Ex New Order bassist Peter Hook is launching a new nightclub in Manchester called the Factory located where the offices of the band’s legendary label Factory Records used to be.
Kicking off promotion for the club with a minimalist website and Facebook group the promoters described the Factory as ‘a new indie rock + roll club and live venue’ and added a typically bleak Mancunian reference to Factory Records’ rise and fall.
“20 years since the birth of Madchester the building that started it all and ultimately destroyed it all (is back),” the release says, adding “FAC251: Head office of Factory Communications... Built by Tony Wilson, designed by Ben Kelly & Peter Saville, paid for by New Order and broken by the Happy Mondays . . .”
Though the website uses the same distinctive yellow and black colours of the Hacienda, the website makes no specific reference to the club, or any of its trials and tribulations minutely documented in Peter Hook hilarious and horrific recent book ‘The Hacienda: How Not To Run A Club’.
Describing how the band once worked out ‘that from the time it opened in 1982 to when it closed in 1997, each punter through the door cost us £10’, he singled out ‘bad management and sheer stupidity’ for the losses which occurred despite the fact the club brought in at least £16million over the 15 years. More significantly, however, he went into minute detail about the way Manchester gangsters and thugs eventually over-ran the club terrorizing clubbers away with random acts of ultra-violence.
“We tried to sell the club many, many times but nobody would ever buy it because when they looked at the accounts there were too many irregularities,” he explained.
“(Richard Branson) realised there was no way to make a profit because the security costs were so high,” he added.
“Whenever prospective buyers looked into it the truth about the gangsters would come out: and when they discovered how deep-seated the violence was- and the extent of it, they scurried off. They realized they couldn’t keep the customers safe,” he said.
FAC251: THE FACTORY opens on Friday Janaury 29.
http://www.FACTORYmanchester.com
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