24 Hour Party People
Posted by: Tony L on 20 April 2002
I go to the cinema far too little, it tends to take a film about something close to my heart like Factory Records to get me there these days - I was in luck, Factory Records was exactly what this film was about. It is told from Tony Wilson’s perspective, and I had pre-empted the film by reading his book of the same name, which I can wholeheartedly recommend. It is a book that on frequent occasions made me virtually fall off the sofa laughing.
The film picks up Wilson in his early Granada TV presenting days, and swiftly moves to his musical enlightenment at the Pistols first Manchester gig, through to the crucial So It Goes TV series, and onto the beginning of the first Factory club in Hulme. At this point we are introduced to Joy Division, and this is the only area of the film I have an issue with - I felt they came across very two dimensionally compared to the book (and my understanding of reality), I never felt convinced by the portrayal of Ian Curtis at all, especially at the point of his suicide. Obviously this is a hard thing to get right, but nowhere was the intensity of Curtis’s well documented live performances captured. Otherwise the attention to detail was excellent, right down to the correct Shergold guitars (a subject I know well!). ACR, Durutti Column etc are all portrayed, and I guess portrayed really well. It all feels weird in a way though as I was actually at a fair number of the gigs dramatised in the film, though unfortunately I never got to see Joy Division.
Anyway, onward to the release of the biggest selling 12” in UK history, Blue Monday, with a cover that cost 4p more per unit to make than was possible to recoup on sales. Doh! Then Fac 51, the Hacienda, the club that in the early days lost them 10,000 a month… I got a membership when it opened, and was in the sparse audience at the ACR gig dramatised in the film, I also saw New Order there a week or two later, which was admittedly a little fuller. The film reconstruction of the Hacienda is stunning, it is exactly as I remember it. The film then moves on to deal with the Happy Mondays, and again that is pretty much exactly as I remember it all. The Mondays story is hysterical, you could not possibly make it up.
The whole thing makes for a fabulous story, Factory was basically a series of fundamentally stupid business decisions, but built of a foundation of honesty and the undeniable ability to pick real talent. The film reflects this beautifully, and is really funny with it. Go see it, though in a lot of ways I think Wilson’s book actually captures it all far better, it certainly has a hell of a lot more detail.
Tony.
PS There is some Naim spotting to be done here, there is a LP12 / 32.5 / Hicap / 2 x 135 in the later Factory offices behind the crazy £30k red table.
The film picks up Wilson in his early Granada TV presenting days, and swiftly moves to his musical enlightenment at the Pistols first Manchester gig, through to the crucial So It Goes TV series, and onto the beginning of the first Factory club in Hulme. At this point we are introduced to Joy Division, and this is the only area of the film I have an issue with - I felt they came across very two dimensionally compared to the book (and my understanding of reality), I never felt convinced by the portrayal of Ian Curtis at all, especially at the point of his suicide. Obviously this is a hard thing to get right, but nowhere was the intensity of Curtis’s well documented live performances captured. Otherwise the attention to detail was excellent, right down to the correct Shergold guitars (a subject I know well!). ACR, Durutti Column etc are all portrayed, and I guess portrayed really well. It all feels weird in a way though as I was actually at a fair number of the gigs dramatised in the film, though unfortunately I never got to see Joy Division.
Anyway, onward to the release of the biggest selling 12” in UK history, Blue Monday, with a cover that cost 4p more per unit to make than was possible to recoup on sales. Doh! Then Fac 51, the Hacienda, the club that in the early days lost them 10,000 a month… I got a membership when it opened, and was in the sparse audience at the ACR gig dramatised in the film, I also saw New Order there a week or two later, which was admittedly a little fuller. The film reconstruction of the Hacienda is stunning, it is exactly as I remember it. The film then moves on to deal with the Happy Mondays, and again that is pretty much exactly as I remember it all. The Mondays story is hysterical, you could not possibly make it up.
The whole thing makes for a fabulous story, Factory was basically a series of fundamentally stupid business decisions, but built of a foundation of honesty and the undeniable ability to pick real talent. The film reflects this beautifully, and is really funny with it. Go see it, though in a lot of ways I think Wilson’s book actually captures it all far better, it certainly has a hell of a lot more detail.
Tony.
PS There is some Naim spotting to be done here, there is a LP12 / 32.5 / Hicap / 2 x 135 in the later Factory offices behind the crazy £30k red table.