I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records

by Audrey Golden

Factory Records has become the stuff of legend. The histories of the label have been told from many perspectives, from visual catalogues and memoirs to exhibitions. Yet no in-depth history has ever been told from the perspectives of the women who were integral to Factory's cultural significance.

The untold history of Factory Records is one of women's work at nearly every recording music, playing live gigs, running the label behind the scenes, managing and promoting bands, designing record sleeves, making films and music videos, pioneering sound technology, DJing, and running one of the most chaotic clubs on the planet, The Haçienda.

Told entirely in their voices and featuring contributions from Gillian Gilbert, Gina Birch, Cath Carroll, Penny Henry and over fifty more interviewees, I THOUGHT I HEARD YOU SPEAK is an oral history that reveals the true cultural reach of the label and its staying power in the twenty-first century.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History

502 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 4, 2023

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

For anybody interested in this particular part of popular music history, this book makes an important argument that comes backed by heaps of evidence: Far from the mythologized view of Factory Records as primarily the work of three men, there were women in nearly every role. Musicians, DJs, accountants, artist managers, rights managers, bouncers, caterers, roadies, publicists, you name it - women were an integral part of Factory Records and often showed more sense than the canonised trinity of Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus, and Rob Gretton. They had practical skills that kept the business running and thriving. They saw financial disaster looming when the men wanted to put it out of mind. The chapter about Yasmine Lakhaney, the psychiatric nurse who became the first female bouncer in Britain, is particularly interesting and I’m glad that these stories are being immortalized on paper. However, this book is not so much a narrative as a transcript of interviews cut and spliced together, like a film script that has not yet been edited for length. I understand that was the author’s point: she wanted to let these unheard voices finally speak for themselves in a work of oral history. But that unfortunately results in a great deal of repetition and a rather long book that could have made its points more concisely. I also would have liked to have had more critical engagement from the author - more of her voice.

Seeing the name Carol Morley reminded me to revisit her film, “The Alcohol Years” - which, up to this point, was the only feminist reckoning with the 80s Manchester music scene I knew of. That’s a must-watch if you’re interested in the whole milieu of the Hacienda.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good that this exists but it really, really needed a lot of editing. As it is, way too long and repetitive.

[Stephen Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many will be familiar with the Factory Records story, of Gretton, Erasmus, Hannett, Saville, Sumner, Hook, and the multifaceted, charming, infuriating Tony Wilson. What’s missing? The women of Factory Records, of whom there were dozens. Golden’s book seeks out these women, hitherto completely airbrushed out of the oral history of Manchester’s 80s music scene, for their memories and war stories surrounding the iconic music label, its bands, and the emerging culture. We learn that it was women who ran the offices, did the PR, represented the bands, played in the bands, DJ’d, worked in security, and pretty much kept the Haçienda open all the way from the glory days to its sad, seedy demise in the 90s. A terrific insight into the period, it’s exhaustive in its reach, and a must-read for anyone who’s gone through much of their adult music-loving life thinking about Factory Records in a very phallocentric way. Without the women, none of it, not ‘Blue Monday’, not The Haçienda, not the legacy, would have happened. Brilliant book.

[Sara Habein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the book starts out with a somewhat Feminism 101-style justification for its own existence, I'm willing to forgive that because I know it has to be there. Music bros will always want to wheedle away at a woman who dares to assert authority. After that, the book becomes a compelling oral history of a unique time in Manchester music and art history.

You've perhaps heard the legends about the bands involved (Joy Division/New Order, Happy Mondays), the go-big-or-go-home spending habits (1200 person club capacity in a weird building! expensive office furniture!), and seen or read other histories documenting the post-punk and Madchester years. That prior knowledge is helpful here, but this book isn't meant to be a definitive biography. Instead, this group of voices — musicians, managers, club staff, designers, artists, etc. — aim to fill in the gaps. Bands, music journalism, and music-as-business in that era, as we know, were (and still are!) male-dominated affairs, and even though Factory was better than most of its time, it still had its shortcomings. Not to mention, how Factory has been spoken about since did not always provide a full picture of how the women kept the show running while the men would often prioritize being "personalities."

Still, this isn't an act of revenge. For the most part, the women speak warmly about the others they worked with, and they all seem to give a pretty fair accounting of what it was like to live through Factory's various stages of existence. They speak honestly about the challenges, but not all of those challenges were gender-related. There are, of course, several funny stories. Factory Records, The Haçienda, and everything else that these women helped create was something really special. It gave us a lot of great art, and I'm glad that some of the story was recorded here.

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are far, far too many books about 1980s/1990s Manchester scene but this one is great - an oral counter-history told through the systematically ignored women of Factory/Hacienda/etc, an entire lost world opened up, for once without Manc machismo or nostalgia.

[Bernard Laugen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great look at the story of the iconic factory records through the lens of the unsung women who made it all happen! Thoroughly researched and incredibly entertaining and interesting, this book gives voice to the women of factory records.

[Phill Edmundson · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you love the story of Factory Records and the bands, and more particularly, the club that it brought to the world, this is a fascinating series of interviews that lifts the curtain on the myths we all know and love by the women who were there and made it work.

[Lottee Houghton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book absolutely fascinating, and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Hacienda and the Manchester music scene at the time. It was a bit repetitive at times, but I learnt a lot.

[Bruce]

Collected reminiscences of women who worked at the British music label Factory Records and assorted side projects in the 1980s and early 90s. Their comments are cleverly arranged so each chapter is something like a conversation. Together they make an excellent snapshot of the music business at the time, even for someone like me who recognizes about three of the bands. The book is intended as a corrective for earlier books about Factory which reportedly neglected the women's role; I haven't read any of them, but this was an entertaining read regardless.