Factory Back In Production

Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order fame has launched a new nightclub and music venue in Manchester called The Factory, named after his legendary former record label.

Although the 850-capacity venue is housed on what was Factory Records HQ, Hook told The Times the new club will be more than “a Madchester retro-pop museum.”

“It’s more about the future than the past,” he explained, pointing out that new bands and advice clinics to aspiring musicians are key elements of the agenda.

FAC 251 The Factory, which also seems to borrow part of its name from FAC 51 The Hacienda, the ill-fated Factory-owned club that closed in 1997, opened Feb. 5 with Hook’s The Light playing a selection of New Order and Joy Division covers.

The venue will run live music from Monday to Saturday, with a 10:30 p.m. curfew that will enable it to switch to being a club until the early hours.

Apart from Hook, the first name act to play The Factory will be White Lies on Feb. 13.

Hook’s choice of venue clearly harks back to bygone days, although both Factory Records and the Hacienda were financial disasters, a point he revealed last year in the memoir “The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club.”

Since the death of the Factory founder Tony Wilson, Hook has become chief custodian of the label’s legacy, reviving the Hacienda name with his thriving DJ business.

“If you can learn from your mistakes, and still have as good a time as you did making them, then you’re on to a winner,” Hook told The Times. “That remains to be seen, but I should get another book out of it anyway – ‘How Not to Run a Club 2.’ I’m in a win-win situation.”

The Factory is a joint venture with the nationwide club chain Tokyo Industries, whose managing director Aaron Mellor is himself a former Hacienda DJ.