Tony Wilson launches F4 Records: grime and rock'n'roll on the menu

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Anthony Wilson, the founder of legendary label Factory Records which counted Joy Division, New Order and The Happy Mondays amongst its stable of hugely influential signings, has announced the launch of a brand new label, F4 Records, which aims to follow the original model as specified by the great Sam Philips in 1954:

"I try to open up the freedom within the artist himself, to help him discover what he believed his message to be...to bring out that curiosity, to encourage that area of creative difference, to stifle not even the smallest element of exploration."

Probably even better put by Factory founder, late, great, Rob Gretton; "I just put some records out with my mates"

Based in Manchester, F4 Records is, as the name suggests, the 4th iteration of Factory Records and releases its first single on January 31st by Raw-T, the Moss Side-based Grime collective. Entitled "Where We Live" the single was produced by Raw-T’s beats man, DT and mixed, engineered and co-produced by Inkjeta and Zed Bias and is taken from Raw-T’s forthcoming debut album Realise and Witness,/I> which is scheduled for release in March.

F4 Records are also opening a download site with distributors Pinnacle to sell Raw-T tracks and also provide a digital outlet for the latest music from original Factory Records artist Vini Reilly of Durutti Column as well as new material from Manchester’s latest "working class pretenders", Young Offenders Institute. All material will be available only as a download from the F4 Records website at http://www.f4records.co.uk Full details will be announced shortly.

Anthony Wilson said, "This is a confession of utter failure. I have completely failed to either grow up or calm down. I am as excited about Raw-T as I was about Joy Division or the Mondays. And as excited about technology and what F4 can do for my beloved Vini and the wonderful Young Offenders as that Tokyo night my mate Takao-san at Nippon Columbia handed me Power Corruption and Lies, my first CD.

"F4 is a thrill and a privilege. As my boy in the Big Brother House once said of his discovery of a certain intoxicant, 'I'm made-up to fuck’."

F4 Records is proudly independent and is distributed in the UK by Pinnacle. The label is currently negotiating a number of licensing agreements with key territories around the world.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:11 (twenty years ago)

so...another Wilson folly, grist to the mill for the haters or something worth watching?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

i'm a sucker for he, so the latter

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:15 (twenty years ago)

Wilson's enthusiasm and blind bloody-mindedness is certainly infectious. I like him. Let more people be like him.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

i wouldn't go that far! looking forward to hearing 'where we live' tho

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

What was the third iteration?

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

'this site aslo brings downloads of new work'

i mean is that typo intentional or what?!

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

oh dude, the original press release was an embarrassment of horrible typos and shit grammar, most of which i corrected lest anyone think I wrote it in the first place! missed that one, dammit.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

oh, i love wilson. love him. he is a fucking diamond.

but ... i remember when he launched factory too and said all the same things about ... who was it? i really can't remember. they had a singer called rachel, i think.

and then when i met him a couple of years back he was banging on about nu-metal and how that was the future ...

i wish him every success. as charlie says, would that more of us were like him. but, to be brutally frank, i fear raw-T are doomed.

still, i'm in a pessimistic mood today. hopehopehope i'm wrong.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

hey, he's still got one of my demos. heheheh, i'm awaiting his call with interest. hehe HEHEHEH hehe [dies laughing]

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

I think you mean Hopper.

Wilson is obviously fantastic.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:33 (twenty years ago)

What was the third iteration?

That's what I was wondering!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

Charlie that's what i mean, the typo is quoted is actually from the website

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

hopper! that was them.

when wilson was banging on about nu-metal etc - around the time of 24HPP - he said he'd also launched "factory records limited"; the original company, of course, was factory communications, so he said he still had the right to use that name. i'm assuming this was the third incarnation, but did it actually release anything?

factory too's great lost band, of course, were the orch. god damn, i loved the orch.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:43 (twenty years ago)

What was the third iteration?
That's what I was wondering!

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), January 12th, 2005 10:35 AM. (Ned) (link)

Could it be Factory Benelux? Just a guess.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

I rang Factory (fac 2) in the 90 expecting to speak to an intern or secretary. Tony answered the phone but I didn't realise it was him till the end of the call when asked for his name, that's when the penny dropped. "so you're... you're... tony WILSON?!" "Yes, course I fucking am" then he hung up. I think that call meant more to me than it did to him.

― nick.K (nick.K), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 16:31 (twenty years ago)

First - Factory (and subsidiaries like FACUS, Factory Benelux, etc.)
Second - Factory Once
Third - Factory Too
Fourth - F4

That's hysterical, Nick.

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

nick: me too! wilson was the first person i ever interviewed: for my student newspaper, this was. factory too had just started up (this was 1993, or very early 1994), and when i rang up the factory too office to make a tentative enquiry (imagining, in my naivety, that i'd have to deal with thousands of secretaries etc) the great man himself answered the phone.

"umm, can i interview you for my student newspaper?" i said.

"fucking hell," he replied, "you'll have to hang on, this fucking computer's just crashed on me." [click, crash, bang.] "fucking saville's always on at me to get a mac, you know. but what the fuck does he know?"

i was, frankly, speechless. five seconds into the conversation and he was already having a pop about peter saville.

we did the interview two days later. he was an absolute joy.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

That exchange has made my day!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 12 January 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

I like Tony Wilson even more than the music he's released. I was on a local label that was an offshoot and distributor of Factory in the 80's and 90's. They made all the same mistakes - no contracts, money going who knows where etc, lots of strange schemes... it was fun but ended in legal action. They went bust at around the same time as Factory too.

― thee music mole, Wednesday, 12 January 2005 19:47 (twenty years ago)

Wow, do I regret being too busy to properly read through this thread today! Fiendish I am completely with you re: skepticism & Factory Too. I recall having a Factory Too 7" single with 4 bands on it and I was like "what the fuck is THIS shite?" I like Tony more than the music he's released too.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Thursday, 13 January 2005 05:24 (twenty years ago)

other parallels between Factory and the label moley mentions: fantastic cover art, dark new wave origins, an amazing peak, and a very disappointing fadeout.

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Thursday, 13 January 2005 05:55 (twenty years ago)

So I'm supposed to try to guess what this label was, is that it? Benelux? Crepuscule? Ah, you probably aren't even going to tell me. I know this game.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Thursday, 13 January 2005 06:14 (twenty years ago)

MANCHESTER !=GRIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 13 January 2005 06:18 (twenty years ago)

ssh bimble

― kit brash (kit brash), Thursday, 13 January 2005 12:10 (twenty years ago)

anyone heard this group he's putting out?

― titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Thursday, 13 January 2005 12:26 (twenty years ago)

there seem to be links from here

http://www.f4records.co.uk/

(click the middle image)

but i'm at work and can't check them out properly.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 13 January 2005 12:28 (twenty years ago)

you won't like them titchy, so i shouldn't bother if i were you.

― stelfox, Thursday, 13 January 2005 12:42 (twenty years ago)

i might like them dave. you never know.

― titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Thursday, 13 January 2005 12:54 (twenty years ago)

i might like them dave. you never know. i cant find the audio snippets on the site though.

― titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Thursday, 13 January 2005 12:56 (twenty years ago)

"The past makes me presently aware for my future" says Raw-T. I don't understand that sentence. When? Aware of what? Also the website has misplaced apostrophes. And swearing.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 13 January 2005 13:01 (twenty years ago)

its' not improtant, now fuck off

― stelfox, Thursday, 13 January 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

there - so does this one now

― stelfox, Thursday, 13 January 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

You forgot your full stops.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 13 January 2005 14:51 (twenty years ago)

inkjeta?
does he roll wit desktop peripheralz krew?

― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Thursday, 13 January 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

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― DAEREST V1CE MAGAZINE!!!!! (ex machina), Friday, 17 June 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

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