I just wanted to drop a quick note to my friends who are appreciators of the post-punk music movement of the late 70s and early 80s to let you know of a wonderful documentary by a man by the name of James Nice, who was a friend of Chad’s.
The film is about Factory records and the Manchester music scene of that era. The film is called Shadowplayers: Factory Records and Manchester Post-Punk 1978-1981 and is an oral history of Tony Wilson’s label Factory, which included artists such as Joy Division/New Order, A Certain Ratio, Durutti Column, early OMD, Crawling Chaos, Section 25, Royal Family and the Poor and many, many others.
People interviewed for the film include Peter Hook, Anike Honore, Howard Devoto, members of Minny Pops, Crispy Ambulance, Cabaret Voltaire, The Names, Tony Wilson himself and Peter Saville, one of the most influential album cover artists of the era. Running about two hours, this is a candid memoir from peers, artists and insiders of that music scene. It is funny, insightful, contradictory, biting at times and very entertaining.
For anyone who is interested in this type of stuff (I know it is a little tedious and truly only for the geekiest of all geeks), I just wanted to pass on the word, since I truly enjoyed it. This would be a wonderful compendium that would work nicely with the film 24 Hour Party People from a few years ago! Anyhow, I give it two thumbs up and a big toe!