History Creator / FactoryRecords

However, the success would not last forever; in 1992, due to the costly failure of Happy Mondays' album ''Yes Please'' (itself having already burned through most of the record label's money) and the lengthy delay in New Order following up their acclaimed 1989 album ''Music/{{Technique}}'', Factory began to have serious financial problems. While London Records was interested in buying Factory, the deal went south when they found that Factory's earlier practice of not using contracts meant that the bands (particularly New Order, who at this point was the FaceOfTheBand for Factory) held the rights to their own backlogs, not the label. Thus the label was forced to declare bankruptcy in November 1992. Many of Factory's artists, including New Order, would go on to sign with London Records anyways; it would be through them that New Order would finally release ''Music/{{Republic}}'', the ''Technique'' follow-up that could've kept Factory going.

!!Factory performers with Wiki/TVTropes pages:

A sightly inaccurate and somewhat flippant history of Factory Records was depicted in the 2002 film ''Film/TwentyFourHourPartyPeople'' (FAC 401). Another Factory-centric film is ''Film/{{Control}}'', the 2007 Ian Curtis {{Biopic}}; no Factory number was assigned to it due to it releasing roughly two months after Wilson's death (Wilson did, however, produce the film, making it the last major project he worked on in his lifetime).

Factory Records was a Manchester-based independent record label, active between 1978 and 1992, that was home to many prominent acts in the area such as Music/JoyDivision[=/=]Music/NewOrder, Music/HappyMondays, The Durutti Column, and A Certain Ratio. Alongside Creator/MuteRecords and Rough Trade Records, Factory served as one of the "big three" labels of the British AlternativeRock scene.

* Music/CabaretVoltaire

* Music/OrchestralManoeuvresInTheDark[[note]]Only OMD's first single ("Electricity", FAC 6) was released through Factory[[/note]]

Factory Records was a Manchester-based independent record label, active between 1978 and 1992, that was home to many prominent acts in the area such as Music/JoyDivision[=/=]Music/NewOrder, Music/HappyMondays, The Durutti Column, and A Certain Ratio.

Factory was formed in 1978 originally as a club by TV presenter Tony Wilson and band manager Alan Erasmus which held performances from bands who would later be signees on the label; Factory began releasing singles and albums in 1979, with their first album being Joy Division's debut ''Music/UnknownPleasures''. Similar to Creator/FourADRecords, another British PostPunk label with a cult following, Factory used a ProductionPosse (including RecordProducer Martin Hannett and graphic designer Peter Saville) to give the label and the artists recording for it a particular sound and image, one that ended up extending to the artists' genres as well, with Joy Division in particular becoming ''the'' defining band of the post-punk movement.

A sightly inaccurate and somewhat flippant history of Factory Records was depicted in the 2002 film ''Film/TwentyFourHourPartyPeople'' (FAC 401). Another Factory-centric film is ''Film/{{Control}}'', the 2007 Ian Curtis {{Biopic}}; no Factory number was assigned to it due to it releasing roughly two months after Wilson's death.

Factory was formed in 1978 originally as a club by TV presenter Tony Wilson and band manager Alan Erasmus which held performances from bands who would later be signees on the label; Factory began releasing singles and albums in 1979, with their first album being Joy Division's debut ''Music/UnknownPleasures''. Similar to Creator/FourADRecords, another British PostPunk label with a cult following, Factory used a ProductionPosse (including RecordProducer Martin Hannett and graphic designer Peter Saville) to give the label and the artists recording for it a particular sound and image, one that ended up extending to the artists' genres as well, with Joy Division in particular becoming ''the'' defining band of the post-punk movement. Factory also used a unique (in all senses of the word) cataloging system that provided numbers not just to recordings, but also artwork, projects, and whatever the hell Tony Wilson felt like assigning a number to. This included the Haçienda, a Manchester club that Factory owned (FAC 51); a lawsuit filed against the label by Hannett (FAC 61); a nameless stray cat who lived in The Haçienda's basement (FAC 191); a short-lived hairdressing salon in that same basement (FAC 98); a table (FAC 331); a bet between Wilson and Joy Division manager Rob Gretton (FAC 253); a dental surgery procedure Gretton underwent (FAC 99); and a Happy Mondays album issued in 2007-- long after Factory went bust-- on a completely different label (FAC 500). A complete list of these numbered non-music items can be found [[https://www.discogs.com/label/857-Factory here]].

In 1994, Tony Wilson revived the label (in partnership with London Records) as Factory Too, with the Durutti Column and some new acts on the roster, but this incarnation ended later in TheNineties; during its brief lifetime, Factory Too also had an offshoot label called Factory Once, which was devoted to reissuing Happy Mondays and Durutti Column material previously released on the original Factory Records. In 2004, Wilson tried to revive Factory again under a new name, F4, but the label signed only two acts (The Durutti Column and HipHop act Raw-T) and went under after only a year.

Factory was formed in 1978 originally as a club by TV presenter Tony Wilson and band manager Alan Erasmus which held performances from bands who would later be signees on the label; Factory began releasing singles and albums in 1979, with their first album being Joy Division's debut ''Music/UnknownPleasures''. Similar to Creator/FourADRecords, another British PostPunk label with a cult following, Factory used a ProductionPosse (including RecordProducer Martin Hannett and graphic designer Peter Saville) to give the label and the artists recording for it a particular sound and image, one that ended up extending to the artists' genres as well, with Joy Division in particular becoming ''the'' defining band of the post-punk movement. Factory also used a unique (in all senses of the word) cataloging system that provided numbers not just to recordings, but also artwork, projects, and whatever the hell Tony Wilson felt like assigning a number to. This included the Haçienda, a Manchester club that Factory owned (FAC 51); a lawsuit filed against the label by Hannett (FAC 61); a nameless stray cat who lived in The Haçienda's basement (FAC 191); a short-lived hairdressing salon in that same basement (FAC 98); a table (FAC 331); a bet between Wilson and Joy Division manager Rob Gretton (FAC 253); a dental surgery procedure Gretton underwent (FAC 99); and a Happy Mondays album issued in 2007-- long after Factory went bust-- on a completely different label (FAC 500).

However, the success would not last forever; in 1992, due to the costly failure of Happy Mondays' album ''Yes Please'' (itself having already burned through most of the record label's money) and the lengthy delay in New Order following up their acclaimed 1989 album ''Music/{{Technique}}'', Factory began to have serious financial problems. While London Records was interested in buying Factory, the deal went south when they found that Factory's earlier practice of not using contracts meant that the bands (particularly New Order, who at this point was the FaceOfTheBand for Factory) held the rights to their own backlogs, not the label. Thus the label was forced to declare bankruptcy in November 1992. Many of Factory's artists, including New Order, would go on to sign with London Records anyways; it would be through them that New Order would finally release ''Music/{{Republic}}'', the ''Technique'' follow-up that could've kept Factory going. In 1994, Tony Wilson revived the label (in partnership with London Records) as Factory Too, with the Durutti Column and some new acts on the roster, but this incarnation ended later in TheNineties; during its brief lifetime, Factory Too also had an offshoot label called Factory Once, which was devoted to reissuing Happy Mondays and Durutti Column material previously released on the original Factory Records.

Factory was formed in 1978 originally as a club by TV presenter Tony Wilson and band manager Alan Erasmus which held performances from bands who would later be signees on the label; Factory began releasing singles and albums in 1979, with their first album being Joy Division's debut ''Music/UnknownPleasures''. Similar to Creator/FourADRecords, another British PostPunk label with a cult following, Factory used a ProductionPosse (including RecordProducer Martin Hannett and graphic designer Peter Saville) to give the label and the artists recording for it a particular sound and image, one that ended up extending to the artists' genres as well, with Joy Division in particular becoming ''the'' defining band of the post-punk movement. Factory also used a unique (in all senses of the word) cataloging system that provided numbers not just to recordings, but also artwork, projects, and whatever the hell Tony Wilson felt like assigning a number to. This included The Haçienda, a Manchester club that Factory owned (FAC 51); a lawsuit filed against the label by Hannett (FAC 61); a nameless stray cat who lived in The Haçienda's basement (FAC 191); a short-lived hairdressing salon in that same basement (FAC 98); a table (FAC 331); a bet between Wilson and Joy Division manager Rob Gretton (FAC 253); a dental surgery procedure Gretton underwent (FAC 99); and a Happy Mondays album issued in 2007-- long after Factory went bust-- on a completely different label (FAC 500).

Tony Wilson died of cancer in 2007; his coffin received the last Factory catalog number assigned to date, FAC 501. (The highest Factory number is FAC 511, which Wilson gave to a 2004 memorial event for Rob Gretton, who would have been 51 that year).

A sightly inaccurate and somewhat flippant history of Factory Records was depicted in the 2002 film ''Film/TwentyFourHourPartyPeople'' (FAC 401). Another Factory-centric film is ''Film/{{Control}}'', the 2007 Ian Curtis {{Biopic}}.

** ''Music/UnknownPleasures'' (1979)
** ''Music/{{Closer}}'' (1980)

** ''Music/{{Movement}}'' (1981)
** ''Music/PowerCorruptionAndLies'' (1983)
** ''Music/LowLife'' (1985)
** ''Music/{{Brotherhood}}'' (1986)
** ''[[Music/SubstanceNewOrderAlbum Substance]]'' (1987)
** ''Music/{{Technique}}'' (1989)
* Music/OrchestralManoeuvresInTheDark[[note]]Only OMD's first single was released through Factory[[/note]]

* ''Film/TwentyFourHourPartyPeople''