IKON FCL - The Factory Video Archive
Last Updated on Thursday, 16 December 2010 14:57 Written by Ken Foster
In 1978 Factory Records created a boutique video arm called IKON FCL. Capturing historic gigs by Joy Division, New Order and The Smiths to name but a few, the operation was run by Malcolm Whitehead and in 1982 Brian Nicholson became involved. Much of their output has only ever been released on VHS or Betamax cassettes. We caught up with Brian to find out how it all began and the ultimate fate of the archive.
Strummer: I remember sitting on the front row of the circle at Manchester Apollo when you were filming the gig where JD supported the Buzzcocks over 2 nights.
That became IKON2 the second release after the compilation IKON1 a Factory compilation.
Do you have any memories of the gigs and why it was only ever released on VHS?
BN: That gig was filmed by a friend of Richard Boon. The Ikon2/Fact 37 compilation video was released through Ikon/Factory as Here Are The Young Men. It is now owned by Cherry Red. The original VHS tape featuring both gigs was returned to the band by myself two years ago. The original VHS is far superior to the HATYM release and would make an interersting release but as far as I'm aware nothing is on the cards, though its likely to surface eventually, it's culturally significant if not visually riveting. Same goes for the Plan K tape.
Strummer: How did you get involved in the IKON FCL project initially.
BN: I got involved because I bought the Fact 56 release A Factory Video and thought, in a positive way, " I could do that". I worked (and still work) as a video technician at Blackburn College and we had similar equipment to Ikon. (JVC 3 tube cameras and low band umatic recorders) I became a member of the Hacienda, in the Fac51 fanzine Claude Bessy asked for members to send in their videos for the club screens. I sent in some stuff, won some tickets, got talking to Claude and Tim Chambers and asked if I could film the club empty during daylight. I went down one cold November day in 1982, shot the video and got talking to Malcolm Whitehead and Claude. Malc asked if I'd like to make a video with Section 25 I said yes and that was that.
Strummer: It's rumored there are full unreleased concerts in existence featuring The Smiths, Joy Division and New Order.
BN: There should be three full concerts of The Smiths at The Hacienda, I've got a copy of a number of songs but not complete gigs. As far as I'm aware all master tapes and ownership went to Rough Trade. JD, as mentioned there are the two Apollo gigs and also the full Plan K gig on VHS. I returned these to the band in 2008 as I did a full NO gig at the Hacienda.
Strummer: Aside from the 49? known IKON artifacts, how much other archive material do you have?
BN: Lots and lots. I have about six minutes worth of Super 8mm Joy Division tootage that are the outtakes from Malcolm Whitehead's Joy Division film, the audio master tape of the Bowden Vale 14 March 1979 gig; 37 minutes of rehearsal room wild audio tracks including a fantastic jam session (plus 16 mins of abandoned interview audio); full 31 minute Rob Gretton interview from March 1979. (Any realistic offers on the JD material will be given careful consideration) I have a Super 8mm film of The Panik at The Last Night of the Electric Circus with wild audio (The Panik were managed by Rob Gretton). Also some abandoned Super 8 test footage that Malcolm Whitehead was shooting for a proposed film to go with Dead Souls. A silent Super 8 film of Stockholm Monsters in rehearsal. On the video side I could go on for pages: OMD live at Hammersmith; footage of the empty Hacienda 1982 and 1989. Full Inspiral Carpets gig at the Hacienda; ESG singing You're No Good from the opening night; one off edited clips of live performances at the Hacienda - Culture Club; Yazoo; Gregory Issacs; Klaus Schultz; ACR; Orange Juice; Teardrop Explodes; the Bunnymen; Rip Rig and Panic; Neubatens; Nick Cave/Bad Seeds; Ludus; Violent Femmes; Swans; Bow Wow Wow; Dome etc. Lots of gigs of the bands Slab! and Dub Sex (both projects abandoned). Sonic Youth at MMU...lots more stuff like Part 1 of Facus 5;ACR vids;Stretchheads, Lunachicks, Mekons etc
Strummer: I remember seeing Tony Wilson filming the New Order gig at The Elizabeth Gaskell Hall in Manchester in 1981. I don't recall ever seeing or hearing about that footage?
BN: I'm sure the footage of Ceremony on FACT 56 was from that gig. I know there was a gig filmed in Rochdale by Tony that was abandoned as the sound was overloaded.
Just before Factory went under a lot of tapes were returned to Factory. I was told by Tony that they were either stolen or lost in a flood at Alan Erasmus' house.
Strummer: IKON21 was a 50 minute film by yourself. Can you tell us a little more about it?
BN: Its a collection of experimental sketches that owed a lot to me reading about Fluxxus and seeing video art coming out of the US from the likes of John Sanborn; William Wegman etc. There are pieces such as Food Adores The Love of a Fat Man; Train Late on Time; Penguin etc.It covered a whole range of feelings and ideas, from the informality and carelessness of language; empathy for inanimate objects; eating etc I enjoyed making it and it was edited over a number of weeks by myself and Malcolm Whitehead. It was shown at the Edinburgh Festival in 1987 and in New York and the Netherlands.
That became IKON2 the second release after the compilation IKON1 a Factory compilation.
Do you have any memories of the gigs and why it was only ever released on VHS?
BN: That gig was filmed by a friend of Richard Boon. The Ikon2/Fact 37 compilation video was released through Ikon/Factory as Here Are The Young Men. It is now owned by Cherry Red. The original VHS tape featuring both gigs was returned to the band by myself two years ago. The original VHS is far superior to the HATYM release and would make an interersting release but as far as I'm aware nothing is on the cards, though its likely to surface eventually, it's culturally significant if not visually riveting. Same goes for the Plan K tape.
Strummer: How did you get involved in the IKON FCL project initially.
BN: I got involved because I bought the Fact 56 release A Factory Video and thought, in a positive way, " I could do that". I worked (and still work) as a video technician at Blackburn College and we had similar equipment to Ikon. (JVC 3 tube cameras and low band umatic recorders) I became a member of the Hacienda, in the Fac51 fanzine Claude Bessy asked for members to send in their videos for the club screens. I sent in some stuff, won some tickets, got talking to Claude and Tim Chambers and asked if I could film the club empty during daylight. I went down one cold November day in 1982, shot the video and got talking to Malcolm Whitehead and Claude. Malc asked if I'd like to make a video with Section 25 I said yes and that was that.
Strummer: It's rumored there are full unreleased concerts in existence featuring The Smiths, Joy Division and New Order.
BN: There should be three full concerts of The Smiths at The Hacienda, I've got a copy of a number of songs but not complete gigs. As far as I'm aware all master tapes and ownership went to Rough Trade. JD, as mentioned there are the two Apollo gigs and also the full Plan K gig on VHS. I returned these to the band in 2008 as I did a full NO gig at the Hacienda.
Strummer: Aside from the 49? known IKON artifacts, how much other archive material do you have?
BN: Lots and lots. I have about six minutes worth of Super 8mm Joy Division tootage that are the outtakes from Malcolm Whitehead's Joy Division film, the audio master tape of the Bowden Vale 14 March 1979 gig; 37 minutes of rehearsal room wild audio tracks including a fantastic jam session (plus 16 mins of abandoned interview audio); full 31 minute Rob Gretton interview from March 1979. (Any realistic offers on the JD material will be given careful consideration) I have a Super 8mm film of The Panik at The Last Night of the Electric Circus with wild audio (The Panik were managed by Rob Gretton). Also some abandoned Super 8 test footage that Malcolm Whitehead was shooting for a proposed film to go with Dead Souls. A silent Super 8 film of Stockholm Monsters in rehearsal. On the video side I could go on for pages: OMD live at Hammersmith; footage of the empty Hacienda 1982 and 1989. Full Inspiral Carpets gig at the Hacienda; ESG singing You're No Good from the opening night; one off edited clips of live performances at the Hacienda - Culture Club; Yazoo; Gregory Issacs; Klaus Schultz; ACR; Orange Juice; Teardrop Explodes; the Bunnymen; Rip Rig and Panic; Neubatens; Nick Cave/Bad Seeds; Ludus; Violent Femmes; Swans; Bow Wow Wow; Dome etc. Lots of gigs of the bands Slab! and Dub Sex (both projects abandoned). Sonic Youth at MMU...lots more stuff like Part 1 of Facus 5;ACR vids;Stretchheads, Lunachicks, Mekons etc
Strummer: I remember seeing Tony Wilson filming the New Order gig at The Elizabeth Gaskell Hall in Manchester in 1981. I don't recall ever seeing or hearing about that footage?
BN: I'm sure the footage of Ceremony on FACT 56 was from that gig. I know there was a gig filmed in Rochdale by Tony that was abandoned as the sound was overloaded.
Just before Factory went under a lot of tapes were returned to Factory. I was told by Tony that they were either stolen or lost in a flood at Alan Erasmus' house.
Strummer: IKON21 was a 50 minute film by yourself. Can you tell us a little more about it?
BN: Its a collection of experimental sketches that owed a lot to me reading about Fluxxus and seeing video art coming out of the US from the likes of John Sanborn; William Wegman etc. There are pieces such as Food Adores The Love of a Fat Man; Train Late on Time; Penguin etc.It covered a whole range of feelings and ideas, from the informality and carelessness of language; empathy for inanimate objects; eating etc I enjoyed making it and it was edited over a number of weeks by myself and Malcolm Whitehead. It was shown at the Edinburgh Festival in 1987 and in New York and the Netherlands.
Strummer: How likely is it that your archive material will see an official release? I've heard that Bernard Sumner isn't interested in releasing any of the New Order / JD stuff (this is anecdotal). Can you say anything about that?
BN: I can't say really because i don't know. We still do the odd show. It'll all end up floating about in cyberpsace eventually before the ferric oxide folds into dust.
Strummer: A lot of the people in and around the enigma that was Factory Records have chosen to write books etc and some have gone the whole hog to exploit the legacy for all it's worth.
Have you any plans to revisit that period of your career in some way.?
BN: I wouldn't call it part of my career, it was tremendous fun and I knew at the time that it was something special.We will present in written or video form the whole Ikon story at some point but we aren't interested in any vanity projects really. Malcolm's story of Ikon a is different angle of the Factory story and needs telling. Horses mouth stuff rather than a revisionist fairytale.
Strummer: Everyone seems to have an amusing anecdote about AHW. My most vivid one is that every time I saw him filming for IKON several members of the audience would shout something along the lines of 'Hey look it's Tony Wilson, hey Wilson you're a wanker!'. Do you have any lasting memories of him good or bad?
BN: I don't have any amusing memories that I would want to tell online but then I wasn't really involved on a day to day basis. I do remember people not liking him or having a go at him, especially the bands. He was an academic really and my viewpoint is that I think some of the bands took it more seriously career wise than he did, they had dreams. He was a tremendous enabler but not a very good businessman but without that you wouldn't have had the romance and myth that emanated from Palatine Road and Old Broadway. I also think he was a great Granada man, bringing culture to the masses.
Strummer: How close did you get to the bands and what did you think of the films '24 hour party people' and 'Control'.
BN: You get close when your making the video but then you move on. I thought 24HPP was ace from a Tony Wilson perspective. The reason I liked it was that it played around with how history product is prone to being a skewed version of events. It was laugh out loud, wasn't afraid to be intelligent and Tony Wison as Alan Partridge was a great reading of the man. Control I haven't seen.
Strummer: What are you doing these days. Are you still involved with film/directing?
BN: I can't say really because i don't know. We still do the odd show. It'll all end up floating about in cyberpsace eventually before the ferric oxide folds into dust.
Strummer: A lot of the people in and around the enigma that was Factory Records have chosen to write books etc and some have gone the whole hog to exploit the legacy for all it's worth.
Have you any plans to revisit that period of your career in some way.?
BN: I wouldn't call it part of my career, it was tremendous fun and I knew at the time that it was something special.We will present in written or video form the whole Ikon story at some point but we aren't interested in any vanity projects really. Malcolm's story of Ikon a is different angle of the Factory story and needs telling. Horses mouth stuff rather than a revisionist fairytale.
Strummer: Everyone seems to have an amusing anecdote about AHW. My most vivid one is that every time I saw him filming for IKON several members of the audience would shout something along the lines of 'Hey look it's Tony Wilson, hey Wilson you're a wanker!'. Do you have any lasting memories of him good or bad?
BN: I don't have any amusing memories that I would want to tell online but then I wasn't really involved on a day to day basis. I do remember people not liking him or having a go at him, especially the bands. He was an academic really and my viewpoint is that I think some of the bands took it more seriously career wise than he did, they had dreams. He was a tremendous enabler but not a very good businessman but without that you wouldn't have had the romance and myth that emanated from Palatine Road and Old Broadway. I also think he was a great Granada man, bringing culture to the masses.
Strummer: How close did you get to the bands and what did you think of the films '24 hour party people' and 'Control'.
BN: You get close when your making the video but then you move on. I thought 24HPP was ace from a Tony Wilson perspective. The reason I liked it was that it played around with how history product is prone to being a skewed version of events. It was laugh out loud, wasn't afraid to be intelligent and Tony Wison as Alan Partridge was a great reading of the man. Control I haven't seen.
Strummer: What are you doing these days. Are you still involved with film/directing?
BN: Still involved with bands at college. Made videos for bands such as tompaulin; Chewy Benson; Maupa and the Broken Family Band recently. At college I set up a TV studio in 1991 and over recent years we done live sessions for lots of bands. Over the past three years we've done sessions with students for bands such as Biffy Clyro; Idelwild; Duke Special; Charlotte Hatherley etc. Also have a link with the Get It Loud in Libraries people and the Saatchi Gallery Art & Music magazine and we've made some great videos over the past couple of years with people such as Robert Forster; Scroobius Pip; Everything Everything; Blitzen Trapper; Steve Mason; Let's Wrestle; John Squire etc. The other week we had Edwyn Collins (and Paul Cook on drums!) in to christen out new HD studio - got to say that was fantastic, what a nice bunch of people.
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artandmusic/index.php?video=1&play=146
Strummer: Did you have a working relationship with Claude Bessy and if so, how did you hook up (considering his wide range and
interests)....?
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artandmusic/index.php?video=1&play=146
Strummer: Did you have a working relationship with Claude Bessy and if so, how did you hook up (considering his wide range and
interests)....?
BN: I didn't have a close working realtionship with Claude other than talking to him in a pub or having a giggle in the video booth at the Hacienda, he was an amazing character and was very charming. He seemed to know lots of people on the darker side of the music industry. I remember sitting with him and Mike Butterworth from Savoy books holding a copy of Charles Manson's Bible which belonged to Boyd Rice who was playing at the club. Tim Chambers told me that when William Burroughs was at the Hacienda he saw him and said "What the fuck are you doing here Claude?". Malcolm Whitehead is the man to ask about Claude.
November 2010
November 2010
| Next > |
|---|