Shadowplayers : Factory Records 1978-81

This is a gem! You've watched 24 Hour Party People and Control, now see the real history as told by the people who were there at the beginning (no Steve Coogan or Happy Mondays!). It helps if you have some of the old Factory videotapes on hand for cross-reference. Mandatory for anyone with even a passing interest in Joy Division or New Order.

What you don't get with this documentary. Music. There isn't any apart from during the opening and closing titles. You don't miss it. Happy Mondays? Northside? Sorry, mate. This is a very specific period of time we're dealing with here. What about flashback footage then? Sorry. There isn't any of that either apart from stills of sleeve art and very occasional black and white photography. Besides we've all seen this before and the footage is all over You Tube.What you do get with this documentary, and what we haven't seen a great deal of before is the almost casual conversational anecdotal skills of the players. It's kudos to the interviewer to not speak for almost the entire feature, with virtually no questions on camera at all. This allows the subjects to relax and to tell us all some very informative and often hilarious tales from the legend of this unique record label. No speaker gets interrupted. For a two-hour feature to consist of little but interviews and still manage to engage the viewer entirely throughout, that's a major commendation.Chiefly focusing around Joy Division - there's only Peter Hook from the band featured - the documentary also covers ground from other key bands such as Section 25, Crispy Ambulance, Cabaret Voltaire, and A Certain Ratio, as well as the lesser-known acts such as The Names, Biting Tongues, Swamp Children, Minny Pops, and Thick Pigeon. There's also input from Howard Devoto, Richard Jobson, and Jaz Coleman amongst others. Each interviewee has some great stuff to impart.It's hard to imagine this feature satisfying the uninitiated, but for those of us trainspotters and anoraks that are acquainted we get abundance galore.High points for me? I'd never heard Lindsay Reade speak and she's hilarious, as is one of the two brothers from Section 25. The dry Mancunian wit is so refreshing it had me in stitches throughout. Vini Reilly talks about Sketch for Summer, one of my favourite Durutti Column tracks, and Annik Honore discusses Factory Benelux and Les Disques du Crepuscule. Peter Hook reads an hilarious letter about those labels that is worth the price of admission alone. Annik doesn't talk about Ian since she covers that in the equally wonderful Joy Division documentary.Of the dearly departed from the story - notably producer Martin Hannett and Joy Division manager Rob Gretton - their characters inhabit this tale through the words of designer Peter Saville and label boss Tony Wilson and the players almost as though each were sitting there being interviewed in person.But it's the late Tony Wilson that steals the show for me this time. He is by turns engaging, infuriating, pretentious, and also hilarious, as you'd expect from the head of such a unique label as this. His huge loss makes me pine for the likes of his personality allowed to run riot through modern music today. Where would the likes of Tony Wilson be in this ever more corporate and music-for-money world today? It's well documented how Factory Records spent money like water on the most outrageous and inexplicable of follies, and let's face it, you could do a lot worse than to spend yours on this terrific DVD.Did you like how I wrapped that up there? Yeah. That was ace. I only wish I could have printed it on expensive textured Italian cardboard instead. That would have looked amazing.

The Good: This documentary features interviews with a distinguished group of key players within the Factory Records scene from its inception through its post punk days. Tony Wilson, Peter Saville, Peter Hook, Section 25, A Certain Ratio ... a critical group of people present memories of the scene and how it evolved. The interviews are presented with a minimum of interviewer prompting (I can remember hearing the interviewer speak a total of twice), placing the focus directly on the thoughts of the people who were there and made it happen.The Bad: This is not a well made documentary. If you don’t know this story already, forget about learning it here. Shadowplayers assumes you are already familiar with Factory. For example, ACR’s use of fake tan is discussed focusing on who applied it without ever stopping to mention exactly what happened, or why. Moreover, the lack of interviewer direction results in the overall flow of the narrative being haphazard. One sequence in particular intercuts between Tony Wilson and Peter Hook with little to no direct relevance between their stories. This is perhaps a casualty of letting the interviewees ramble and then trying to piece together a coherent story.The Ugly: The emphasis on unfettered interviews sometimes works well, like the comic interplay between Section 25’s Cassidy brothers. However elsewhere it produces painfully annoying speeches. Tony Wilson appears to be chewing on lozenges throughout the duration of his interview, resulting in infuriating sucking noises every 10 seconds. One could argue this enhances his existing insufferable reputation, but it made me dread every time he came on screen. Peter Hook is the only Joy Division/New Order member present, presumably reflecting the schism in the band. However it certainly limits the insight provided.The Overall: This is certainly worth watching for Factory enthusiasts, but it’s disappointingly lacking in its approach, execution, and delivery.

I picked this up just on the off chance that I might find the content of interest and I was really pleasantly surprised.The dvd tells the early history of Factory Records through interviews with numerous (22) participants in well shot interviews. These are not only the main players like Tony Wilson, Peter Hook and Peter Saville but also many unexpected contributors including Annick Honoré from Factory Benelux, Jaz Coleman - Killing Joke, Richard Jobson - the Skids and Chris Wilson - Cabaret Voltaire.Director James Nice explores the history of the label over 2 hours 15 minutes divided into 19 chapters. These cover subjects like The Factory Club, sleeve art and graphic design, producer Martin Hannett, the riot at the Joy Division concert at Bury in April 1980, the Factory Benelux connection, the tragic suicide of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, the beginnings of New Order and the decline of the post-punk culture in 1981.This dvd is a must for any fans of the early years of Factory, but be aware that it features very little music. It's mainly all interviews plus some live footage.

This is as close as you will get to raw video which is good for die-hards but probably pretty hard to navigate for newbies.

THE DVD ITSELF IS VERY INTERESTING IF YOUR A MUSIC/FACTORY RECORD FAN. THE ONLY PROBLEM I HAD WAS THE FINAL CHAPTER KEPT STICKING AT PLACES, BUT ENJOYED IT.