Friday, September 21, 2007

From darkness to light in a madchester stylee

On BBC 4 just t'other day there was a fascinating programme charting the rise and fall of Factory Records. Factory was the now legendary label started by the late Anthony Wilson among others. Click here to read about it and watch some clips.

I always found Anthony Wilson rather annoying, but during this programme I started warming to him. The concept behind Factory was not just to sell records and make money. It was also a kind of social experiment to see if music and the Hacienda could help effect citywide change. The thing that started my Wilson thaw was his obvious love for Manchester. It came through in everything he was saying, both in the recent interviews and the archive footage. I've been living in Manchester for over 6 years now and I love it, there is something about the place that gets under your skin. Watching this programme made me realise that the atmosphere and energy of Manchester that so many love is in no small part down to people like Wilson and Factory Records. I salute them now....

Plus this gives me an excuse to post footage of Manchester legends Joy Division, which is always worthwhile

Movies
Mrs Brown ****
Kind Hearts & Coronets *****
Black Gold *****
An amazing and terrifying documentary about the coffee industry. Watch it. I will NEVER drink non-fairtrade coffee ever again. What the big coffee companies do is little short of evil...
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back *****

2 comments:

Valerie said...

Just popping up out of the shadows to say hi, still reading your blog! I can never think of anything clever to say on it, but I like reading it. So, this has nothing to do with anything, but hi.

Midnight Candle said...

Manchester is very nice. It seems to be an active city, plenty going on all the time if you know where to look.

Indeed, fair trade is the way to go. I've heard recently of the availability of fair trade diamonds... cha-ching, expensive!** It makes me wonder: At what point is it just not worth it - I mean diamonds (not the fair trade cause)?

**I'm assuming this.