Who Killed Martin Hannett?: The Story of Factory Records' Musical Magician

I think I already know the answer.

'twas Suge Knight

Scooter Libby?

i'd like to read this

hey i just realised i've met the guy who wrote this

I'll wait until it's cheap in...

DAMN!DAMN!

They should make another film.

Has he got a bitchy ex-wife?

I want!!

I know there are several compilations of Hannett productions, but I want all that Invisible Girls stuff. Someone posted a few excerpts, Bimble maybe, and it was pretty good.

you mean when I posted Pauline Murray's Dream Sequence 2?

HEROIN OR CHOLESTEROL?? OR BOTH???

Yeah, that was it Dan.

I hope you have John Cooper Clarke's first three albums, leavethecapital. Hannett was one hell of a bassist, even aside from his synthesizer and production talents.

I like how the cover of the book has a nice Hacienda themed design, without being over the top. The guy who wrote it was supposedly his best friend...not sure of the truth of that. In any case, consider yourself lucky, electricsound!

i only spoke to him briefly about hannett but i definitely got the impression they were close. tbh we were all far more in awe that he was in a band with vini!

Needless plug. I started readin' it today. Good stuff. I fully expect to have my illusions shattered, but what a ride.

six hours in: how is it?

i still think the answer to the titular question is "er, himself, the tubby drug-magnet", but WTF: i love hannett and his legacy, and i shall be reading this soon.

does anyone know US release date?

i wanna read this. hannet is one of my most favourite producers ever and made me want to produce.

even so, i still think he's a genius.

I must say so far, I'm not terribly impressed. The style of writing is at times tediously grandiose, but I could forgive that if it didn't quit beating around the bush and talking about everything else besides Hannnett. I'm looking for stuff that is beyond 24 Hour Party People, beyond CP Lee's book "Shake, Rattle & Rain" and beyond Mick Middles & Lindsay Reade's "Torn Apart".

There are some juicy tidbits (or rumours) here, don't get me wrong, but they are far and few between. I'm about 95 pages in.

What it has done, though is make me realize there is video footage of the man playing with John Cooper Clarke to be found on the British version of the Old Grey Whistle Test Vol. 3 DVD. Now I'm wondering if some kind soul out there who was in Britain with a VHS recorder in the early 80's could please also hook me up with the later John Cooper Clarke tracks performed on Old Grey Whistle Test circa '82 or whatever. They were tracks from Snap, Crackle & Bop - was Hannett still playing with them then? I daresay he was, come on hook me up.

He did produce some rather crap records, though - Kissing The Pink??

One thing I will share and I found interesting: he had a Chemistry degree.

i was pretty disappointed by this book - read it cover to cover the other afternoon (it's a very quick read) and felt it didn't offer a huge amount of insight. 60% of it was stories that have been well covered elsewhere, and while i know it would be impossible to not have quite a bit about ian curtis in there, quite a lot of it felt unnecessary to go over for the hundredth time.

whether or not he actually was, i didn't like the author self-styling himself as hannett's 'best friend'. the lack of technical details was very disappointing to me also, as someone very into the mechanics of engineering and recording. also the period from 1982 onwards seemed to take about three pages of the book - i know the guy wasn't heavily active in the recording world then, but you'd think his 'best friend' might have a bit more to say? and very very little about his '88 comeback of sorts.

and the lack of photos beyond the cover was surprising, in a really crappy way

and another thing.. the title is stupid and has little bearing on the contents

Agreed about the photos and "best friend" part, but seriously...you read it in a single afternoon? I find that a highly unlikely story.

afternoon/evening..

One thing I will share and I found interesting: he had a Chemistry degree.

the Mondays cited that as their prime reason for working with him.

Well, I finished the book and ended by thinking it could have been much better but could also have been much worse. Amongst everything I can indeed cherry pick some things I definitely got out of it, including

1) At least a skeletal timeline of the some of the music he produced up through 1982. So far I've just been looking at the website discography and it doesn't really give you that chronological feel, of these different releases happening more or less simultaneously in his life.

2) I was highly intrigued to learn that he was only present for half of the recording of the third John Cooper Clarke album "Zip Style Method". I didn't like that album when I first heard it and now I know why, and it makes more sense now that I know that. Cause half of it is entirely amazing (with Hannett) and the other half not! No lie. :)

I believe, and will continue to believe that Martin Hannett's finest hour was on the first three John Cooper Clarke albums. As a bassist, synthesizer experimentalist, and as mischievous, trickster producer, Hannett was in absolute top form on three different levels, over the delicious course of 2 and a half albums. I realize however, that this discounts the contribution of both Clarke and the pianist Stephen Hopkins somewhat. I can't help it.

Because Martin Hannett is my favourite musician or producer in the world, ever. In a certain sense this has always been true and I just didn't know it, certainly as a teengaer I didn't know why Joy Division or the first New Order stuff sounded like that. But when I started to delve into his productions more and more in the last 5 years, and especially the John Cooper Clarke albums, I knew he was a genius. And Tony Wilson too, believed Hannett was a genius.

But enough of that, here is an interesting discography I found of Hannett's brilliant pianist partner in crime, Stephen Hopkins. He was a musical partner as well as sharing an academic scientific degree with Hannett.

http://www.orrelwood.org.uk/stevehopkins/musician.htm

I got this too! (I can feel the waves of caring right now)..

It's very much a 'gap filler' inasmuch as there are a few bits you wouldn't know, and now you do. There's a fair few "imagine this as a scene from a film, this is how it would play out" type scenarios, unfortunately all of them are the same parallell universe as Alex Cox's "Sid and Nancy" film. Particularly the scene where Martin dies by being smothered by all his best productions falling onto him (the Sordid Sentimentale 12" version of "Atmosphere" laying the final blow. The russ Abbot one, probably)

Anyroad, the discography seems very short with regards to Albums he produced. But then, I haven't picked out any missing off the top of my head, so maybe..

In other news, I just got a lovely copy of Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls album, only 27 years after buying the Dream Sequence 10" single, so hey hey.

Oh that's a great album, Mark - really unique atmosphere and feel. Loose, spacious, and emotionally engaging. Gotta listen to that soon. Judgement Day is a magnificent track.