Review Tony Wilson's 24 Hour Party People: What the Sleeve Notes Never Tell You is a curious book. It's a novelisation, by Wilson, of Frank Cottrell Bryce's screenplay of a film ostensibly about Wilson's years at the heart of Manchester's music scene--a kind of post-post-modern reversal of the trend to convert books into films. Wilson, a former Granada and (briefly) World in Action television reporter became embroiled in the pop business after attending a (now legendary) Sex Pistols gig at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall. Only 42 people were in the audience but most of them, including its organisers Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley, formed punk groups of their own. Wilson booked the Pistols for So It Goes, Granada's answer to Top of the Pops, and then proceeded to delight (and disgust) viewers in the North Western region by beaming Elvis Costello, Buzzcocks and (a foul mouthed) Iggy Pop into their homes. (The show was axed shortly after Iggy's performance). Undeterred Wilson and friend Alan Erasmus started managing a band, The Duratti Column, and opened a New Wave club, The Factory. Aided and abetted by the DJ and musical impresario Rob Gretton; the designer Peter Saville and the drug-addled knob-twiddling genius Martin Hannett it evolved into Factory Records--home of Joy Division, latterly New Order, A Certain Ratio and the Happy Mondays. Not content with releasing exquisitely produced and (usually) money haemorrhaging records--even New Order's Blue Monday, the biggest selling 12-inch single in history, was so sumptuously packaged that Factory "lost three and half pence on every copy sold"--they started an ambitious Studio 54-style club, The Haçienda. It became the centre of the rave scene while its scally offspring, the Happy Mondays, stormed the charts. As Wilson, in his own inimitable (that is to say wayward and spuriously fictionalised) style, reveals drugs, guns, ill-timed property deals and the Mondays decision to record an album in "crack central" Barbados eventually called time on Factory Records and The Hacienda. There are better accounts of the whole "Madchester" phenomenon--Dave Haslam's Manchester, England for one--but Wilson's novelisation has an insidiously entertaining spark about it. It's probably best approached as the literary version of one of those additional footage DVDs; not essential to your enjoyment of the original film but none the less full of rather addictive, extra snippets. --Travis Elborough Book Description This is the bizarre and not entirely fabricated story of Factory founder Anthony Wilson. Part fiction, part reality, comic and tragic turns, Wilson tells his own unique story in his own unique way for the very first time. See all Product description
M**N
Five Stars
superb
P**R
Disappointing
This is pretty much the script for the film 24 Hour Party People. I was expecting a bit more depth to the book. If you have seen the film and enjoyed it, there isn't really much else here. Just watch the film again!
J**S
Four Stars
Interesting read, yet if you have already seen the film this book has little to offer.
A**R
It's Manchester (Enough Said)
As a wannabee Manc, New Order fan, I've read almost everything I can get my hands on about Joy Division, New Order, or Factory (Ideal for Living, Unknown Pleasures & Wayward Distractions, Touching from a Distance), but this book goes down as one of the best ever written about the subject. Though the book is presented as a novelisation of the movie of the same name (and features little outtakes where Wilson sets the record straight in scenes), it becomes apparent late on in the book that probably most of what is written happened in some shape or form. The book is written almost as a series of anecdotes, and that's fine because each anecdote is not easily forgotten: Peter Saville's inability to do any project on time; Rob Gretton meeting Mike Pickering as they hide from Manchester United supporters; Rob Gretton trying to beat the pulp out of Wilson for his financial excesses; Shaun Ryder stealing everything in Eddy Grant's Barbados studio to buy crack...But this book is more about just Factory or its bands. It's about the regeneration of Manchester. In this way, it's a perfect compliment to Dave Haslam's "Manchester: Story of a Pop Cult City." Somehow, through all the bad business acumen, Wilson, Gretton, New Order, and others somehow had enough artistic and aesthetic sense to kick start a complete change in attitude in the city and its people. Though the Hacienda is now gone, like the Big Bang, the cosmic radiation it set off is still there to be felt.
G**O
Well written and hilarious
I happened to be living in Manchester when the Haçienda opened in 1982. Still have my 'credit card' membership as a matter of fact. It is true that the club was frequently empty in those days. Empty and cold. Saw a few decent bands there though including The Fall. Never was much of a New Order fan but loved Joy Div. Moved away from Manc in 84 so missed the acid house years.Anyway - to business. This book is great 10/10. It goes off on a lot of weird tangents.... historical facts, literary allusion... that kind of thing. I actually think it's quite deep. The anecdotes are frequently hilarious. I don't really care how much of it is fact v fiction. It's hard to believe that 'successful' people could make this many mistakes.... but the stories about the running of the club are jaw-dropping in their ineptitude. Best to read the Peter Hook book for the complete Haçienda story... but this is a very good book. Top marks to whoever wrote it.
M**R
Madchester Rave On!
Self-deprecating humour and a light touch even when dealing with tragic events run through Tony Wilsons semi-fictionalised account of the rise, insane highs, and crashing fall of the Factory Records Empire. As skewed and eccentric as a Happy Mondays lyric, if you weren't there at the time, this memoir will make you wish you were. If you were there, you probably won't remember much of it anyway...
A**R
facing wonderful, facing heaven, facing all
i approached this book with some trepidation. a novelisation of a film about factory records? aw, come on. anyway it had a nice cover and i always make a point of judging books by the cover so i bought a copy. and it's fantastic. too sussed to be nostalgia but while readng it those old acr, jd,no, and stockholm monsters tunes were ringing through my ears. the anecdotes are excruciating and hilarious. especially wilsons ill-fated london trip to interview conservative cabinet member george younger. and the one with the pigeons. also the one with rob gretton attacking wilson over the $80,000 suspended board table.
P**B
Present
A present for someone who was present!
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