Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records [Paperback]

The definitive book on "the most culturally sophisticated label in the history of recorded sound". James Nice delivers the actual story of Factory; facts not myths. With a chapter for every year and two chapters for 1980 - bands, stories and connections previously overlooked are all featured. So often reduced to Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays and The Hacienda the story here is expanded so that The Wake warrant numerous entries in the index and The Durutti Column story is woven throughout the text and links to Belgian label Les Disques du Crepuscule are explored.Based on numerous author interviews the story from 1976 -1992 is comprehensively covered with no artist considered too small to have their part in the unfolding story portrayed.
The book may become darker and darker as the end approaches but you still leave it inspired by Factory's love of beauty and 'art over commerce' and wondering why people demand so little these days from their bands and labels.James Nice is never afraid to be objective and critical and consequently the love and admiration that the author obviously feels for the subject carries a lot of weight. When something is praised you know it is deserved.
Shadowplayers is the much needed literary equivalent to Matthew Robertson's Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album and should be read by anyone with an interest in the musical landscape of the late seventies, eighties and early nineties and anyone intrigued by those who choose to take the path less travelled.

Finally someone has written a real history of Factory Records that doesn't fall into the trap of unquestioningly re-hashing the myths. James Nice has produced a history of the Manchester label that gives a more substantial version of events than those previously published. Nice includes the part played by the 'lesser' lights among the Factory artists - Section 25, Stockholm Monsters, etc. - and isn't afraid to be critical of the decisions made by the company.

As a thorough and relatively academic work, 'Shadowplayers' offers a nice counterpoint to the entertaining, but one-dimensional version of events in 'Twenty Four Hour Party People' etc.

This is a fantastic book. It's a chunky brick of a thing, encased in a shocking pink cover with tastefully embossed silver bits, but what matters is the content. And oh, what content.

The book tells the story of Factory Records from 1976 - when the Sex Pistols first played in Manchester and Tony Wilson and friends founded the Factory Club in Hulme - right through to its dissolution in 1992. It's a fascinating story, impeccably researched and wonderfully written, which concentrates on the facts rather than the anecdotes. The story is, in some ways, horrifying: a record company run with good intentions but no written contracts, and business decisions often made on personal prejudices (such as Wilson's insistence that Dry Bar should be opened in Manchester's then run-down Northern Quarter rather than close to the university on account of the fact that he disliked students) and gut feelings as opposed to market research.

The focus throughout is Factory rather than one particular aspect, so readers hoping for the detailed story of Joy Division, New Order or the Hacienda may be disappointed, but their stories are told excellently elsewhere. I recently read - and thoroughly enjoyed - Peter Hook's book about the Hacienda, and in some ways I see that book and this as companion volumes. In this book you'll find all Factory bands are covered almost equally, with plenty on the likes of Section 25 and The Durruti Column as well as New Order and Joy Division themselves, but as this book concentrates on the record company and its numerous spin-off projects they're almost characters rather than the story itself.

Towards the end when Factory begins to collapse the story darkens, and the end is always looming on the horizon. There's a feeling of inevitability, as Wilson's doggedness to continue with projects to their bitter end sees his company fall into oblivion, spending spiralling out of control, bands relied upon to shore up business ventures at the expense of their own salaries, and the mis-management is shockingly revealed. In some respects it reads almost like a thriller.

If any criticisms are to be made I'd have liked a few more pictures maybe - sometimes record covers are described as being beautiful or terrible, and a picture would have been good, but then again the internet is always at hand - and the few which are included are all in black and white, but they're sufficient. Also, I'd have liked maybe a catalogue of the FAC numbers, as several things are referred to initially by their name and number, then later just by their number, but this is just a niggle.

This is a superb biography of a sadly missed record label, and a reminder of how not to run a business. Buy and read this, and if you want to know more about the likes of the Hacienda or the bands you can then read other books.

Excellent.