In this month's Mojo magazine (the one with Freddie Mercury on the front cover), there's a news item on Factory:
Fac Forever
Factory Records co-founder Anthony H Wilson died in August 2007. But he would surely have been amused that it was only last month that his granite headstone, created by Factory designers Peter Saville and Ben Kelly, was erected in Manchester's Southern Cemetery. Aptly, it bears a quote from Isabella Banks' 1876 political novel The Manchester Man.
Other Factory-related works were also revealed. Out this month, Kevin Cummins' 208-page photo-book Joy Division features his famed shots of the band plus lyric books, an interview with band member Bernard Sumner and a foreward by author Jay McInnerney. The latter says of Cummins' images, "Long after their subjects have attained iconic status, they seem as fresh as the music we inveriably hear in our minds as we turn these pages."
Sumner, meanwhile, was on head to comment on + -, next month's luxurious box set of 10 7-inch records by Joy Division. Designed by Saville, remastered by drummer Stephen Morris and with notes by compiler Jon Savage, the 5,000-edition clamshell-boxed set contains replicas of the original Joy Division singles plus 45s that never were - like the Ideal For Living EP split into two 45s. "Peter Saville's kind of revisited the old sleeves," says Sumner. "What was interesting about the way we did things in those days was that in between albums we'd write a song and go. We can't wait until it's time to do another album. Let's just release it. And we could do it on Factory Records. So we released loads of one-off tracks, singles, that weren't on the album, like Love Will Tear Us Apart and Atomosphere.
"One of them, Komakino, was released on vinyl that self-destructed after five plays," he adds. "It's stuff like that, all in one package, with beautiful sleeves."
Sumner is also keeping busy in the studio on collaborations with Hot Chip, Berlin DJ WestBam and Hamburg electro duo Digitalism, while future projects involve completing an album with producer Stuart Price, and a new Bad Lieutenant LP. "It's great to work with younger musicians who're positive about what they're doing," he says. "For me, lyrics flow easier and I enjoy singing more as well. I never used to."
