Spike Magazine

Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com
Review [published August 2006]
Matthew Robertson: FAC 461
Chris Hall on Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album (FAC 461)
In the late 70s, the mysterious, topographical radio
waves of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures appeared
like a burst of energy in an empty void, signifying the
arrival not only of one of the best bands this country has
produced but also its finest independent record label,
Factory. It’s not too strong to say that Peter Saville’s
sleeves for Unknown Pleasures and New Order’s ‘Blue
Monday’ are up there with Peter Blake’s Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band, Kraftwerk’s Autobahn and
Vaughan Oliver’s 4AD covers. The design mostly
matched up to the quality of the music.
The chaotic, quixotic Factory Records existed from
1978 to 1992, from post-punk to rave, and continues to
influence those making music now, not only in nostalgic
terms but because they were essentially purely about
the music – and the design was all about enhancing the
music. Ironically, it was on the very front that Factory
couldn’t compete that it ended up competing on – design.
This is the label whose die-cut ‘Blue Monday’ single by
New Order, the best-selling 12 inch of all time, cost them
money every time someone bought the record.
Of course, Factory is most closely associated with the
graphic designer Peter Saville. In the summer of 2003
there was a big Saville retrospective at the Design Museum
and a book which of course featured a lot of his work
for Factory. Saville’s book presented his art work and
other writers put it into context with long, considered essays;
what this book does instead is simply catalogue the
work and provide minimal expositionary notes. Unlike
the Saville book, it highlights the work of other people
involved in the Factory story and shows how it evolved
beyond the visually literate aesthetic of Saville.
The shadow background of the artwork in FAC 461
reinforces the idea that these are objects, artefacts, photographed
as if from above on mini-plinths. Ironically,
a lot of the artwork published here that we are forever
told works best as a 12” vinyl or 33rpm sleeve is shown
at pretty much the exact dimensions of a compact disc.
There is a fantastically pretentious but sublime introduction
from Factory co-founder and twat-about-town
Tony Wilson whose register and sentence construction
is unique. How about this, with its brilliantly ambivalent
“or”: “It all began after a very, very bad Patti Smith
gig in late 77 or early 78…”; or this, explaining the
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