Wild to Care (see FAC 20).
The exhibition itself has also been curated by a female: Archives Manager of the Science and Industry Museum Jan Hicks.
The Use Hearing Protection exhibition charts the early days of Factory and finishes in The Hacienda in 1982
Many of the instrumental figures throughout the history of Factory Records were women – from the label’s inception right up to its final days.
Indeed, shortly before label execs received the bill for Happy Mondays’ indulgent Barbados recording session of Yes Please! (a critical and commercial flop now best remembered for hammering the final nail in the coffin of Factory Records), great art was still being produced by women. A perfect case in point was Cath Carroll – whose England Made Me LP from 1991 is considered as one of the label’s least-known, best-received productions.
Factory closed down forever in 1992 as the Madchester era fizzled out, with its flagship club The Hacienda following suit five years later.
But curiously, public interest in those heady days has only piqued. People are eager to remember a time when Manchester was centre of the universe.
And as for the group that made it happen? It was a little bigger and a lot more diverse than many might have thought…
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Use Hearing Protection: The early years of Factory Records is open now – running right through to 3 January 2022.
An after-hours celebration of Manchester’s music scene will also take place on 23 September.
Country star Tyler Childers is coming to town for his biggest Manchester show to date
Danny Jones
US country music star Tyler Childers is returning to Manchester for his biggest ever show in this city, and tickets go on sale very soon.
Fresh off the back of his new album, Snipe Hunter – which was only just dropped back in July – the 34-year-old singer-songwriter is riding a fresh wave of excitement after years of hard work within the genre, mixing in plenty of classic bluegrass and folk into his modern take on the classic American sound.
As one of the most-streamed and well-respected contemporary country musicians on the scene right now, the Kentucky-born solo star and understated acoustic guitarist often falls into that category of your favourite artist’s favourite artist.
Now Tyler Childers is coming to our most legendary arena as part of his UK and European tour early next year, and we’ll certainly be queuing online for tickets.
As far as AO Arena shows booked in for the new year go, we’re very excited about this one.
His seventh studio album has been well-received by his die-hard followers and newcomers alike, delivering that same traditional Appalachian storytelling and hard-bitten humour, as well as plenty of attitude and anecdotal idiosyncrasies, not to mention plenty of vocal range as always.
Having not long come back from a pilgrimage to India, Lawrence County king teamed up with legendary producer Rick Rubin (along with some help from Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn) to create one of his most eye-opening, broad and best records yet.
Post-release, the Associated Press went on to label him “one of country music’s most compelling and unpredictable artists”, and we tend to agree.
The LP immediately spawned plenty of fan favourites, and we certainly have ours – and the video has definitely had a hand in it:
It may just be his best work yet.
Experimenting with his current unique take on country rock sound more than ever, you couldn’t ask for a better time to go and see him live.
Once again, Tyler Childers comes to the AO Arena in Manchester on Sunday, 8 March 2026, with an official pre-sale available via Three+ from 9am on Wednesday, 10 September.
As for general admission, tickets go live at the same time on the following Friday (12 Sep); you can get ready to grab yours HERE.
We don’t know about you, but we’re very much enjoying our country moment at the minute…
The Last Dinner Party have announced a huge 35-date tour, including a big Manchester gig
Danny Jones
Multi-award-winning indie and alternative rock band, The Last Dinner Party, have just announced what is set to be one of their biggest globe-trotting tours ever, with a momentous Manchester gig included on the UK run.
The much-celebrated five-piece have revealed their latest run of shows will span the UK, Ireland, mainland Europe, Australia AND New Zealand, confirming a total of 35 live dates.
After coming somewhat under fire in 2024 following a series of cancelled concerts, the Londoners have responded in the best way possible: by putting their money where their mouth is and coming back with a bang ahead of their highly anticipated sophomore release.
We have every faith they’ll have the stamina to fulfil their live commitments this time around, and you best believe we’ll be going for tickets.
Speaking in the build-upto the release of the second album, From The Pyre – which is set to drop on 17 October – the band said of their latest material: “This record is a collection of stories, and the concept of album-as-mythos binds them.
‘The Pyre‘ itself is an allegorical place in which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction but also regeneration, passion and light. The songs are character-driven but still deeply personal, a commonplace life event pushed to a pathological extreme.
“Being ghosted becomes a Western dance with a killer, and heartbreak laughs into the face of the apocalypse. Lyrics invoke rifles, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc, and blazing infernos. We found this kind of evocative imagery to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss the way our experiences felt, giving each the emotional weight it deserves.”
Going on to describe the follow-up to their seminal debut, Prelude to Ecstasy (which saw them sweep up multiple BRIT and NME Awards, as well as a Mercury Prize nomination), as “darker, more raw and more earthy”, you’re definitely in for a heavily intellectualised experience with this one.
Their performances are certainly much more than a group of musicians getting up on stage too; having seen them last October ourselves, the LGBTQ+ icons definitely revel in the artistic expression of a live show, and have been praised for celebrating the female queer gaze too.
As you can see in the social post shared by the band, they’re about to have a very busy end to 2025, plus plenty of travelling in the new year, but for now, you can see The Last Dinner Party’s upcoming UK tour dates in full down below:
14 November – 3Arena, Dublin
17 November – Corn Exchange, Edinburgh
20 November – O2 City Hall, Newcastle
23 November – Bridlington Spa, Bridlington
26 November – Aviva Studios, Manchester
29 November – The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton
30 November – The Prospect Building, Bristol
2 December – Utilita Arena, Cardiff
4 December – Plymouth Pavilions, Plymouth
5 December – Brighton Centre, Brighton
7 December – O2 Academy Brixton, London
8 December – O2 Academy Brixton, London
Yes, set to visit Aviva Studios – a.k.a. the home of Greater Manchester’s ever-growing artistic hub – for the very first time, we couldn’t think of a more fitting act to play the stunning dynamic space.
General admission for The Last Dinner Party tour goes live from 10am GMT on Friday, 12 September, but fans who pre-order the album can gain early access.
You can get ready to grab your tickets right HERE.