The Rob Gretton Collection of Business Papers as a Director of Factory (Communications) Limited

Factory Records had begun as a series of club nights at the Russell Club in Hulme, Manchester. Tony Wilson one of the founders saw Factory as an engine for cultural change rather than a business. He and Alan Erasmus had started the Factory label in 1978 running it from office set up in the home of Alan situated on Palatine Road, whilst Tony was still a reporter working for Granada Television in Manchester.

Early success with releases by A Certain Ratio and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were soon added to by other bands. Tony Wilson’s interest in allowing the artists freedom to create and perform how they wanted to at the time, soon meant other bands were interested in joining the label.

It became apparent that a more formal structure was needed to run the music business and Factory (Communications) Ltd was formed from a shelf company called Canehand [Kanehand], as there was an urgent need to have a company established to satisfy several deals that were being agreed in 1980. The goodwill of the Factory label, which until then had been under the control of Tony Wilson were to be transferred across to Kanehand which would still initially be controlled by Tony Wilson until the company had been correctly set up in order not to be financially disadvantaged to be later joined by Alan Erasmus, Robert Gretton, Martin Hannett and Peter Saville.

The shelf company, incorporated on the 24th October 1980 held an Extraordinary General Meeting held where it had been agreed to replace an existing clause to the Memorandum of Association which then allowed the business to carry on as manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers gramophone records, television recording equipment and also to carry on the business of music publishers and in this connection to enter into agreements and other arrangements and to employ authors and composers of and to purchase copyrights and other rights in musical and dramatic compositions of all kinds.

The change of name was certified by the Registrar of Companies on the 13th November 1980 It had been hoped to have named the company Factory Records Limited but a search of records at Companies House revealed that the name The Factory Records had already been created by Micky Most, a music producer and entrepreneur, in September 1977. Tony Wilson was advised against acquiring the company as there might be skeletons in the cupboard, since it had not filed any annual returns since it had been formed.

An earlier application for name of business registration suggests that Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus wanted the company to be known as Movement of the 24 January Publishing Music however, the Registry of Business Names returned the forms with a handwritten note, please chose another business name, the above not acceptable for our files.

Factory, as it became known, became an established part of the Manchester music scene and attracted more artists to the label, who were attracted to the hands-off approach Tony Wilson believed in. As well as promoting artists Factory also became involved in the club scene with the opening of the Hacienda nightclub and a cafe-bar called the Dry Bar in 1989, both based in central Manchester. Shortly after this Factor acquired new premises on Princess Street, Manchester as its headquarters in 1990. The group by now was enjoying a great deal of success both in nationally and internationally.

However, by the end of 1990 its financial position began to deteriorate seriously as the result of the new projects which required additional funding and the enforced closure of the Hacienda, during 1991, for three months resulting in the loss of much needed income. A restructuring of Factory was required to satisfy a number of creditors, owed money by Factory, for Factory this was a serious situation as it was on the brink of closure if no viable solution to find further funding could not be found. The implications would have a profound effect on Tony Wilson’s original desire to be an engine for cultural change rather than a business driven by money was in peril.

The Nineties continued to be a bad period for Factory, it was still in a serious financial position, added to by heavy demands on financing the recording and production of albums. Factory eventually declared bankruptcy in 1992, the Hacienda continued as a nightclub until 1997 when it too closed ending the labels contribution to an earlier hoped for cultural shift by those involved in the original Factory.

Incorporated as a private company on the 24th January 1985 in order to carry on as a operator and proprietor of clubs. It was also New Orders service company, all the band members were also Directors Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Bernard Sumner, Gillian Gilbert along with Rob Gretton.

Gainwest entered into two joint ventures and were responsible for 50 per cent of the funding, with the other 50 per cent coming from TGP 225 Ltd, for the financing of the Hacienda and the same financial arrangements for the funding of the Dry Bar, were Fact 201 Ltd also contributed 50 per cent. Gainwest provided the funds as unsecured and interest free loans with no fixed repayment terms.

Rob Gretton with Gainwest later took over the running of the Hacienda until it closed.

Anthony Howard Wilson, also known as Tony Wilson, was born at Hope Hospital, Salford, on 20 February 1950. He was the only child of Sydney Wilson (1917–1997), tobacconist, and his wife, Doris Emily, née Knupfer (1904–1975). His parents ran a chain of tobacconist shops, including the original shop in Salford, and moved to live in Marple, Cheshire, in 1955.

Wilson attended De La Salle Catholic boys’ grammar school in Salford from 1961 to 1968. He read English at Jesus College, Cambridge, from 1968 to 1971. At Cambridge he was involved in student journalism and left-wing politics, including becoming the editor of Varsity, and participating in the Cambridge Union Society and in the Cambridge Sit Ins of 1968. On graduating from Jesus College, Wilson joined Independent Television News (ITN) as a trainee journalist. He left ITN in 1978 to join Granada Television in Manchester, where he became a reporter for the early evening magazine programme, Granada Reports. He worked for Granada Reports until the mid-1980s, returning for a second stint as a presenter in the early-2000s before being dismissed for swearing on air.

On Granada Reports, Wilson was known for his active reports into activities including hang-gliding, abseiling and parachuting but, more significantly for his second career as a music entrepreneur, also for his presentation of a 10-minute arts and entertainment slot at the end of the Friday edition of Granada Reports. The popularity of the slot, What’s On, led to a 30-minute late night programme, So It Goes, in July 1976. The first series of So It Goes featured the Sex Pistols performing Anarchy in the UK in their television debut. Wilson had seen the band perform live at one of two gigs at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976 and had pushed for them to be on the show. The second series of So It Goes included performances by the Clash, the Jam, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The performance by Iggy Pop during the third series of So It Goes caused it to be cancelled by Granada Television. Wilson continued to work as a presenter on Granada Reports, and went on to front other programmes for Granada, including The Other Side of Midnight, Flying Start, Fast Forward and Job Watch. Furthering his television career, in 1987, Wilson joined Channel 4 as the presenter of the late night discussion programme After Dark. Wilson was known up until this point as Tony Wilson, but the critical acclaim garnered by After Dark and its national profile encouraged him to adopt the name Anthony H Wilson professionally.

Around the time that So It Goes was cancelled at the end of the 1970s, Wilson’s friend, the actor Alan Erasmus, suggested that Wilson joined him in co-managing a new band led by the guitarist Vini Reilly. The band eventually became known as Durutti Column. For Wilson, this was an opportunity to become more involved in the punk-inspired creative scene that was developing in Manchester. In April 1978, Wilson and Erasmus attended a battle of the bands style contest at the Manchester night club Rafters on Oxford Road. Here they encountered Joy Division and their manager Rob Gretton. It is widely acknowledged that Wilson’s support for Joy Division helped them to become the defining band of the post-punk era.

From May to June 1978, Wilson and Erasmus hired a social club in Hulme, Manchester, known variously as The Russell Club and the Public Service Vehicle Club. Here they put on four gigs under the name The Factory, featuring bands they were either managing or interested in supporting. Around the time of the first gig, graphic design student Peter Saville approached Wilson about designing a poster for the gig. Wilson, Erasmus and Saville eventually became the first directors of Factory Records, later joined by Joy Division manager Rob Gretton and music producer Martin Hannett. Factory Records was established to enable the bands that Wilson was working with to release records without needing to sign to a major label. The first release, A Factory Sample, released in January 1979, featured four artists who had performed at The Factory: Cabaret Voltaire, the comedian John Dowie, Durutti Column, and Joy Division. Wilson paid for the pressing of the double 7 inch EP using money he inherited from his mother. Wilson’s position as a local news reported and television presenter, as well as his financial stability, set his position within Factory as the strategist and publicist. Erasmus carried out day-to-day management of the company from his flat on 86 Palatine Road (the original business address of Factory Records), and Saville developed the modernist aesthetic for the company.

Wilson saw Factory as the basis for the creative regeneration of post-industrial Manchester. In 1981, Wilson began developing an idea to establish in Manchester a New York style night club. The Haçienda opened in a former yacht showroom on Whitworth Street, Manchester, on 21 May 1982. Costing almost five times the projected £70,000 conversion costs, the club operated at a loss throughout its existence, bolstered only by New Order’s commercial success. Despite this, Wilson and the Haçienda are recognised as having kick-started the regeneration of the Castlefield area of Manchester.

Wilson became known as Mr Manchester during the 1980s, due to the success of New Order as the foremost act on Factory Records and Wilson’s ambitions for the cultural reinvention of Manchester. By the end of the 1980s, New Order were joined by the Happy Mondays as the biggest successes on Factory Records, ushering in Manchester’s Baggy era. Factory continued to expand its reach in Manchester with the establishment of Dry bar, co-owned with New Order, on Oldham Street, Manchester. As with his vision for the Haçienda, Wilson and Dry are credited with sparking the regeneration of what is now known as Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

Wilson can be seen as being responsible for the collapse of Factory. He indulged the Happy Mondays in their excesses, allowing the recording of their fourth album to run massively over budget. He resisted, for as long as he could, the closure of the Haçienda despite its troubles with gang-related violence. He also pushed ahead with a new headquarters for Factory, located on Charles Street, Manchester, at a cost of £750,000. In November 1992, Factory declared bankruptcy with debts of £2.5 million. Wilson’s commitment to the radical policy of allowing artists on the Factory Records label to retain the intellectual property rights in their own recordings meant that potential investors in the company rapidly withdrew from negotiations. Factory only introduced formal contracts for artists in late 1988.

Wilson set up a new label, Factory Too, as a subsidiary of Polygram/London Records, the label that acquired the New Order and Joy Division catalogue from Factory. This was a short-lived enterprise.

Wilson was married to Lindsay Reade from 1977 to 1983, to Hilary Sherlock, with whom he had two children, Oliver and Isabel, from 1984 to 1987, and was in a long term relationship with Yvette Livesey from 1987 until his death in 2007.

Wilson was diagnosed with kidney cancer in December 2006 and succumbed to the illness at the Christie Hospital, Withington, Manchester, on 10 August 2007. He was buried in the Southern cemetery, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, following a funeral service at St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Manchester, on 20 August. His coffin was given the Factory catalogue number FAC 501.

Peter Saville is a British graphic designer and art director. He attended Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) from 1975-1978 where he studied graphic design. He met local broadcaster Tony Wilson in 1978. Wilson commissioned Saville to design a poster for his Factory night at the Russell Club, Hulme. The poster became the first item in the Factory Catalogue. Saville was a Parftner in Factory Records along with Wilson, Alan Erasmus, Martin Hannett and Rob Gretton. He designed the record sleeves for many of the artists on Factory Records as well as stationery and other brand items for the company. He moved to London in 1979 and joined Dindisc as artistic director. He established his own studio, Peter Saville Associates, in the mid-1980s, working with Brett Wickens. He closed this studio in 1990 to join Pentagram. He moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to work for the advertising agency Frankfurt Balkind, but quickly returned to London where he re-opened his studio with Howard Wakefield. His design consultancy clients include Selfridges, Yohji Yamamoto, Stella McCartney and EMI. He became Creative Director of the City of Manchester in 2004.

Alan Erasmus began his working career as an actor before becoming involved with Tony Wilson in running club nights at the Russell Club, Hulme. He and Tony Wilson managed the Durutti Column, one of the first acts signed to Factory Records. Erasmus was a Director of Factory Communications Ltd until it ceased trading in 1992.