Music <\/p>\n
Staff in the Factory offices on Palatine Road <\/p>\n
<\/fbs-accordion>credit: \u00a9 Peter J. Walsh (peterjwalsh.com)<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
For 1980s and 1990s post-punk fans, the story of the legendary Manchester, England-based indie music label Factory Records<\/a> has been told numerous times in books, articles, documentaries and dramatized movies \u2014 most notably 2002\u2019s 24 Hour Party People<\/em>. In those retellings, the narrative has mostly centered on Factory\u2019s co-founders \u2014 the late Tony Wilson<\/a>, Alan Erasmus and Peter Saville \u2014 and male-dominated bands such as Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays.<\/p>\n But what has not been generally publicized about the history of Factory Records and the Ha\u00e7ienda<\/a> \u2014 the nightclub co-owned by Factory and New Order \u2014 is that women played a hugely important part in their successes. During the period between the \u201880s and \u201890s when Factory and the Ha\u00e7ienda were active, women were vital in the business and creative sides of those endeavors from music and film to visual design and DJ-ing (One female staffer went so far as to climb the roof of the Ha\u00e7ienda to fix a leak). In response, New York-based author Audrey Golden<\/a>\u2019s book I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records<\/em><\/a>, published in the U.S. earlier this year, corrects that oversight. This extensive oral history features numerous interviews with many of the women who were there during Factory and the Ha\u00e7ienda\u2019s rise and fall.<\/p>\n \u201cFactory was really inclusive,\u201d Golden says. \u201cIt offered a lot of creative opportunities to women in the north. It gave so many women ways to express their own creativity and to take a meaningful part in what they were doing\u2026They felt like this was a place where they could flourish creatively. It makes the Factory story so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacket art of ‘I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records’ by Audrey Golden.<\/p>\n <\/fbs-accordion>credit: White Rabbit<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The origin of the I Thought I Heard You Speak<\/em> came after visual designer Chris Mathan introduced Golden to Tracy Donnelly \u2013 who started as a receptionist at the Swing hair salon in the basement of the Ha\u00e7ienda and later became a Factory employee. In turn, Donnelly put Golden in touch with some of the key players mentioned in the book. \u201cIt was a way to enliven the Factory story by completing it with all of these stories that had otherwise been untold to date,\u201d Golden says.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years, so many of the things written or made about Factory were described as definitive,\u201d she later adds. \u201cYou hear, \u2018Oh, that’s the definitive book on Factory Records. And you think, “Okay, that’s the complete thing. That’s all I need to know.\u2019 It led some women at first to say to me, \u2018I don’t think my story is important because it’s not included in so-and-so’s book.\u2019 So I’d have to come back and give my spiel on the problem of the definitive history and how it suggests nothing is missing. When in fact, there’s no way to ever tell a definitive history.\u201d<\/p>\n LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 06: Gillian Gilbert of New Order performs live on stage at The O2 Arena … [+]<\/span> on November 06, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Jim Dyson\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/fbs-accordion>Getty Images<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Perhaps the most recognizable and popular female face of Factory Records is New Order multi-instrumentalist Gillian Gilbert, who was interviewed for Golden\u2019s book. The author describes Gilbert as crucial to the band for \u201cthe way she came in and really made New Order what it is because, otherwise, you have Joy Division absent one,\u201d referencing New Order\u2019s previous incarnation with the late Ian Curtis. \u201cAnd her sensibility coming in being really interested in electronic music…and working so hard to learn how to use synths and to program them. When she was talking to me about figuring out the bass lines for a couple of New Order songs, it made the whole thing. I thought, \u2018Wow, we wouldn’t have had some of these songs on Power, Corruption & Lies<\/em> [New Order\u2019s 1983 album] without Gillian. And I think they’re some of New Order’s best songs.\u201d<\/p>\n UNITED KINGDOM – MAY 25: Photo of READE; LINDSAY READE first wife of Anthony H Wilson, pictured in … [+]<\/span> 2006 (Photo by Howard Barlow\/Redferns)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/fbs-accordion>Redferns<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Another person who shared her memories in I Thought I Heard You Speak <\/em>is Lindsay Reade, the first wife of Tony Wilson who played a significant part in the creation of Factory Records. \u201dShe provided the money and did a lot of work with Tony in the early days to get everything off the ground,\u201d says Golden. \u201cI loved Lindsay talking about the creation of Factory as hers and Tony’s baby. It was this rethinking what women’s roles are and this idea of what motherhood is in this interesting, powerful way \u2014 motherhood as creating this incredible record label and doing all this work to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n